The Well-Meaning

Today I had a good chat to a friend from college. He was approached yesterday by two guys, who proceeded to tell him they were doing a survey for their church. They began to ask him questions. Being an up-and-coming journalist, my friend did what comes naturally and started asking questions back.
My friend threw out some easy ones relating to what we Christian refer to with a technical word, "salvation". The answer he got was a vague construct of the salvation message. (Jesus came and died for our sin so we could have eternal life, yadda, yadda, yadda) Don't think I'm being irreverent. This stuff is key. That is my point. We're here hundreds of years after the reformation, with a Bible in every second room and more time free from jobs of survival then ever before, and that's the most convincing version we can present.
Take my mates reaction for instance. First problem, what is "sin" and why do I need to be saved from it? If your anwser is that sin is rebelling against "God", why should I care? Do you mean to say that there's a god out there, who is weighing my actions morally, and has decided I deserve to burn forever, and he is supposed to be good?
Hebrews 6:1-2 calls this stuff "elementry principles". Yes, it's talking about the lot! A full and self-complete explaination of sin and why it is relevant to the average person is elementry. And it's not so hard.

So here's a question I want to pose the Christian reader. Do you understand the elementry principles? Could you explain it, in a relevant way to someone who did not believe?

I also have a challenge to all the non-Christian readers. Ask questions. If a Christian starts talking to you about spiritual things, ask them the hardest questions you can. There are only two correct replies. The first is to give you a solid anwser. The second is to admit they can't, and tell you how to contact someone who can.