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Is Jesus a Mythical Character?
- Thread starter roli
- Start date
Dirty Penguin
Master Of Ceremony
Well, I'm not sure. The jury is still out on this one.
I think the words attributed to the biblical Yeshua are important enough to read and ponder over. The idea we should get along, love and respect each other is a good thing. It's not a new concept but still it's a good thing.
Dirty Penguin
Master Of Ceremony
too funny. that made my day.....:biglaugh:
That is hilarious. Thanks :biglaugh::jiggy::clap2:
god666
New Member
Jesus was a fable and fables leave no evidence behind. That's why there is absolutely no evidence for a jesus.
A son of a god would have to be amazingly stupid, irresponsible, brainless, senseless, and short-sighted to not write down his words and have them saved for posterity.
No son of god would be ever be that lame.
Your savior was never written about during the time he was supposed to have lived.
If christ lived he must have been illiterate since he couldn't or didn't write a thing down.
But even more amazingly none of the the 12 apostles wrote anything about him.
Nor did his family.
Nor did his friends.
Nor did his enemies.
Nor did his thousands of followers.
Nor did the kings.
Nor did the scribes.
Nobody wrote a single thing about a man that was bringing people back to life. Curing blindness. Walking on water. Cursing fig trees. Getting crucified. Being bodily resurrected to heaven.
And not a single word, a single sentence a single piece of evidence.
Funny that a son of a god would not realize the importance of the written word and recorded history. The Egyptians and Phoenicians and Chinese did.
I wonder why it didn't occur to jesus?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing during a period that is otherwise well documented.
What are the odds that not one of the thousands of people he was supposed to have encountered would write about their experience?
Not one single word by a family member, or friend, or associate, or enemy and nothing by the man himself who was supposed to have been sent here to save us.
That's pretty shocking.
Your savior is an amalgamation of other older virgin birth and resurrection stories.
No one knows his birth, life as a child, friends, schools, training, occupation before wandering around with boys, or the date of his death.
No one reported seeing, meeting, talking to, hearing or even here-say about Jesus during his lifetime. More than 40 living historians in the AREA never mention a single word about Jesus. No one mentions the Earthquake, the 3 hours of darkness, the zombies that walked into town or anything about a death or resurrection on a cross. No one mentions a single one of the 12. Never.
Not to mention that there's been an institution that has a lot to lose if Jesus were proven to be fictional.
Is there evidence for every single living person? Could we find the remains of every single human being who ever lived?
Assuming Jesus WAS the Son of God and not just an itinerant sage, one of many.
How so? I rather like the story.
Likely because there were other sages like him.
Most people agree to that; he was allegedly the son of a carpenter; why would a carpenter need letters?
Or if they did, their writings didn't survive to this day.
Again, his father was a carpenter.
What friends?
What enemies?
Thousands? It's not likely the sage had that many followers.
It's possible they didn't know about him.
At least they didn't write anything that survived.
That's not all that is in the story. It's true, the story recounted in the gospels is likely fiction, most agreeing that it's taken from older mythologies.
Again, could you find evidence for the existence for every single human being who ever lived?
Again, that's assuming Jesus was the Son of God to begin with.
Because he couldn't write. He simply taught to his followers.
Are all the sages spoken of in history? Very unlikely; it's only likely that popular ones are still remembered.
Again, it's not likely the sage had a thousand followers. I don't think even Buddha had that many followers when he was alive.
Not really when you realize these people were writing things down on paper and not on walls, not to mention this is 2000 years ago, near the end of Antiquity. It's likely that 95% of the writings from that time period are lost forever.
Most scholars know that.
Of course not. No one ever thought it was important enough to write down.
But the philosophies came from somewhere. It's likely that they came from either one or many itinerant sages from that time period, and the name Jesus was used occasionally.
Understand, I'm not defending Jesus the Christ, Son of God. I'm defending Jesus the Sage. And Jesus is not necessarily a man who actually lived; Jesus is the philosophy he taught, whether or not the philosophy came from him or many sages.
Oh, by the way. John, one of the 12, is reportedly the author of the Gospel of John, and the three letters bearing his name. Same with Matthew. I believe there are two letters in the canonical Bible attributed to the apostle Peter, and there's one letter attributed to James. There's also non-canonical writings that are attributed to many of the other apostles, one of the most infamous being the Gospel of Thomas.
Whether or not these men actually wrote the manuscripts they are attributed to, is debated heavily. (and, honestly, is not likely)
logician
Well-Known Member
None of the gospels were written by their supposed authors (Mattew, Mark Luke or John), mainly because these men were also part of the fiction of the story of Christ. The gospels were written by unknown authors much after the supposed time of Christ, with Matthew and Luke essentially being retakes on Mark with their own bias and prejudices (and stories) thrown in.
As such, they are not recordings of historical fact, but stories of fiction which used the prevailing mythology of that day (no surprise). If taken for what they are, they are simply stories told to teach lessons.
As such, they are not recordings of historical fact, but stories of fiction which used the prevailing mythology of that day (no surprise). If taken for what they are, they are simply stories told to teach lessons.
I know.
Nevertheless, they have far too many similarities in philosophy to have come from a single author that everyone copied. Therefore I believe that there was a Sage named Jesus who traveled around teaching, and the gospels record some of what he, and possibly others, taught.
I am in a bit of a hurry, so I haven't read every post in response to the original, for which I apologize. I have only one quick note:
Every scholar of early christianity and the historical Jesus, including atheists, agnostics, Jews, etc, acknowledge that Jesus was a historical person, and there are a few aspects of his life to which all agree (again regardless of background).
Every scholar of early christianity and the historical Jesus, including atheists, agnostics, Jews, etc, acknowledge that Jesus was a historical person, and there are a few aspects of his life to which all agree (again regardless of background).
tumbleweed41
Resident Liberal Hippie
Dirty Penguin
Master Of Ceremony
Well first there was the god/man mythical stories, virgin birth, saviour etc. that were being passed around long before the biblical Yeshua. The impression I get from the biblical account is that this time "A" story was written down and the names and places were changed to fit the time they were in. Other writers took the verbal and written story(s) and adapted them to suit their purpose or for the group they were sharing them to.
The biblical Yeshua is most likely a myth or a compilation of other mythical god/men. Other than the bible there really isn't any other external substantiated information about this man.
When scrutinizing the gospel writings we do find some similarities but we also see things that aren't mentioned in earlier gospel writings and then we see the progression from story to story. Basically the lie is getting better and better each time it's told.
Then who started teaching Eastern philosophies to the Jewish people?
I'm not interested in the Biblical Jesus Christ; that man is a mythical character as far as I'm concerned.
But what about the philosophies? The teachings recounted in the so-called "Sermon on the Mount"? Who first taught those?
The theory that I agree with is that they were taught first by an itinerant sage. Since we don't know the names of any of the Sages, we might as well call this Sage Jesus.
science_is_my_god
Philosophical Monist
Yep. He solved all the earth's problems and we all lived happily ever after. We can now skip merrily through flowery fields and sing and dance. And all of god's children now love each other. We have no wars, no poverty, no disease. Yep, Jeses sure did a great job. (whole post is sarcasm)
Dirty Penguin
Master Of Ceremony
Well that might be off topic. The point of the thread was to figure out if the biblical Yeshua was a mythical character or not. I think he was. His story is very similar to earlier mythic god/men.
As far as where these teachings came from....I'm not exactly sure. I tend to think all of it was a blending of teachings. I'm quite sure if we dig far enough back a lot of this came from Chinese culture, east Indian culture etc.
To me, and I can only speak for me, it is becoming quite clear that there may have never been a historical Yeshua. Biblical, YES.. And if there were then his accomplishments have been incredibly exaggerated and/or copied from earlier god/men.
god666
New Member
jesus could have spoken about germs or slaves but did neither.
He could have prevented billions of deaths and countless suffering with the mere mention of lenses and how to fashion a microscope. Instead he performed silly magic tricks like a parlor magician.
If there was a jesus he was an underachieving failure in every possible way.
He could have prevented billions of deaths and countless suffering with the mere mention of lenses and how to fashion a microscope. Instead he performed silly magic tricks like a parlor magician.
If there was a jesus he was an underachieving failure in every possible way.
A
angellous_evangellous
Guest
Unlike, of course, any partially literate who has access to caffiene and the internet.
Every scholar?Very broad statement, don't you think?
Necessarily so. I am continually amazed at the crap books that come out about how Jesus was a myth or a pagan god or something like that. Meanwhile, having read literally thousands of journal articles, books, and monographs by experts in the field, I have yet to read one published within the last, say, 80 years who argued that Jesus was not a historical person. There may be scholars in other fields who argue this (for example, the professor of German Studies G. A. Wells), but they aren't much better, lacking the requisite study in the field. And it is true that I can't account for every scholar in the field of early christian studies/historical Jesus. However, from the extremes on both sides of the issue of NT historicity (e.g. Richard Bauckham vs. Rudolf Bultmann), everyone acknowledges that Jesus existed as a historical man.
McBell
Resident Sourpuss
Ratification works all manner of miracles, doesn't it?