angelo

Bacht, I couldn't agree with you more. What you say is true.
But remember, the contemporary literature makes no claims to the devine as does the bible.
That the Jews were never a great power is exactly my point.

bacht

Thanks. I'm not sure if you're referring to the New Testament claims about Jesus? There is some similarity to the classical hero/demigod stories, but they were usually dated to the Heroic age of pre-Homeric Greece.

The funny thing about Jesus is that the eastern Mediterranean had never been more "civilized" than during the early Roman empire. Christianity arose in the midst of urbanized literate people, not ignorant goat-herds. In that sense it may have been similar to modern fundamentalism, a reaction to worldliness.

angelo

Jim Jones started his commune in 20th century. Mormonism was started in the 18th century. Nearly all branches of christianity, are relatively new, all started by a charismatic leader who biologist claim one in a hundred have what it takes to be a leader. In other words, these people were either genuinely deluded, or outright frauds and snake oil salesmen/women.
As for Jesus and the N/T, there is hardly any contemporary evidence that he ever existed. That passage in Flavius Josephus's Jewish Antiquities has been proven to be a forgery, added by later christians who were disgusted that so much of the Jewish history was written by Josephus without one mention of their hero, despite a convincing reference to John The Baptist.
Only Tacitus, a Roman historian makes a reference to a Christ who was executed under the reign of Tiberias by the Procurator Pontius Pilate.
But he like others after him, could be reporting hearsay. The fact is, no one ever met or knew a Jesus of Nazareth.

bacht

"There's a sucker born ever minute" [attributed to P.T. Barnum]

angelo

The new age movement relies on a sucker been born every minute.
As do homeopaths, and any other alternative medicine quacks.