FRDB Archives

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.


Go Back   FRDB Archives > Archives > Biblical Criticism - 2001
Welcome, Peter Kirby.
You last visited: Today at 05:55 AM

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 04-19-2001, 05:15 AM   #1
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Post Did Jesus exist? Are the stories true?

I have no idea if Jesus existed or not. On balance, I think it's more likely that he existed, than that he's totally made-up.

OTOH, we have to ask "are the stories about Jesus true?" I think the evidence points overwhelmingly to the idea that the stories are made up--fabrications intended to accomplish a variety of things.

It's no accident that "the body's gone". We see this cheap, stupid plot device in countless TV cop shows, thrillers, and so on. If the body's gone, there's no evidence to refute lots of claims about his life--e.g. the crucifiction stuff. There's no way at all it couldbe disproven, even if it's not true.

I also suspect it's no accident that there are no contemporaneous, secular records of Jesus' life. Doesn't it strike anyone else here that this omission is awfully peculiar? Here we have a man who's a real pain inthe ass to the Romans, who's allegedly performing these acts which defy the laws of nature, yet there's almost no record of this stuff by a contemporaneous secular historian? I just don't think that's possible if the bible stories are true. OTOH, if the stories were written decades after Jesus died, they'd almost certainly be embellishments--this is what happens when people write recollections of the dead, particularly years or decades after they've died.
 
Old 04-19-2001, 05:21 AM   #2
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Post

Why this sudden outburst when there are two threads going already dealing with this issue?

Michael

 
Old 04-19-2001, 06:50 PM   #3
Regular Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Overland Park, KS USA
Posts: 335
Post

Skeptic22: You're missing a couple of points here. As depicted in the gospels, Jesus was a pain in the ass to the high priest and company, NOT the Romans.

In fact, if you believe that wonderfully made up scene with Pilate, according to the Gospels that had to practically force the Romans to execute him.

None of which jives with any kind of history. The Romans would have been involved at that level for one and one reason only...rebellion. Now if the theory that Jesus was leading an armed messanic rebellion is true, then the Romans would be quite concerned, and it would square with what Donini's paper on the topic that the gospel of John indicated a tribuine was present. (I can't find this in modern accounts, has it been changed?)
Lance is offline  
 

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 01:04 PM.

Top

This custom BB emulates vBulletin® Version 3.8.2
Copyright ©2000 - 2015, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.