smeat75

Yes it was Rick Santorum - as I say I tried to post a link but the system wouldn't let me as I am too new.
I agree with what you write in the very first post of this thread. This question of whether Jesus existed or not is very trivial when the general public has no idea that all Biblical scholars who are not tied to a literalist theology accept that the Bible, OT and NT alike, is utterly unreliable. That is the message that all the authors I see being discussed here agree on and should unite to get across.

youngalexander

Welcome to the Freethought & Rationalism DB.

Confusing ain't it? Yet, there is a fairly long 'history' to this discussion & particularly on this board & its predecessor.
Most here do not regard the question of an actual historical man as the 'generator' of Christianity to be a trivial matter. On the contrary, considering the amount of bandwidth devoted to the subject, it has proven to be a very popular passtime for most of us.
I must take issue with you there. Most people, including non believers, have little conception of the contradictory, full of impossibilities, a lot of nonsense and quite a few downright lies aspects of the NT. As for Jesus never existing - forget it. Most of my friends & acquaintances are not Xian, but mention the improbability of JC's historicity and you will receive some very strange looks, followed by guffaws of outright denial - despite their complete absence of knowledge concerning matters BC (Biblical Critical).

I was showing a friend my copy of Proving History (Richard Carrier) only last evening & she expressed utter amazement that such a thing could be considered, let alone debated in rarefied circles.
It may appear to be a squabble, but around here it is what goes for debate. All part of the long march of Everyperson on the path to ultimate understanding.
A cross I fear that we have to bear!:grin:

ApostateAbe

It has been awhile, but I once went through a statistical exercise with you on Amazon.com, when you doubted me on such a point. It was a lot of fun, so I will do it again.

I went to the profile pages of each author you listed:

• Acharya S
• Richard Carrier
• Robert M. Price
• Timothy Freke
• Tom Harpur

I omitted Peter Gandy since he is almost always a coauthor with Timothy Freke.

Each author's profile page has a list in the right sidebar with the heading, "Customers Also Bought Items By." I compiled each such list into a single master list, as follows:
N/A
Already, you see a bunch of these names look familiar.

I sorted this list alphabetically, and I picked out each name that repeats. These are the authors who share a customer base with more than one of the mythicist authors you listed. Here is that short list of the repeated names:

• Acharya S
• Bart D. Ehrman
• Christopher Hitchens
• Dan Barker
• Edward T. Babinski
• Guy P. Harrison
• John G. Jackson
• John W. Loftus
• Kenneth W Daniels
• Peter Gandy
• Richard Carrier
• Richard Dawkins
• Robert Bauval
• Robert M. Price
• Sam Harris
• Three Initiates
• Timothy Freke
• Victor J. Stenger

In conclusion,

EarlDoherty

I'm sure Bob Price meant 'against Earl Doherty's book'. Can one slander a book? Considering the vast misrepresentation Ehrman has inflicted on it, I don't see why not.

Earl Doherty

Toto

Abe - what do you think this proves about the motivation of mythicists?

ApostateAbe

They very much tend to be anti-religious.

Sheshbazzar

Isn't that amazing.

Horatio Parker

That doesn't mean that the MJ position is anti-religious.

What's so religious about believing that HJ was an ordinary if inspired human, a sans-miraculous apocalyptic preacher that was crucified?

Kapyong

Gday all,

Just a quick note.
As most here would know, I'm pretty convinced Jesus didn't not exist, and generally agree with your arguments Earl.

But - oddly, I am NOT an atheist. I've been through the Christian phase, I know many Christians and like them, and can often find some common ground some of them.

I believe in some subtle way that some entity we call "God" exists.
I just don't agree with certain claims about what happened millenia ago.

So, the equation that
JMer = atheist (or Christian hater) is plainly wrong.


Kapyong

ApostateAbe

One way or the other, the MJ position fits and serves an anti-religious perspective, and that point is a plausible explanation for why mythicism is almost exclusively the domain of atheists.