aa5874

I think the first sentence may be in error. "The majority of people in the world today assume or believe that Jesus Christ was at the very least a real person".

As far as I understand approximately 66% of the wold's population are non Christian or do not believe in Christ. See www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

Toto

Jesus is also regarded as a prophet (divine but not equal to Allah) in the Islamic religion, and Islam and Christianity together tip the scales. There are also a number of people of other religions or no religion who think of Jesus as a historical person.

Chris Weimer

That doesn't even make sense? Islam believes that Jesus was a real person, as does Christianity, nearly all secular scholars, and the great majority of the rest of scholars and the lay alike. Only the fringe denies Jesus any history at all. You're in the lost 1% (if that).

Clivedurdle

In the seventeenth century the number of people who did not believe in demons was far fewer than one per cent.

andrewcriddle

Is this meant to mean in the world in the seventeenth century or in Europe in the seventeenth century ?

And in any case, how do you know ?

Andrew Criddle

Clivedurdle

We have a poster here, educated, who believes in demons.

Read up about Martin Luther. Look at any church or cathedral. What caused lightning strikes before Benjamin Franklin? How were planets kept in their orbits before Galileo Copernicus and Newton? How many angels are there on a pin head (demons are a class of angels).

I mean the world. The West has reduced its numbers who believe in demons, but not by much. Argument by number may be false.

Doug Shaver

That is perfectly consistent with believing the he was a real person. The only difference between Christians and nearly all non-Christians is that Christians think he was divine and the non-Christians don't think he was divine.

aa5874

I understand there are hardly any Christians in Muslim countries, so perhaps they actually believe in a different version of Jesus, not the Jesus of the Western world or in the NT.

You must remember that the character Jesus has never been properly identified, not even in the NT.

The same problem arises when, for example, we say anything about George Bush without identifying which George Bush. For some, Jesus is the same person in the NT whether he was born in the 1st century, the 21st century or anywhere in between.

Toto

The Islamic version of Jesus is clearly based on the Christian Jesus. He was born of the Virgin Mary and performed miracles. Islam rejects the divinity of Jesus and the doctrine of the trinity. See Islamic View of Jesus.

The speculation is that Islam picked up these ideas from some heretical sects of Christianity.

aa5874

So, when was this non-divine, non trinitarian Jesus born, in the days of Herod, during the census of Quirinius, or someother date? And who is his father, Joseph or God?

The name 'Jesus' has no meaning until it can be properly identified. Only in fiction can a character be anything or be anywhere.

How is it possible to identify an unknown person?