ApostateAbe

I am referring to the belief or suspicion among mythicists that Jesus never existed as a human being. When I say, "mythicists," that is the definition that I mean.
Yes, I am. The Internet is quite literally almost the only place anyone can find mythicists, and they exist everywhere that any debate about the historical Jesus openly takes place on the Internet.
aa5874 is most certainly not typical. He is only the most extreme case. Moderate cases are much more commonly found, including this thread. I have pointed them out.
Maybe so, but I don't think so. I am not making my judgment exclusively on my own experience of being a mythicist, though it is certainly part of it. How do mythicists seem to you? Do they tend to be pro-Christian? Anti-Christian? Neutral? Do you think that mythicism has no connection?

hjalti

I was asking about what "myths" refered to in this sentence: "To think of Jesus as a historical person of the same rough profile as in the gospels would be granting legitimacy to many of the myths of the gospels in the minds of many mythicists, and mythicists would rather not have that.

I'm sure they are also mythicists in the real world.þ And who knows, maybe some of those crazy guys have written books about their view.
Well, I think it's rather rare to be a Christian and a mythicist, just like it's rare to be a Christian and think that Jesus was a failed doomsday prophet.

dog-on

Not really, look at Catholics...

hjalti

You think that there are Catholic mythicists out there?

dog-on

I know for a fact that there are.

Sheshbazzar

How many thousands of examples of specifically Christian fomented hatreds and atrocities against others does it take to recognise that a logical connection does exist between claimed beliefe in the Jebus myths and what Christians so often propose to DO unto others?
Without that 'Christian love' for the Jews as was so eloquently expressed by Martin Luther, and long ingrained into the 'Christian theology' of European society, how much human suffering, and how many lives may have been spared?
Or the 'Christian love' as embodied in the Christian promulgated 'Doctrine of Manifest Destiny' as it was taught from the pulpits, and how it was applied here in America?

What Christians profess to believe, does most certainly express itself within a society in what it is that Christians teach and do.

Thus if one detects that only stupid myths, and outright lies are at the base of, and the rationale behind these acts of 'Christian love', it is natural to despise both the myths and the religion that employs these myths as the means to manipulate societies, and increase its own wealth and power.

I find these myths and those who work to insinuate them into society, to the end of forcing them upon others, the greatest and longest lasting evil that has ever been perpetrated upon mankind.
If the Bible can say; "I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies." so can I. And I have a better, and a more honest reason to do so.



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hjalti

Well, there are a lot of Catholics in the world, but it's probably very, very, very rare to be a mythicist and a Catholic.

ApostateAbe

OK, in that case, I was referring to the type of myth that is passed on from person to person in branching evolving succession among religious people. Everything in the gospels are myths. That isn't to say it is all merely myth, but they most certainly sourced from oral and written legends. It is the same type of myths where Christians find their fundamental doctrines and the reinforcement of their faith. It is the sort of myth that mythicists very much hate to grant any sort of historical legitimacy toward.
Yes, and I read and communicate with one of the most popular authors day-to-day in this forum. There are two more mythicist authors beside him who write in this forum, but unfortunately I find their writings to be bizarre, rambling, barely related to the topics and very difficult to follow.
Absolutely right, but I have also noticed that it is also somewhat rare to be a mythicist and neutral on the subject of religion. A lot of atheists and agnostics are neutral about religion, and meet them personally and on the web, but not mythicists, though there are a few, of course.

dog-on

You might be surprised. It is really not that uncommon for a Catholic to take an allegorical view of scripture. Some people actually do buy into the whole "higher truths" bit.

Maybe it's an European thing.

ApostateAbe

Just to give you a taste of my perspective, I did a search and found many of the statements of Jesus-minimalists that lead me to think that there is a us-versus-apologists mentality among them. Many of them believe that the similarity of my arguments with those of Christian apologists should be an embarrassment.