Doug Shaver

No, but they do invent stories about heroic figures doing things that people don't do.

I agree that the man who invented this particular story did not think he was writing history or biography. I agree that he intended the story to be allegory and expected his readers to construe it as such. I also think that in his own mind, Jesus himself was only an allegory, not some preacher that he thought had once wandered around Galilee with a bunch of disciples. Only many years later did some people get it into their heads that there was supposed to be some real history about a real man behind the story.

youngalexander

Right on:angel:
Why not indeed? It is a simple question which "Demands an Answer".

In fact, why do these godlings do any of this roundabout nonsense? Why do they not just get on with whatever is bugging them? It is great fun speculating, but at the end of the day can we take any of it seriously?

The only rational explanation lies in the human psyche!:banghead:

Thomas II

They have tampered so much with any possible evidence about Jesus that by now it is probably close to impossible to know the truth, but I still have a doubt about it being a complete fabrication...There are some details that tell me there is a reason to believe there was one or more people involved. The divinity part is out of the question, meaning "no".
But the possibility of an itinerant healer is there...

Doug Shaver

I agree about possibility. If the question gets to likelihood, though, I don't agree.

Thomas II

I don't have any problem with an itinerant healer and teacher,specially one telling people that they should be loving and caring of each other. No problem whatsoever. There were probably many other healers and teachers similar to Jesus in that area, John the Baptist being one of them.
I do raise an issue about people tring to create a religion out of this man and building him up like a Roman god figure in order to unite a falling empire behind such religion.
Personally I think that such an itinerant teacher and healer would have been horrified at the thought of having his persona manipulated in such a way...

Doug Shaver

I don't doubt that there were a few such people in first-century Palestine. The question is whether any of them had disciples who founded the religion now called Christianity. For various reasons, I think it unlikely.

I think that Paul's Christ was not a man who he thought had ever lived in this world. I think the men who wrote the original versions of the gospels were telling stories about a man whom they knew to be fictional and whom they expected their readers to understand was fictional.

I'm not saying I couldn't be mistaken. I don't consider the evidence to be that conclusive. But I think the evidence, considered in toto, points that way.

Thomas II

Paul's Christ was PAUL's CHRIST, meaning HE CREATED IT IN HIS MIND.
Why? How? We would have to study Paul in depth to understand such type of imagination...
But there could have been one or two "Jesus", who are the basis for the CHARACTER created afterwards, very much like there is a real "Kramer" behind the character Kramer from Seinfeld...
Did the real guy behind Kramer say and do all that the character Kramer said and did during the series? Of course not.
Likewise the persona of Christ,fictional, is probably based on one or two real life characters.
Then things were lately "polished" and built as much as they could.
I think that there is more likelyhood of that being the case than the story beein a complete and total fabrication.
Look at Santa Claus now, flying with Coca Cola and what not...But was there ever a character which is the basis for the fictional story? I think YES. Granted no flying reindeer, North Pole address, or elves slaving around...Just maybe a bishop someplace who liked to give away presents to kids...