not a theist

Where are you getting this from. I don't think that Christology had reached that point in two years.

krazytamak

i'm not sure, but i may have used the word 'myth' incorrectly. basically what i'm trying to do is give a secular explanation for how it is that early christians started believing what they were believing, and the belief whose origin i'm trying to explain in this thread is the idea that jesus saves you from sin. what i'm saying is that since they incorrectly equated medical illness with sin back then, what they really could have been talking about originally was saving a person from a medical illness (which for all intents and purposes back then was equivalent to saving a person from sin). essentially i'm saying it was a misunderstanding on their part due to a poor understanding of the origin of illness, a misunderstanding that doesn't require any extended amount of time to form since the assumptions of sin/illness were well established in that society for hundreds (probably more) of years.
also, i know resurrection obvioulsy played a big part in popularizing the religion, but what i'm saying is that maybe it all started with jesus as a medicine man like in many of your African or S. American ancient religions. in this case, the myth can start while jesus himself is alive since the myth is not based on lies but rather a misunderstanding of the origin of illness.
thoughts and comments welcomed