Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Real Life James Bond on March 12, 2013 at 10:15pm

True, I think they should make it so the new comments appear on the first page.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Real Life James Bond on March 12, 2013 at 10:01pm

I also put a post on my blog http://reasonable-disbelief.blogspot.com about this topic explaining my views a little more clearly.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by SteveInCO on March 12, 2013 at 10:08pm

"Was Jesus The Wrong Choice?"

Of course.  So is anyone else you could think of or make up.

There is, and can be, no Messiah.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Angela Evangelia on March 12, 2013 at 10:21pm

 

we are just discussing it according to the bible ...

we know its not really true otherwise we wouldnt be atheists.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by SteveInCO on March 12, 2013 at 11:58pm

Ah, fair enough, then.

Well yes the wrong choice even under biblical grounds.  The messiah was supposed to end up the king of Israel, and then conquer all the neighbors, kicking ass and taking names.  This guy was nailed up with common criminals.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tim on March 13, 2013 at 12:02am

Jesus was the holy man that Paul selected. Paul and his teachings were largely responsible for the growth of Christianity. Some people say the the religion should have been called Paulianity.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Angela Evangelia on March 13, 2013 at 12:58am

Paul never met Jesus ...

If we were worshiping Paul instead of Jesus, christians would be wearing their crucifixes upside down ...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Real Life James Bond on March 13, 2013 at 1:02am

Well even so, Paul was a factor that made Jesus quite popular. Without Paul I don't think that Jesus would be as well known today.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by SteveInCO on March 13, 2013 at 1:05am

A good case can be made that the Jesus of the Gospels (or actually the Jesus you see in the synoptics, and the somewhat different Jesus of John), and the Jesus described in Paul's epistles, are quite different.

In point of fact Paul doesn't talk much about Jesus as a living breathing being, really.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on March 13, 2013 at 12:21am

And I maintain, Angela, that the myth was specifically designed to fit the prophecy, the creation of a fictitious Roman census that required Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem is a perfect example of that.

Look up the word, "migdal," it may surprise you --

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by SteveInCO on March 13, 2013 at 1:12am

Archaeopteryx is quite correct here.

I personally hold the opinion that it's 60-75 percent likely some ordinary (other than religious mania) guy named Jesus (ok, that's an anglicization of Yeshua) actually lived, preached, and got executed for causing trouble.  And that then a legend got built up around him.  You can see the process at work if you consider the changes in the stories going from Mark, to Matthew, to Luke to John, the order of writing.  (It turns out ONLY John makes unambiguous claims of divinity for Jesus.)

Anyhow, 60-75% confident isn't really confident, but one thing I am sure of... IF he existed, he was NOT born in Bethlehem, that whole story is a later add on.  Actually it's TWO later add ons as the Matthew and Luke accounts are very dissimilar.  It was necessary, though, for the bullshitters to explain, somehow, how a man from Galilee could be the messiah when everyone knew the prophecy that the Messiah would come out of Bethlehem.  So the stories got made up.

Ironically the need to do this is fairly strong evidence for Jesus having actually lived.  If someone were going to make the story up completely from nothing, Galilee wouldn't have been a part of it, Jesus would simply have been from Bethlehem and would have grown up there and preached there.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Real Life James Bond on March 13, 2013 at 1:17am

Most ancient historians (including myself, although I am still a student) would agree that a man named Jesus lived and was crucified in the first century. I like the point you've made about that.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• …
• 10
• Next ›
• Page