Tuesday, February 2, 2010

thought of the day.389

Jesus was not a flesh and blood person but a creation of writers. Almost every single aspect of the Jesus character’s story is found in the Old Testament, from the birth announcement heralded by angels to the grand exit into the clouds. We see the inspiration for the stories of gifts of gold and myrrh, slaughter of innocents, walking on water, calming the wind, transforming food, healing the blind, raising the dead, feeding the multitude, curing the leper, helping the officers, betrayal, zombies! and on and on.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

"Jesus was not a flesh and blood person."

Were the twelve disciples flesh and blood people?
Was Josephus a flesh and blood person?
What Pliny the Younger a person? Was Tacitus? Was Pontius Pilate? Were Pharisees and Sadducees?

john evans said...

If there was no Jess it would follow there were no disciples who tagged along with him. My understanding is that the other people you mention were historical figures. All evidence that I know of suggests that anyway.

Unknown said...

I know they wouldn't be labeled disciples with no rabbi to follow, but I meant more along the lines of "did those twelve people exist".

Tacitus documented Pontius Pilate giving the death penalty to Jesus, and also confirmed the geographical location and time period.

Pliny the Younger wrote to Trajan about his problem with Christians. This creates another problem, where did Christians come from if there was no Christ? Did the disciples make him up? Someone had to have made him up. How did they pull it off for so many years with so much detail and even eyewitness accounts? How did they get Jews to convert to Christianity? Some Pharisees and Sadducees even, very devout people. They only believed in one God, and very firmly so. So how did they manage to convince them there was another God?
Josephus mentions Jesus' little brother James, so he was a person.

I don't see how you could intelligently say that Jesus never existed.

john evans said...

The 12 disciples were just as much a creation as Jesus. At least the Jesus of the bible. Of course there were many teachers like Jesus that did in fact exist and many such teachers had disciples and perhaps some of the sayings originated with these teachers. But the Jesus of the bible who was born of a virgin, escaped Herod’s death sentence, walked on water and ascended into the sky is pure myth and exists only as words on paper and in the collective delusion of believer’s minds. At least that is what all the evidence I have looked at points to.

Unknown said...

OK, you really didn't answer any of the objections I raised.

Tacitus documented Pontius Pilate giving the death penalty to Jesus, and also confirmed the geographical location and time period.

Pliny the Younger wrote to Trajan about his problem with Christians. This creates another problem, where did Christians come from if there was no Christ? Who made him up? Someone had to have made him up. How did they pull it off for so many years with so much detail and even eyewitness accounts (which were, according to you, fake, although I could get into that if you want)? How did they get Jews to convert to Christianity? Some Pharisees and Sadducees even, very devout people. They only believed in one God, and very firmly so. So how did they manage to convince them there was another God?
Josephus mentions Jesus' little brother James, so he was a person.

I don't see how you could intelligently say that Jesus never existed.

john evans said...

“Pliny the Younger wrote to Trajan about his problem with Christians. This creates another problem, where did Christians come from if there was no Christ? Who made him up?”

There have been many thousands of gods made up and worshiped as real by countless people. People have felt the same feelings as you about their god. The times lent themselves to belief in gods. The air was thick with superstition, magic, demons. Christianity was not some radical never before seen thing. It was just a different flavor of prior/surrounding religions. Look at the Mormons. This was made up what 100 years ago? People ate it up! We both know it is total myth, or to be more accurate, total lies.

will address the other points later-gotta run


Josephus mentions Jesus' little brother James, so he was a person.

I don't see how you could intelligently say that Jesus never existed.

Unknown said...

I'm still wondering who it is that made Jesus up. Who made up the eyewitness accounts in the Gospels? How did they get them so accurate?

john evans said...

They are not eye witness accounts. The unknown writer later dubbed "Mark” wrote the first of the 4 gospels using the Old Testament as his primary source material. (See my new blog for the first of 4 parts showing where Jesus came from) The other gospel writers copied from Mark, adding some and leaving some out.