Do You Think Jesus Really Ever Existed?

I am just curious about your view. Do you, based on what you know about history,etc, think that Jesus (Yes the "Jesus") ever really existed? Or is he a construct of the Church? I know that countless people have debated this forever.....but I am curious. Personally I don't know exactly where I stand. I mean do I believe in a man who was born of a virgin,raised the dead, healed the sick,drove out demons and died and rose from death after three days? Well......I don't consider myself ignorant (well not totally lol) soI don't buy the "virgin" birth thing (never seen anyone born without sex....have you?). And the same goes with walking on water.....and driving out demons....and calming storms....and miracle healings and.....probably the biggest barrier of all.....coming back from the dead!! But....but......could this guy have really been a "real" person? A man who....like Monty Python's "Brian"....had all these people build up this "legend" around him? Or not? Why or why not? Seriously!

 

The more I look into Jesus, the less I believe. Most of the new testament about Jesus was written by people who never even interacted with the supposed person/god.

Roman records were very rich and easy to dig upon for all other historical data, yet Jesus is mysteriously not in their records.

People are known to leave back other properties, letters, other people talking about Jesus in letters, yet none prevail except for the bible.

Fishy stuff if you ask me. I think it's very clear that religion is just a political powerplay, but that doesn't mean to discount all spirituality.

 

I believe jesus was a real man. I'm not a Christian though. I think he was a very generous and progressive philosopher of his day but through word of mouth the stories about him got inflated into what was eventually written in the bible.

 

He is probably about 10 different guys amalgamated into one

 

Jerry Garcia didnt exist either, its all a figment of your imagination..

 

^^ This.

 

Jesus was a purely mythical figure developed by the gnostics. He did not exist as an actual person. He is symbolic of the perfected man who finds truth by looking within himself and becoming one with creation. Jesus was later religionized by the church and made into a sun god that is based on the ancient Babylonian/Zoroastrian sun religions and used to control instead of free people's minds. Jesus is symbolic of anyone who looks within themselves to find truth, which is the exact OPPOSITE of what religions encourage, which are based around manmade dogmas.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO_aO6rmrmQ

 

I hadn't thought of Buddha but yeah he seems very "storybook" as well.

 

That's me. Christian apologists will point to a few words in Tacitus and a Jewish historian named Josephus but it sure looks like there would be a BIG book on a guy who could turn water into wine and a few fish into a feast in the nasty world of the first century! Not to mention raising dead people to life (Can you imagine the media shitstorm if someone could do that today?!!) and walking on the surface of a stormy lake!! And this dude supposedly rose from the dead himself!!! But......crickets in the halls of Rome......hmmmmmm.....

 

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http://youtu.be/ed_UXT0aju4

 

I think we can split this up in 2 questions. One is wether there was a real person on which this Jesus figure is based on. Second is wether he really performed these miracles attributed to him and associated with him (after all, he didn't ressurrect himself, God supposedly did).
To say it is unlikely there was a real Jesus just because we know he didn't perform such miracles is jumping to conclusions. Lots of real people in the past that supposedly did stuff that we know now to be fictional. It doesn't make the existence of the person any less real.
I would say it's fifty-fifty. So far we can't tell for sure, so why conclude anything with certainty Same with Buddha, Zoroaster, Moses etc.

Very likely.

 

I'm not sure. Maybe it's all much ado about nothing, but maybe not.

A few months back I read Raza Aslan's book 'Zealot', where the author tries his best to show that if he existed he was only one among a number of claimants to the title 'messiah'. Having read the book though I'm not convinced either way.

I feel that something must have occurred in order to spark the new religion of Christianity. Perhaps it was all invention, maybe things were attributed to an actual historical figure that were exaggerations. Maybe John Allegro was right and the whole thing was a magic mushroom cult, based on previous mystery schools.

I doubt we will ever know for certain.

 

Create a man with nothing to fear, and an immense amount of self-worth to inspire those many, many people with plenty to fear, but nearly no self-worth to do anything but what it takes to find self-worth and what you have is a human population successfully made devoid of all worth.

The question is why would anyone want to do that. Simply, because people with inferiority issues in the past wished to bring the human species down with it rather to raise themselves up. Basically, resentful people - Paul for one.

Now here's the brilliance of it. Who would think that people with such sickly mentalities would have thought up such a healthful person?

The answer: Not many. Which is why we ask these questions about Jesus' origins with such naivety, admitted naivety, but naivety nonetheless.

 

Meh.

And didn't Paul make a 180 degree change?

 

Concerning Paul, I don't know the details, but he sounded like a deluded power obsessed guy who did indeed turn 180 degrees, to a whole other way to express his delusions and hunger for power. Basically going from being a guy honest in his greed, to a guy deceitfully trying to claim he lacks it.

Concerning your disinterest, may I ask a question?

 

If Jesus didn't exist, how come nobody can debunk the Shroud?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hemflFrqTIc