(June 30, 2016 at 11:32 pm)Jehanne Wrote: And, so, there is substantial doubt about all of it. We know that Jesus existed, that he was an historical figure during the early 1st century Palestine, but even then, the Romans did not bother to even mention his existence, let alone anyone else. As such, it is reasonable to conclude that his influence on the cultural of his day was "unremarkable". To me, this means that the Romans viewed him as yet another apocalyptic loon whom had a doomsday prophecy, and after his disturbance in the temple in Jerusalem (at the end of his ministry and not at the beginning, as John puts it), they arrested him, and some Roman official (probably, not even Pilate) sentenced him to die. The rest, as they say, is "history".
Historians will tell you the same thing I'm about to tell you. To the Romans, Jesus was not worth mentioning. There were plenty of apocalyptic preachers of the time, and many thousands of people crucified under Roman rule (the vast majority of them with their identities never recorded). Look we don't really know how great his influence in Palestine was while he was alive, but we do know that he drew the attention of the Jewish authorities - and that he amassed great audiences at times. Pilate would almost certainly have been the one to sentence him to death, though not "at the request" of the Jewish "authorities". Note that even Josephus says that Jesus was executed by order of Pilate and there is no conflicting report, thus I'm not sure what your scepticism here is on?
There are at least four possibilities for what happened once Jesus was executed:
1. He died, was laid in the tomb, and was resurrected as Christians believe.
2. He died, was laid in the tomb, and reburied.
3. He was lifeless but had not died and revived in the tomb, and survived at least for a couple of days.
4. He died, was laid in the tomb, and the stone wasn't 'rolled away' on the third day by an angle.
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke