RE: Did Jesus exist at all?
April 25, 2016 at 3:06 pm
(This post was last modified: April 25, 2016 at 3:07 pm by Simon Moon.)
(April 25, 2016 at 4:05 am)Redbeard The Pink Wrote: The Jesus of Nazareth character in the Bible did not exist in the same way that Robin Hood and King Arthur did not exist. Regardless of whether he was based on one person, multiple people, or was an entirely fictional character, the story that survived obviously isn't true at all.
This is exactly the case.
Even if a historical Yeshua ben Joseph did exist, that does not offer a shred of evidence that he was born of a virgin, turned water into wine, rose from the dead, was a god, etc, etc, etc.
To elaborate on the King Arthur example, there are some historians that think he is based on a real person that helped unite a bunch of tribes in ancient Britain. But the existence of this historical "King Arthur" person does not move us any closer to accepting that he pulled a magic sword out or a rock, or he had a magic wizard as a mentor.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
