RE: I don't understand what my mom believes
January 14, 2018 at 6:56 am
(This post was last modified: January 14, 2018 at 7:01 am by Brian37.)
(January 14, 2018 at 6:14 am)Die Atheistin Wrote: Mom told me she imagines that a God exists for comfort. Some time ago my history teacher told my class that there is no proof for Jesus's existence. I told my mom this and she replied: "I don't understand what he's referring to. Muslims believe Jesus existed too but they don't consider Him a God. Maybe he meant that Jesus didn't leave any physical evidence, He couldn't because He ascendet.". I have no idea what she's talking about. Does she really just imagine a God for comfort or does she actually believe in Him? Should I ask her? How can I ask her that? When should I ask her?
This really is nothing new.
Think of it this way with ALL religions in the world.
You sit kids in a circle. The first kid whispers a story into the ear of the kid next to them, by the time the circle is completed, the story is nothing like what the first kid passed on. Now imagine the Olympic symbol with several circles and overlap, and over centuries and millennia. It is absolutely true that you can go through your entire life, meet thousands of people but never have a recording or picture or fingerprint of that meeting of another individual. BUT, what IS important is that there is NO SUCH THING AS A MAGIC MAN WITH SUPER POWERS.
If you look at Mesopotamia and Iraq, and northern Africa and Southern Europe, they are ALL in very close proximity. So when you look at it like that, it is very easy to see, how mythology spreads and details and characters change and split. Travel between those regions would not have been difficult even back then.
The same can be said of Buddhism. Depending on sect, and region all would agree that there was a Buddha whom follow Buddhism, BUT, upon closer scrutiny of the comparison of older Hindus and the overlapping motifs, AND that depending on the theologian, some have Buddha being born closer to India, within India and others further away, depending on the history of that mythology and which apologist you ask.
It does not matter if either Jews or Muslims agree that a "Jesus" character existed. It is obvious that a movement existed to start the religion, otherwise it would not exist. But it really is nothing more than a splinter Hebrew sect that wanted to compete with surrounding hero deity motifs. Even the oldest known Buddha mythology had him being born of royalty in Queen Maya, whom was told by the divine world that she would give birth to a child whom would bring wisdom to the world. His birth as well, avoided the birth canal in that mythology.
When you look at Mesopotamia and Iraq, knowing that the Yahweh character was a lesser god under the head God "El" of the Canaanite polytheism, it is really simple to understand WORLDWIDE everyone was competing with their own versions of the "ultimate" truth, and everyone wanted heros or a hero to save them, both in polytheism and monotheism.
THE OT never uses the word "Jesus" that only is mentioned in the NT. That says to me he never existed, and the NT writers were merely slapping a common name on a real movement after the fact.
Kinda like how Star Wars competes with Star Trek.
