(March 8, 2024 at 1:48 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote:(March 8, 2024 at 1:23 pm)Ahriman Wrote: ......what does that have to do with anything?
Other than being the factual and practical answer to all of those questions posed, nothing at all. We tend to ask anachronistic questions when we get into these discussions. We ask why jesus (of the bible) didn't do this or didn't do that. Ignoring the obvious fact that actual responsibility for x cannot be validly placed on a composite character. It's a fan-fic debate at that point. Same with god. Why didn't sauron do this or gandalf do that. Conflating questions about an actual jesus, or an actual god - with questions about literary construction, tradition, the accidents of history....and in most cases specific authors or communities for which there is a readily apparent explanation that has nothing to do with jesus or gods.
Even if we assume there was a real boy we are entirely certain that multiple other people crammed words into his mouth. Words that spoke to them, to their communities, to the world they wished to see. That there were differences between these communities, disputes and disagreements that would take centuries to be resolved into something like the consensus we see today..which happens to have some 30k schismatic distinctions and a rapidly growing set of new age interpretations overtaking even that.
I can still see Vorly saying, "Schism! Schism!".
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.