RE: Serious Query Regarding Jesus
March 30, 2012 at 12:50 pm
(This post was last modified: March 30, 2012 at 12:59 pm by Orion3T.)
Thanks to everyone who's been constructive.
I agree the evidence for existence is dubious, but I'm willing to grant it and the hypothesis goes on from there. Since I'm willing to grant his existence 'for the sake of argument' being told the hypothesis is bad because he didn't exist is pretty pointless.
I'm not interested in the views of anyone who thinks he was divine. When you remove the presupposition of god, divinity is removed from the picture.
I was only curious whether the hypothesis fits as well with scripture as any other non-divine hypothesis which grants his existence. At no point did I mean to claim Christianity was brilliant, but I believe the NT contains generally improved moral content than the old testament, at least enough of an improvement that he might sacrifice himself.
Interesting point in the post above - you seem to be suggesting that if he existed at all he wouldn't have had access to scriptures to study? Though that wouldn't really be necessary for the hypothesis - it would just have made him more convincing if he did know scripture. Though actually it works just as well if they were added at any point during writing.
Maybe I should just go read the NT properly and remind myself what's actually in it...
I agree the evidence for existence is dubious, but I'm willing to grant it and the hypothesis goes on from there. Since I'm willing to grant his existence 'for the sake of argument' being told the hypothesis is bad because he didn't exist is pretty pointless.
I'm not interested in the views of anyone who thinks he was divine. When you remove the presupposition of god, divinity is removed from the picture.
I was only curious whether the hypothesis fits as well with scripture as any other non-divine hypothesis which grants his existence. At no point did I mean to claim Christianity was brilliant, but I believe the NT contains generally improved moral content than the old testament, at least enough of an improvement that he might sacrifice himself.
Interesting point in the post above - you seem to be suggesting that if he existed at all he wouldn't have had access to scriptures to study? Though that wouldn't really be necessary for the hypothesis - it would just have made him more convincing if he did know scripture. Though actually it works just as well if they were added at any point during writing.
Maybe I should just go read the NT properly and remind myself what's actually in it...
