Quote:I'm unsure how to phrase this, but if you believe Jesus is entirely a myth and there was no wandering preacher the Gospels were vaguely based on, how did the myth of Jesus develop and how did the infusion of the culture's take place? Was it a purposeful creation of the character of Jesus?
Let's defuse the argument by eliminating jesus for a moment.
How do you think the stories of Apollo or Hercules got started? Thor?
Shiva? Quetzlcoatl? Arvernus? Osiris? Marduk? Ishtar? Moluch? etc. etc. etc.
Somehow, the human imagination managed to concoct all of these but "jesus" needs a historical basis? This is called "special pleading" and xtians are famous for it.
Now, back to Part I.
Quote:As in Jesus existing as a person and the miraculous claims of miracles and his Resurrection are exaggerated.
What is jesus without the resurrection? As H. L. Mencken noted,
Quote:There is no possibility whatsoever of reconciling science and theology, at least in Christendom. Either Jesus rose from the dead or he didn't. If he did, then Christianity becomes plausible; if he did not, then it is sheer nonsense.
The muslims make a lot of absurd claims about mohammad but they don't claim he came back from the dead.
