(September 18, 2013 at 11:42 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Ehrman thinks that jesus was an apocalyptic preacher.Oh, well then, if that's the criteria, I'll wager there were at least a dozen. "Yeshua" was a common name and doomcriers/messiah-wannabes abounded in 1st century Judea.
Quote:He is smart enough to dismiss all the miracle shit and thinks - much as Thomas Jefferson tried to do - that he can get closer to the historical jesus.Kind of like a "Historical Superman" then. You know, a real Clark Kent but without any of the super-powers or fighting any super-villains or doing any of the super things in the comics. But other than all that, he's just like... um, just like... Oh wait, then he's not really Superman, is he? The story of a regular-guy-Clark-Kent would bear no resemblance to the comic book character. And so he winds up not existing anyway.
My wife writes stories and she draws inspiration from real-life people and real-life events. Does that make her fictional characters and fictional stories any less fictional? She's not alone. Invariably, few fictional authors just make up the story whole-cloth. Art imitates life.
Take all the wonder-working god-magic away from Jesus and you've gutted the whole story.
Quote:He takes the magical tale that idiot xtians claim to believe and wants to boil it down to some dumb shit who walked around and got himself killed.And once again, there were probably hundreds. Pilate had a massive amount of blood on his hands to have been considered too brutal for Roman sensibilities.
The question I would love to ask Ehrman if I ever got the chance (I know what your answer would be but I'd love to see him tackle this question himself):
"Prof. Ehrman, what can we ever know about The Historical Jesus?"
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
