Challenge to atheists: I find your lack of faith disturbing!

[xpastor]

Found a relevant blog entry by someone who accepts that Jesus existed.

I accept Jesus existed

...

I accept, against my critical thinking, that Jesus existed. I in no way at all accept any of the ridiculous stories about him. I don’t accept that he healed people miraculously, walked on water, turned water to wine, created large amounts of food from a small amount of food, cursed a fig tree, or was raised from the dead. These are all completely moronic things to believe and I would be completely giving up on my critical thinking to accept that he did any of these things.

The man Jesus performed zero miracles in his lifetime. He was a plain man who managed to make himself exceptionally famous. That is it. Even in accepting that Jesus was a historical figure I can still point out that Christianity, like every other religion, is complete nonsense. This is simply because of the above. None of those acts performed by Jesus are historically accurate and to argue that they are just makes you completely fucking deluded. ...

Jesus did not rise from the dead, then the whole point of that religious story is destroyed. That is why they can’t do it. The reason I can’t accept those miracles is because they are outright irrational.

Ehrman and many other critical New Testament scholars would agree with just about everything in this quote.

I think it is important to note that although Jesus did none of the miracles attributed to him, much (not all) of the teaching recorded in the gospels is authentic. That would include the moral teaching (especially the sermon on the mount), his apocalyptic teaching about the imminent end of the world (he was obviously wrong) and the parables (mostly picturesque presentations of his theme that the end is nigh). About his life and death, we can say only that he probably created a disturbance in the temple and he was probably crucified as a troublemaker.

I don't even think much of his moral teaching is useful. Because he thought the end was nigh, he advised extremes such as not being concerned about where your sustenance would come from, avoiding marriage, etc. One big exception, the parable of the good Samaritan, which can hardly be improved on.

What we can say is that he was a brilliant speaker, the parables and the wrong-headed moral teaching really catch your attention. He made a huge impact on his immediate followers, so much so that they could not accept his death, and they began to spread stories of his resurrection, probably after one deluded person had a hallucination.

Certainly Jesus was only human, but he was more than a plain man, if plain means just ordinary. He had extraordinary charisma and rhetorical brilliance, and that lies behind the profound impact which he had on our history.