(December 21, 2014 at 5:04 pm)polar bear Wrote: OK most discussions I have read about god and jesus say that god is not real. I have been researching jesus, because with out god, jesus was only a man if he even existed.I think you're way off the mark. The NT is a collection of 27 books, of which about 14 are particularly interesting even for sceptical scholars, and those would be the 4 gospels, the book of acts, the undisputed epistles of Paul and the epistles of Jude and James.
For the most part people agree someone, maybe a few people, was named jesus. What can not be clearly proven was his actions, other than his baptism and crucifixion. And of the 3 documents, one being the new testament, Josephus' documents have been scrutinized as being manipulated by christian scholars.
The new testament is the only historical piece that says anything other than these 2 actions. Christians say that the new testament was written by men but breathed by god. If god does not exist then the new testament can not be accepted as evidence.
So we have one document talking about a person referred to as christ from tacitus. I know it is generally accepted that jesus existed, even by fellow atheist's. It does make me question 1. his existence and 2. his actions. It just might be that he made no claim to be the son of god and that everything has been fabricated (as shitty as it is).
As a christian I always accepted the historicity, but when you look deeply at it...it looks suspect at best.
There are a number of things we can be fairly certain about, including a number of things Jesus said and did. What you say about the works of Josephus are a moot point since it's still agreed by all scholars that Josephus did write about Jesus and that only a small section was later modified.
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
