(December 23, 2014 at 9:39 am)Pickup_shonuff Wrote: Well, it's possible everything was made up out of thin air though I tend to find many features of early Christian belief more difficult to understand on that view. Why have him hailing from Nazareth at all? Why have him baptized by John? Why have him, the Jewish Messiah, crucified?? I know mythicists have answers for these but...I don't think they're convincing.
I agree with this. Granted, the Gospels are lousy sources due to the, at best, second-hand character of their information, the sheer amount of supernatural woo, and the many instances where they report of alleged events for which even the Gospels say or imply there are no witnesses. However, if Jesus (as opposed to Jesus Christ) is simply a mythical construct, it is hard to understand why his inventors would have him come from Nazareth (along with the comical efforts of Matthew and Luke to explain away that inconvenient 'fact') or why John the Baptist is mentioned at all. And the crucifixion? Again, why? There's too much palpable flop sweat in these narratives, as the authors try desperately to make sense of what must have been a shocking end to an otherwise promising ministry.
