RE: My blog
February 25, 2015 at 10:36 am
(This post was last modified: February 25, 2015 at 10:40 am by watchamadoodle.)
(February 25, 2015 at 5:53 am)robvalue Wrote: The more I think about it, the more I feel that jesus mooters and mythicists are pretty much the same thing.
Mythicist: There was no actual person that jesus was based on.
Mooter: There probably was an actual person, but they didn't do any of the supernatural stuff, so it's irrelevant.
For an ex-Christian, there can be a big difference. At a minimum a Christian probably believes that Jesus lived, instructed people to pray to him, ask him for forgiveness, promised life in paradise for his followers, or whatever. The physical resurrection and the miracles aren't essential. So the mythical Jesus claim is much more effective for helping a Christian see the light. Also the mythical Jesus claim offers certainty. Christians giving up their belief are afraid that they might be making a terrible mistake. The mootist claim leaves a lot of uncertainty and room for Christians to worry.
Unfortunately, almost all historians are mootists instead of mythicists. They mythicists are almost all lay people instead of academics. Robert M. Price is the only academic mythicist that I know about. But it seems that Price isn't actually a mythicist after all - even though he wrote a book about the possibility. Price is a mootist.
Quote:At the same time, Price cautiously concludes that "a genuine historical figure" ultimately lies at the root of the Christian religion.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_M._Price
Even though I would be delighted to learn that the mythicist claims are true, I must accept that they are probably not. Instead, I have been trying to understand the beliefs and practices of the earliest Christians in hopes that they might differ fundamentally from modern beliefs and practices. Also I have been trying to understand how Christianity and Judaism evolved and changed fundamentally.
The strategy for deconverting Christians depends on the type of Christianity. Fundamentalists are easier to deconvert, because they claim the Bible is literally true. Liberal Christians are harder to deconvert IMO.
Some people benefit from the philosophical arguments such as the problem of evil. For some reason those arguments haven't worked for me. The philosophical arguments work better for very cerebral, Spock-like people. (I'm not one of those people unfortunately.
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