(April 3, 2015 at 5:06 am)downbeatplumb Wrote: Personally I tend towards there being a David Koresch type charismatic leader who was talked up by his surviving followers.
This is mainly because of the manner of his death which was that of a common criminal and the contortions understaken to explain it as gods will and his crowning moment etc when it is nothing but abject failure.
I cannot buy that the best way to do anything is to get publicly killed then come back and trot about for a few days then bugger off again.
Makes sod all sense.
I agree. Seeing what we have of cults of personality in the 20th/21st century, at the very least, lends plausibility to the central figure idea in the formation of Christianity (not the literal "This is officially Christianity" formation). I'm thinking mainly of how a group of people can be effected by one person, and the subsequent myth-building and validating. Of all the claims made by Christianity, Jesus' historical existence is the least absurd; it's got that going for it.
As far as my atheism goes, I could care less if he existed or not; he sure as hell didn't perform any miracles or sprout from a virgin birth. I guess it's important for the record books. It would be a pretty sweet blow if we could find definitive proof of his non-existence, but no Christian would accept it anyhow. Until then, he may as well have existed, it makes for a less clunky conversation. "A bunch of people of unknown gender and age who lived in an unknown time said to turn the other cheek and then contradicted themselves by taking up arms." Or whatever.
