RE: Christians - What would you do if it were discovered Jesus never existed?
September 5, 2015 at 10:27 am
(This post was last modified: September 5, 2015 at 10:29 am by Regina.)
I think it's something that's too far back in history to categorically prove he "didn't" exist.
You can prove someone or something did exist through archealogical evidence, but you can't prove something didn't exist. All you can do is assume they didn't through lack of evidence, which is how I feel about Jesus.
That said, I could be brought around to the idea that there was a Jesus-like figure in Roman Judea, who rose up pacifistically against Roman rule, and was put to death for getting too popular. If such a person existed, their story was clearly twisted and exaggerated such that they eventually became "Jesus, son of God". However, even if this were true you'd think the Romans, as a literate culture, would have had some record of it.
You can prove someone or something did exist through archealogical evidence, but you can't prove something didn't exist. All you can do is assume they didn't through lack of evidence, which is how I feel about Jesus.
That said, I could be brought around to the idea that there was a Jesus-like figure in Roman Judea, who rose up pacifistically against Roman rule, and was put to death for getting too popular. If such a person existed, their story was clearly twisted and exaggerated such that they eventually became "Jesus, son of God". However, even if this were true you'd think the Romans, as a literate culture, would have had some record of it.
"Adulthood is like looking both ways before you cross the road, and then getting hit by an airplane" - sarcasm_only
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie