(June 17, 2021 at 7:10 pm)Ranjr Wrote:(June 17, 2021 at 7:01 pm)Brian37 Wrote: There most certainly are real people and real places mentioned in the NT. But that is misleading. For example, the city of New York existed long before the creation of the comic book character Superman. So by theists logic, Superman is real because after the fact, a comic book writer mentioned/depicted a real city in it's comic book.
No theologian I have ever run into or debated, has ever been willing to consider, that real places and people were peppered into the story after the fact, in retrofitting to lend a false sense of credibility.
We can all prove that Abraham Lincoln was a real person, but nobody sane buys the B-movie crap "Abraham Lincoln. Vampire Slayer".
You could have gone with Spiderman. Or the Fantastic Four. Even though there was no Daily Bugle or Baxter Building. There was a New York.
Superman fought the villains of Metropolis. And that's why I can't take DC seriously.
You still understood my point.
There were real cities and real kings mentioned in the NT. But there is absolutely no contemporary evidence that a character named Jesus ever existed. Knowing when the first book was written, which was way after the alleged time the bible claims, would indicate that someone who wrote that first book, simply slapped a popular name on a movement after the fact. Christianity would not exist if a person, or group of people didn't start it. But there is no evidence at all that all the fantastic claims the NT claims ever happened.
Ancient hero worship was a regional competition, much like Coke and Pepsi or Star Wars vs Star Trek. What better way to draw consumers in to employ popular historical figures, mythologies and legends?
Even Star Wars isn't original. It had the Catholic trinity motif of Obi Wan, Yoda and Anakin, and the Asian/buddhism/zen/Taoism motifs of Yoda.
Revisionist history always works in retrospect. Even today, try telling a Scientologist their religion was started by a si fi writer.