For People Who Think There Was No Historical Jesus

[Zone]

It matters about as much as how Islam or Mormonism got started if it isn't actually true. Charismatic individuals throughout history founded various religious movements, Christianity happens to be the most populat of em.

[DeistPaladin]

I dunno, Mr. Dawkins never explained why aliens would have wanted to seed life on earth...
(ignore facetious me, lol)

You do realize that the Dawkins interview by Ben Stein was heavily edited and his musings were quote mined, yes?

[Confused Ape]

It spread to the Greek speaking gentiles because of St Pauls missionary work. Originally it was just a heretical sect of Judiasm, which St Paul was involved with perrsecuting until he had his visionary experience.

There's no concrete evidence that St Paul actually existed but it's difficult to see how Christianity would have spread without someone like him telling the Greek speaking gentiles.

How did this heretical sect of Judaism start when it did, though, if there was nobody who could have qualified as being an historical Jesus?

Imma gunna pull the Richard Dawkins card and suggest that aliens seeded the start of Christianity...
.

If you think about it the God of the bible falls under the catagory of an 'alien' or transdeminsional being.

I don't think Richard Dawkins would suggest that the God of the Bible was the alien being who started Christianity.

[catfish]

I don't think Richard Dawkins would suggest that the God of the Bible was the alien being who started Christianity.

Why not? He admits that aliens could have seeded life here...


.

[Zone]

There are essentially three ways life could have started on Earth.

1) Magic

2)

3) Something to do with hydrothermal vents

[DeistPaladin]

[Confused Ape]

[Minimalist]

The ancient Jews were living under Roman oppression.

Were they? Because in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius the Jews had it pretty good. They were exempt from certain taxes and military obligations. When the Jews petitioned Augustus to remove Archelaus and become a Roman Prefecture ( 6 AD) Augustus agreed. The country was prospering as part of the empire and after Herod built Caesarea they were part of the commercial links to the rest of the empire. They had a measure of home rule as the Prefect made his headquarters in Caesarea and the high priest and sanheddrin were allowed to handle local matters in Jerusalem. Finally when large scale rioting broke out in Alexandria it was because the Greco-Roman citizens were angry at the Jews' special treatment.

Just where was all this "oppression?"

[Zone]

If Jesus didn't exist then it could have originated as the script of an esoteric Mystery drama Jewish initates would have participated in much the same as the Mysteries of Mithras which was an adaptation of Zoroastrianism, Christianity being the adaptation of Judiaism. I think Jesus did exist historically though, he may have been mixed into some kind of mystical gnostic pagan thing.

[DeistPaladin]

[quote='Minimalist' pid='399700' dateline='1360600999']

Just where was all this "oppression?"

Sorry, I should explain.

When you're dealing with crybaby religious fanatics, any time they don't completely get their way, it's called "oppression".

My point was that the Jews thought they were the chosen people and had a covenant with the big celestial real estate agent and were confused that the seed of David wasn't on the throne as their holy book said. This was the problem.