Ancient Confession Found: 'We Invented Jesus Christ'

[Minimalist]

His evidence?

Aye...there's the rub!

[Heir Apparent]

As the rosy cheeked skeptic and pessimist that I am, I'm thoroughly looking forward to this unveiling of evidence.

Did I mention I'm also adept in sarcasm?

[Cyberman]

If Jesus had been invented it then would have gone something like this.

"Good news Christ has risen!"

"Who?"

"Jesus Christ was executed a few years and rose again?"

"No I don't remember him around these here parts"

"Perhaps you just forgot about him. it was about 20 years ago?"

"No I think I would remember him."

And that would have killed the movement in it's tracks.

Would that it were. Unfortunately, as $cientology, 9/11 Truthers and Moon Hoax Believers demonstrate, people are often desperate enough to cling onto anything that appeals to their sense of self-aggrandisement and desire to belong to some exclusive in-crowd.

As a for instance, consider how many people will tell you that the USA was founded as a xtain nation and as evidence toss you the 'One Nation Under God' thing. Then do a little digging and find out how recent a tradition that actually is.

[Lion IRC]

Well how do you like them apples? Also I do not believe this is the end of Christianity but it may bring out those who are not completely close minded or are unsure of their faith.

When the 'alternative explanation' is a conspiracy theory, I have to take it with about a metric ton of salt. The evidence will have to be very convincing.

He is trying to piggy-back on the Bill O'Reilly buzz.

It's a really tired old trope conspiracy theory. Atwills' atheist fans think Saul of Tarsus was a Roman spy (double-agent?) and that civic intellectuals working for the Roman Emperor wrote the original versions of the (fake) gospels.

One wonders why the Roman Empire had such a hard time procuring enough paper to produce a few hundred copies of their own 'gospels' AND why we dont seem to have any authentic copies still in existence.

And its not clear why the Romans would persecute people who believed those fake gospels and wanted to help propagate them.

And it's not clear why Titus needed to resort to such an extravagant and contrived scheme to suppress the restless people of Jerusalem - which Rome was able to flatten by conventional military means in 70 AD

Atwill's case against the Resurrection?
Vespasian had some Romans create backdated ''gospels'' to use as propaganda tools - just in case 50,000 soldiers failed to ''persuade'' the Jews who was in charge. Those were the same Jews who helped fake the Resurrection of a person who never existed who did miracles nobody ever saw and whose followers Pliny was just pretending to torture.

---

One of Mr Atwills' eureka moment discoveries is that;
Josephus ben Matthias. (Flavius Josephus) is almost an anagram of Joseph of Arimathea.

[Max_Kolbe]

Atwill is a crackpot.

Takes one to .... Well, never mind.

[Minimalist]

Go fuck an altar boy.

[NoraBrimstone]

As much as I'd love this to be real, I'd be very surprised if it is. It seems like an obvious hoax to me.

I really really want to go to this thing to check it out for myself, but it's at 09:30 and I start work at 09:00 that day
I wonder if I can get someone to swap shifts with me.... Hmm.

[Sword of Christ]

Would that it were. Unfortunately, as $cientology, 9/11 Truthers and Moon Hoax Believers demonstrate, people are often desperate enough to cling onto anything that appeals to their sense of self-aggrandisement and desire to belong to some exclusive in-crowd.

An exclusive in-crowd like atheism? It's worth pointing out that not all (or even the greater majority of people) who believe in God or a greater purpose in the universe are even Christians anyway. It's possible for people to have a genuine belief and be wrong and this applies to atheists just as much as everyone else.

As a for instance, consider how many people will tell you that the USA was founded as a xtain nation and as evidence toss you the 'One Nation Under God' thing. Then do a little digging and find out how recent a tradition that actually is.

By keeping Church and state separate you could say they were following Christs teaching of rendering to Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is Gods. Christianity was never intended to be some kind of a theocracy.

[max-greece]

Would that it were. Unfortunately, as $cientology, 9/11 Truthers and Moon Hoax Believers demonstrate, people are often desperate enough to cling onto anything that appeals to their sense of self-aggrandisement and desire to belong to some exclusive in-crowd.

An exclusive in-crowd like atheism? It's worth pointing out that not all (or even the greater majority of people) who believe in God or a greater purpose in the universe are even Christians anyway. It's possible for people to have a genuine belief and be wrong and this applies to atheists just as much as everyone else.

As a for instance, consider how many people will tell you that the USA was founded as a xtain nation and as evidence toss you the 'One Nation Under God' thing. Then do a little digging and find out how recent a tradition that actually is.

By keeping Church and state separate you could say they were following Christs teaching of rendering to Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is Gods. Christianity was never intended to be some kind of a theocracy.

So astonishingly you are now saying Christianity should take the credit for the formation of a nation that excludes Christianity from its governance?

Is there no end to what you will claim comes from Christianity?

[Sword of Christ]

So astonishingly you are now saying Christianity should take the credit for the formation of a nation that excludes Christianity from its governance?

There's a good case to be made that this was Jesus himself who first came up with the idea of keeping Church and state separate. Christians throughout much of history didn't do this but it is in there. Of course when Christianity first began it was a just a wacko fringe cult with no political authority at all so it wasn't set up for Earthly rule from the start that was introduced via Constantine when he (semi) converted to Christianity. Though he only converted fully on his deathbed, and he probably did it just as a insurance policy to be safe, a bit of Pascals Wager.

Is there no end to what you will claim comes from Christianity?

The claim is reasonable when you look at what Jesus said and the beginnings of Christianity. Very different to Islam which was set up to be a theocratic political system from the start. Christianity is somewhat secularism friendly. Not secular as in everyone stops believing in God which really happened in the US to any great extent.