Challenge to atheists: I find your lack of faith disturbing!

[Zen Badger]

And look at that, Zen's trolling... some things never change.

And you've no evidence to back up your empty assertions.

Indeed, some things never change

[Confused Ape]

There's a number of you here that consistently deny that Jesus was a real historical person, which is utterly ridiculous

Why do you find atheists' lack of faith disturbing? You're posting in an atheist forum so you're not going to get everyone agreeing with you about Jesus having existed.

[Aractus]

Why do you find atheists' lack of faith disturbing? You're posting in an atheist forum so you're not going to get everyone agreeing with you about Jesus having existed.

Do you deny the Holocaust too? As already discussed some historical facts are frankly beyond discussion. Even among atheist new testament scholars you'd find almost no one who actually believes that Jesus never existed.

[Confused Ape]

[Mudhammam]

Even if Christians could cite one hundred individual eye-witness accounts to Jesus' magical post-mortem "appearances," it wouldn't prove anything more than modern-day mystics and prophets whose "miracles" are attested to by the thousands, sometimes millions.

[Confused Ape]

[xpastor]

[DeistPaladin]

He made a huge impact on his immediate followers, so much so that they could not accept his death, and they began to spread stories of his resurrection, probably after one deluded person had a hallucination.

To underscore the plausibility of this scenario, just say one word.

Elvis.

[Mudhammam]

Matthew 27:52-53

"and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many."

You forgot to take the quote in context. Let's look at the surrounding verses:

"50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and[e] went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph,[f] and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him." (NIV)

IS IT JUST ME OR DID ANYONE ELSE CATCH THAT?

Did the author of Matthew's Gospel just reveal an early Christian belief about Jesus' resurrection? Is it an indication that Christians believed the resurrection of the dead had begun at Calvary? Matthew’s Gospel explicitly states that the holy ones "came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection" yet Matthew places this event at the moment Jesus dies, while his body is still hanging on the cross!

Was the "resurrection" originally thought to have occurred when Jesus "gave up his spirit"?

[DeistPaladin]

Found a relevant blog entry by someone who accepts that Jesus existed.

I can relate. I regret all the time and energy spent on this disucssion that would have been better spent on discussing The Wholly Babble. Let Ehrman and other divinity scholars sit in their ivory towers and chase after The Historical Jesus through their dusty scrolls. I shall not disturb their devotion or book writing tickets any more.

But I would like to ask them just one question.

"What, if anything, can we actually know about this man?"

I've never heard any definition of The Historical Jesus which is any more detailed than "um, you know, he was named Yeshua and well, you know, he was a religious leader of some kind and stuff." Oh, well, then! Since Yeshua was a common name and apocalyptic doom crier messiah wannabe a fairly common pastime, you'd likely find several over the course of the first century in Judea. But don't let me disturb you professors. Do continue your quests in the ivory tower. Let me know if you ever find anything of substance. I won't hold my breath.