Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: March 29, 2024, 5:41 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?
#21
RE: If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?
(January 29, 2014 at 3:53 am)Godschild Wrote: I'll say this, if Jesus had just been a man and not done those things that was written about Him, there would have never been a religion called Christianity. His followers would not have stayed in the fold to die a terrible death for a lie, human nature is a testament to this. People will say that cults have done this in the recent past and they have, but these people were not hounded day and night, beaten and placed in prison repeatedly, a great deal of the New Testament was written from prison. Most of them died terrible deaths. If the cults around today had to face the Roman Empire well lets just say they would not have organized and if they did would not have lasted long.

Google "cargo cults". Or "Mormonism". Or "Scientology".
Religions are real in the sense that they exist, but they demonstrably come from false roots.
Skepticism is not a position; it is an approach to claims.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
Reply
#22
RE: If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?
(January 28, 2014 at 6:09 pm)Drich Wrote:
(January 28, 2014 at 5:51 pm)Alex K Wrote: If Kim Il Sung was just a man, why all the stories?

If L. Ron Hubbard was just a man, why all the stories?

Who?

not to mention it hasn't been 200o years since their deaths either.

Don't be silly, Drich.
Reply
#23
RE: If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?
(January 28, 2014 at 4:59 pm)1tasolo Wrote: If we have a starting point that Jesus was just a man, had a small cult and followers, got killed by someone or the goverment, why would the stories develop and grow so much?

How did it get so big?
He was practically invisible to the surrounding historians etc

I just can't understand how it became one of the largest religions in the world?

Any rational explanations why it turned out the way it did?

How did it get so big? How did Pepsi Get so big? How did the NFL get so big? How did the Koch Brothers get so rich? Marketing, nothing more. If Christianity had not been concocted or marketed, some other religion would have. Also consider that Islam is much bigger in membership than Christianity.

The motif of "chosen people" and "we need a hero" was in both polytheism and monotheism back then. Christianity simply out competed the surrounding religions at the time. But it did not take over the world otherwise other religions would not exist today.
Reply
#24
RE: If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?
It all goes back to ancient Rome and the competition of religions during that time. Constantine's conversion is another thing to take into account, as well as the conversion of people around him. How can a Christian claim atheist don't question things, while a hippo can sit right in front of him and he still continues to claim that it's an elephant.
Reply
#25
RE: If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?
(January 28, 2014 at 4:59 pm)1tasolo Wrote: If we have a starting point that Jesus was just a man, had a small cult and followers, got killed by someone or the goverment, why would the stories develop and grow so much?

How did it get so big?
He was practically invisible to the surrounding historians etc

I just can't understand how it became one of the largest religions in the world?

Any rational explanations why it turned out the way it did?

That's nothing. Look at all the stories surrounding that guy that became world famous just because he wanted to hunt wabbit.
Kuusi palaa, ja on viimeinen kerta kun annan vaimoni laittaa jouluvalot!
Reply
#26
RE: If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?
G-C you remain the stupidest motherfucker on these boards. Grow up man. At your age you need to not have invisible friends!
Reply
#27
RE: If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?
(January 28, 2014 at 4:59 pm)1tasolo Wrote: If we have a starting point that Jesus was just a man, had a small cult and followers, got killed by someone or the goverment, why would the stories develop and grow so much?

How did it get so big?
He was practically invisible to the surrounding historians etc

I just can't understand how it became one of the largest religions in the world?

Any rational explanations why it turned out the way it did?

Right place, right time. One could say much the same of Mohammed.

Of course, there's more to it than that. Christianity and Islam are prosyletizing religions, most religions are regional and don't give brownie points for most infidels converted. Religions are in competition for your worship dollar, and the ones who work the hardest at recruiting get to be the biggest.
Reply
#28
RE: If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?
(January 28, 2014 at 4:59 pm)1tasolo Wrote: If we have a starting point that Jesus was just a man, had a small cult and followers, got killed by someone or the goverment, why would the stories develop and grow so much?

How did it get so big?
He was practically invisible to the surrounding historians etc

I just can't understand how it became one of the largest religions in the world?

Any rational explanations why it turned out the way it did?

MY BOLDING (above)
ADAPTABILITY.........belly up to the christian "fixins bar".

If you don't see what you need............just wait.................theres new stuff coming out from the back all the time.


.
[Image: tumblr_mliut3rXE01soz1kco1_500.jpg]

The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain't so.
-- Mark Twain

.

Reply
#29
RE: If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?
(January 28, 2014 at 5:07 pm)Minimalist Wrote:
Quote:I just can't understand how it became one of the largest religions in the world?


Meet Constantine.

[Image: 10_01.jpg]

Sleazebag politician and murdering thug. He made two serious mistakes.

One was demolishing the Roman military machine which had kept the empire for 3 centuries and the other was legitimizing a bunch of nutty old fucks with a silly superstition and thinking he could use them to "unify" the empire.

In fairness to Constantine:

1. The roman military machine that had built the empire had already more or less been subsumed by less professional forces of the civil war 50 years before Constantine, and same military force which then saw through the reign of Constantine proved adequate for the defense of the empire until battle of Adrianople almost 50 years after his death.

2. It has to be admitted a whole lot of other nutty fucks and silly superstitions had already been regarded as legitimate in the empire for a long time. Hard to blame Constantine for thinking one more can't hurt.
Reply
#30
RE: If Jesus was just a man, why all the stories?
If widespread popularity and renown long after death are they key, then it seems that the second coming was Babe Ruth.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."

-Stephen Jay Gould
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
Rainbow Why I believe in Jesus Christ Ai Somoto 20 2692 June 30, 2021 at 4:25 pm
Last Post: Nay_Sayer
  Why did Jesus suffer for sinners and not victims zwanzig 177 17905 June 9, 2021 at 11:14 am
Last Post: John 6IX Breezy
  There will be fewer "cousin" stories in the future, I think. Gawdzilla Sama 0 495 December 15, 2020 at 10:52 am
Last Post: Gawdzilla Sama
  Why is Jesus in third place when he deserves first? Greatest I am 25 4526 September 22, 2020 at 10:14 pm
Last Post: GrandizerII
  Saints With The Best Stories BrianSoddingBoru4 18 1784 November 15, 2019 at 4:48 pm
Last Post: BrianSoddingBoru4
  The Jesus story has details that is most definitely made up i just realized!!! android17ak47 126 8944 October 12, 2019 at 2:47 pm
Last Post: Abaddon_ire
  Why did the Jews lie about Jesus? Fake Messiah 65 5523 March 28, 2019 at 5:32 pm
Last Post: Aliza
  Just Look at all Those Fulfilled Prophecies! YahwehIsTheWay 37 5558 December 6, 2018 at 2:14 pm
Last Post: Gawdzilla Sama
  Why don't we have people named Jesus? Alexmahone 28 5309 April 5, 2018 at 8:17 pm
Last Post: Jenny A
  Jesus as Lord - why is this appealing to so many? KevinM1 307 28605 February 14, 2018 at 9:07 pm
Last Post: polymath257



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)