If you lived in Jesus' day, how would you of responded?

[Manowar]

I would like to see a real miracle,that would not be easy to fake, I would ask jesus to grow new limbs on an amputee right in front of me or walk on water. If he did that I could rent him out for kid's birthday parties and make a killing.

manowar

[FreeTony]

Not that you believe, but let's just say that you lived and witness Jesus as He is described in Scripture. Out of curiosity, you listened to Him speak, you saw him heal, you witnessed the miracles, etc. How would you of reacted?

Written it down and recorded it.

[Bob Kelso]

Not that you believe, but let's just say that you lived and witness Jesus as He is described in Scripture. Out of curiosity, you listened to Him speak, you saw him heal, you witnessed the miracles, etc. How would you of reacted?

I would have asked him to join me on my helter skelter mission to rescue the hobbits from Isengard.

Aw fuck, sorry, sorry everyone! Got my fantasy storylines mixed up again. My bad.

[ThePinsir]

Report him to the Pharisees, lobby for his crucifixion, laugh at people who say he came back.

[Tonus]

Not that you believe, but let's just say that you lived and witness Jesus as He is described in Scripture. Out of curiosity, you listened to Him speak, you saw him heal, you witnessed the miracles, etc. How would you of reacted?

That's a bit of a broad question, and without context it's difficult to answer with any sincerity. Who would I be if I lived at that time? Presumably I am another person and not the "me" that exists now, with the knowledge and experiences I have. Would I have witnessed all of these miracles, or just heard about them as the gossip spread and the story inevitably changed? Maybe a wandering preacher helped a man to his feet when he fell and bruised a leg, and the story soon became that he healed the man's broken leg? Or that the man fell and died and was resurrected?

Had I been there to hear his sermons and he really spoke in a way that separated him from other men, it's very possible that it would be enough to get me to follow, assuming that I was brought up to be superstitious and religious and credulous. If I'd seen him feed a huge crowd from a plate of fish and bread, and then recover a dozen baskets of leftovers, I would consider that a bona-fide miracle... and ask him to stay with us because at the time getting food to eat was a laborious and almost daily effort.

Had I seen him heal a crippled or paralytic person, or restore sight to a man I knew was blind, I'd have accepted his claims to godhood, assuming I did not also harbor beliefs that some other god was the real god and that this powerful man was really a demon seeking to lead others astray. After all, the real god did great things as well, and I had plenty of anecdotes provided by people who knew people who knew people who SAW IT. I might just believe that this man was an agent of evil, sent to lead people away from the real god.

...

The issue with such a question is that it either requires that we wipe out ~2,000 years of knowledge and understanding and my own 45 years of life experience and questions and answers. Or it requires that we inject the modern me into a completely alien situation and ask that I make a decision on whether this guy is god, when the whole time I'm thinking "HOLY SHIT WE DEVELOPED TIME TRAVEL?????" I can only judge things today, as I am and with what I know and have learned. And the me of today finds the Jesus story lacking.

[CapnAwesome]

Not that you believe, but let's just say that you lived and witness Jesus as He is described in Scripture. Out of curiosity, you listened to Him speak, you saw him heal, you witnessed the miracles, etc. How would you of reacted?

Well if we lived in that time, at the very best only we would have listened to him speak. Certainly no miracles occurred in 1st century Rome. I put no more credence into those miracles than I do into the miracles claimed by other religions. You see a distinct decline in miracles occurring in history with the rise of science and rational thinking.

[Fromper]

Not that you believe, but let's just say that you lived and witness Jesus as He is described in Scripture. Out of curiosity, you listened to Him speak, you saw him heal, you witnessed the miracles, etc. How would you of reacted?

First, it would be interesting to see just exactly what there was to see. Maybe you'd be disappointed.

Secondly, the same hypothetical could be applied to any religion's cast of characters. If you had been there to witness Thor battle the ice giants, would you still be so sure Jesus/God was the only act in town?

Yup. I can't believe so many atheists here are playing this guy's game by actually answering the loaded question. He combined three hypothetical fantasy scenarios into one and tried to pretend it was only one. He acts like "if you lived in that time" was the only hypothetical scenario, and the whole bit about healing and miracles was assumed to be true. It's not.

If I lived back then, I still wouldn't have witnessed any healing or miracles, because there were none. I would have seen a Jewish guy preaching and probably would have disregarded him, because I never took religion all that seriously even when I was Jewish.

As CapnAwesome pointed out, there's been a definite decline in claims of miracles as the understanding of science has advanced. People are better at thinking rationally and not believing any charlatan with a fake miracle to perform. Not that I think Jesus was a charlatan who pretended to perform miracles. Even if he did exist (still an open question in my mind, but I tend to accept that assumption for the sake of avoiding a debate about a subject I don't know or really care much about), it's a pretty safe bet that he wasn't going around claiming to be performing miracles. All that stuff was written into the books that became the Bible 30+ years later. Those writers would seem to be the ones who made up the claims about miracles, not Jesus himself.

[Revelation777]

Not that you believe, but let's just say that you lived and witness Jesus as He is described in Scripture. Out of curiosity, you listened to Him speak, you saw him heal, you witnessed the miracles, etc. How would you of reacted?

In my lifetime I've learned only liars claim to supernaturally heal, perform miracles and so on. So I'd assume jesus was lying.

If on the other hand jesus performed miracles like healing me. sorting out my knee and shoulder aches I get then yeh I'd probably follow Jesus at least for a bit and listen to what he has to say.
I think I'd at least owe him that.

I admire your honesty and would love to see you follow Him and how you would of responded from that point on

[truthBtold]

I just wanna know .. if jesus were to give someone a high five... will his hands whistle??

[FreeTony]

Yup. I can't believe so many atheists here are playing this guy's game by actually answering the loaded question.

Many christians love a loaded question, even more so if it shift the burden of proof. These sorts of questions would never be asked by someone genuinely interested in finding out the truth.
Even better is a question that makes little sense, so is essentially impossible to answer. They can then claim victory when you are unable to answer or even understand what they are going on about.