JESUS <3

[Kaninchen]

Some NT passages do have echoes of the kind of arguments that Pharisees of the time would have with one another and Jesus’ arguments about the ‘Law’ weren’t exactly extraordinary. 
 
So, yes, I think there was very probably an itinerant preacher ‘Yeshua’ (a very common name, bit like saying there’s a preacher called ‘Dave’) but quite how much of the original remains in Jesus™ would be difficult to say.

[ignoramus]

Rob, to further my point.
Let's discuss Gandalf, the great wizard from LOTR and the Hobbit.

We don't know him as anything other than what we've read and what he can do...
It's his given abilities that we've even heard of him in the first place. Tolkien wouldn't have invented a mage who can't do magic ...no point.

Isn't it the same with Jesus.
The "only" reason we know him today is because of his special "XMEN" abilities....
The normal Jesus, the carpenter, was invented to humanise the superhero so readers can relate to him...

So basically, unless you want to believe that there was a "mutant" called Jesus, then don't waste your time, trying to learn about the fictionalised normal "Oh my back hurts!" person...

[robvalue]

Yes, very well put

I study it only because it is interesting, not because it's of any consequence.

It would be different if I had been indoctrinated into Christianity. In that case, given what I've found out from research, it would blow my mind and most likely my "faith". It would be a turning point in my life, I expect. To find out just how terrible the evidence was would be shocking. But as a lifelong atheist, it's simply amusing.

[Longhorn]

Honestly, who gives a shit?

I'll give you a Jesus that existed, performed miracles, was crucified AND rose from the dead and that still doesn't prove any god, let alone some fucker named Yahweh.

[Minimalist]

I'm not convinced that he was an actual person.

Also, the propagation of and population of cults is not anything particularly difficult or surprising.

The point is that a real person is not necessary for a cult to arise. The jesus freaks would be the first to scream bloody murder if someone suggested there was a historical Apollo or Adonis and they would be right. Those gods are just as much bullshit as Jesus. But xtians are never far from special pleading. Their god boy is always different.

[ignoramus]

Honestly, who gives a shit?

I'll give you a Jesus that existed, performed miracles, was crucified AND rose from the dead and that still doesn't prove any god, let alone some fucker named Yahweh.

Bet you can't!

[Anomalocaris]

Any date is someone's supposed date of birth.

Actually, respectable people say BCE, before common era.

I actually prefer A.D. & B.C.  rather than the asinine "common era".  What makes it "common"?  If this is the "common era" what was it before, the "uncommon era", the "pitiful era", or the "rare era"?

what Christians call 1AD happen to have become the shared origin point of the year count of the calendar systems in common use in the majority of the world, even those parts of the world which keep a different traditional calendar for some uses.  So what's wrong with calling the era beginning with the origin of the shared year count common era?  2015 is certain the year of no lord of mine, it is but the 2015 th year in the most commonly used year count. the Only thing significant that 44 BC is truly 44 years before the shared origin of the commonly used calendar year count, so it is 44 years before the common era.

Uncommon era might be the era starting with the origin point of the Japanese traditional year count. It is only used in Japan, and even there it shares spot light with the common era, so comparatively it is rare.

The pitiful era might be era starting with the birth date of some tin pot central Asian dictator, it is pitiful because it would fall out of use the moment the dictator dies.

[Longhorn]

Honestly, who gives a shit?

I'll give you a Jesus that existed, performed miracles, was crucified AND rose from the dead and that still doesn't prove any god, let alone some fucker named Yahweh.

Bet you can't!

Oh but you see, I've got this one book......

[ignoramus]

I bet it's got nice big colour pictures in it!

[pocaracas]

Worrrrrrd to the heathens!!  

So, do you think Jesus was a real person? I'm not asking if you think Jesus was divine, or if He performed miracles, or if He was crucified, died, and came back.

I'm simply asking if you think there was a man 2000ish years ago named Jesus who brought forth these new "ideas" that we now call Christianity.

As has been shown, the ideas were far from new - peace and harmony have always been the motto of the common folk; it's the leaders that keep wanting to have power.

If there was a person calling for peace and harmony in a province controlled by a foreign empire, with soldiers of that empire enforcing the empire's law, while telling the people that the established religious leadership is corrupt? most certainly, there have been quite a few such persons.
If one of them was called Jesus, or the hebrew equivalent name?... why not? even if no one by that name did those things, let's give him that name.

The dead sea scrolls speak of such a man, although they don't name him... these scrolls have been dated to early-to-mid 1st century BCE (or BC, if you prefer), so well before the commonly held birth of the Jesus guy... Just one more pebble of info telling you, at least, that such "ideas" were already being preached decades prior to the alleged life of the Jesus character.

---

I have another question, since it seems the majority of you don't think Jesus was any type of real person, does it bother you that much of the world uses His (supposed) birth to tell time?

I'm talking about the fact that we're in the year 2015... and anything before that is referred to as Before Christ? (BC)

The start of the numbering of the years is as arbitrary as they come... I'm fine with BC/AD (although, this makes little sense in english, what does AD mean?! shouldn't it be AC?), I'm fine with BCE/CE, I'm fine with Before Transistor/After Transistor (BT/AT), I'm fine with Before Poca/After Poca (BP/AP... I really like the sound of this one... I wonder why?)