JESUS <3

[Longhorn]

(nvm)

[Nope]

I haven't read everyone's post yet. Sorry.

My answer is I don't know but I don't think that it matters if a man named Yeshua existed. My guess is that he is a combination of several traveling preachers alive during that time. Much of what he taught was already a part of Jewish believes so he taught nothing new. Unlike many Protestants, the Jews were not 'bible only' kind of people. They had oral traditions that they didn't write down until later but that they still used to interpret their holy books. When you read the Old Testament, you aren't getting the full image of Jewish morals or teachings.

I think that one of the likely inspirations for Jesus is the Jewish sage, Hillel. Some of his teaching sounds very similar to Jesus except that Hillel would have started teaching before the Christian savior was an adult.

[paulpablo]

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.

I don't actually think it is special pleading to believe that Jesus was more likely to be a real person more than Apollo or Adonis for the reasons I previously mentioned.
I actually said in my last post Jesus wasn't flying through the air killing dragons in the bible, he was doing easily faked magic tricks and using common cult leader rhetoric that is more usual in the behaviour of real cult leaders than it is mythological heroes.

Apollo is a perfect example, he killed a dragon when he was four, he made love to nymphs.  He wasn't going around doing magic tricks trying to get people to join him, he was acquiring bow and arrows from other gods, infecting them with the plague and using them in war.

The way I see it is that the bible is Jesus's greatest promotional material, and even in that he doesn't strike me as an impressive supernatural figure, he just seems like a Charles Manson, Jim Jones type of figure, religious gurus in India are basically doing now what Jesus probably did 2000 years ago, and anything that does sound impressive you can just put it down to 2000 years worth of exaggeration building up.

[Mudhammam]

New ideas? No. But I do think there was certainly a Galilean named Jesus who formed an eclectic cult primarily combining the basic ideas of Judaism, Cynicism, and Stoicism which later became known as Christianity.

[Catholic_Lady]

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.

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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?)

It's latin. Stands for "Anno Domini", which translates to "Year of Our Lord."

[pocaracas]

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.

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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?)

It's latin. Stands for "Anno Domini", which translates to "Year of Our Lord."

yeah... but ... it's stupid... and it seems to be in use in most languages, except in portuguese!

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Domini


A.C. - Antes de Cristo (before christ) [oh yeah, this one messes us up when reading stuff in english 'A' is for After, right?)
A.D. - Anno Domini (life of christ)
D.C. - Depois de cristo (after christ)

Perfect! Makes so much more sense.

[Minimalist]

Apollo is a perfect example, he killed a dragon when he was four, he made love to nymphs.

And Davy Crockett killed a bear when he was 3.  Standard fare for myth shit.

[Catholic_Lady]

Thanks for everyone's responses!

Do you guys believe that Mohammad, Cleopatra, Aristotle were real people?

[robvalue]

I'm not too up on those, but I have heard a lot about the M man (fake jesus) quite possibly not being real.

[Napoléon]

Do you guys believe that Mohammad, Cleopatra, Aristotle were real people?

Well they have significantly more evidence for their existence than Jebus, so yes. Minus Muhammad.