Intelligent Atheists: Who/What Was Jesus?

[Edwardo Piet]

[ApeNotKillApe]

Whether Jesus was a real person or not, it's clear that they deliberately padded his resume with links to almost every religion known to man, including Egyptian references, Classical ones, and quite possibly Asian ones as well.

I believe that's what they call "brand synergy".

[Minimalist]

My views are shaped entire from scholarship.

Bullshit.  You cherry pick what you want to hear and anyone who doesn't tell you what you want to hear you dismiss as a quack.

That's fine.... you've chosen to remain a dumbass.  Be happy with your decision.

[Aractus]

Show.me.the.English.literature.scholars.that.agree.that.the.authorship.of.Shakespeare's.plays.is.questionable.

You made the claim, so provide the evidence.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

[Aractus]

From wikipedia:

"Despite the scholarly consensus,[16] a relatively small[17] but highly visible and diverse assortment of supporters, including prominent public figures,[18] have questioned the conventional attribution."

Again, please provide evidence that there isn't a consensus and that there are serious & respected English literature scholars who say the question of authorship is not certain. And not you Wyrd, Min. He's the one who comes up with claims against current scholarly opinion and then refuses to provide evidence.

[jcvamp]

I don't believe that Jesus existed. There is no evidence for his existence that I know of outside of the Bible. I know of forgeries in the writings of Josephus, but no writing about from contemporary authors. Even the Gospels were written at least a century after he was supposed to have lived.

The earlier scriptures that talk about Jesus don't talk about him as a man, but as a spiritual being. It's only the later ones that turn this spiritual being into a mortal man. There are also attempts in Matthew to equate Jesus with the prophesied Immanuel from Isaiah 7 and 8. This attempt includes the preposterous story of the Romans asking everyone to return to their place of birth to do a census (rather than just having them stay put and simply asking them 'Where were you born?'), to place Jesus's birth in Bethlehem. The actual prophecy said that Immanuel would be born into the house of Bethlehem, referring to a family, and was supposed to have come to pass within the lifetime of Isaiah, not centuries later.

The lack of reliable evidence leads me to believe that he never existed.

[Minimalist]

[Natachan]

I tend to think that Jesus is a compilation of a bunch of different people. There are other Jewish figures at the time whose stories kinda mirror the Jesus myth in parts, but no contemporary mention of this particular single individual.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

Paul created the Jesus character as a means to sell his religion of resurrection. The dummy thought that people could come back from the dead. It didn't work for him when he bit the dust.