The Historicity of Jesus

[BrianC]

I remember someone posting in here once that no secular sources could really confirm Jesus' existence, and that it was all made up. I came across this well-laid-out argument that addresses the skeptics best questions. The website makes some excellent points when it cites several secular sources. It's not enough to say that we have no extra-biblical, secular sources that were eye-witnesses to Jesus' existence, because we have historical secular sources not long after Christ documenting recorded events for which we no longer have the historical documents. On top of that, we have very prolific writers near the time of Christ trying to prove he was a magician instead of God. lol And some indicate that they were sources off the Jews, not Christians, which is a common argument. Check it out and see if it doesn't give sound arguments for all of the major points.

http://thedevineevidence.com/jesus_history.html

Personally, it doesn't really matter to me. But it's nice to correct inaccurate information.

[svauto-erotic855]

Really; no one gives a fuck.

[The King]

Really; no one gives a fuck.

You obviously gave enough of a fuck to craft a reply.

[YALE]

Those are the same old non-sources that are always trotted out, and I'd be surprised if you hadn't posted them before, Brian. Either way, they've been posted on both this board and the old one.

[Broncojohnny]

Not this asshole again.

[slow99]

What was it, the asthma demon?

[lowthreeohz]

What was it, the asthma demon?

haha yup! but then i believe he came back with a changed perspective and offered pages of 'insight' on his awakening.

[svauto-erotic855]

You obviously gave enough of a fuck to craft a reply.

I give a fuck about someone bring up this drivel; not a fuck is given about the validity of the topic.

[Forever_frost]

I like pie

[Roscoe]

God is a bitch.

[The King]

I give a fuck about someone bring up this drivel; not a fuck is given about the validity of the topic.

It's a public forum, deal with it. Your opinion of what constitutes drivel is just that...drivel.

[BrianC]

This isn't the same stuff that's been posted here before. And I never posted anything on this topic. I did discuss it briefly once when someone brought it up. They said Jesus hadn't been witnesses firsthand by anyone outside of the writer's of the Gospels, so his existence couldn't be proved. That's a pretty decent argument. But this article actually does a great job of addressing that argument point by point, so I figured I'd post it up.

There are highly respected Roman historians cited in the article as recording historical events about Jesus being crucified and the uproar he caused in Jerusalem. Other historians looked up to at least one of the historians cited.

I really couldn't care less about the argument of whether he existed or not. And I'm not arguing that. I'm only posting this because some people here said the historical writings prove nothing. I just wanted to give some better information from a well-studied scholar on the subject.

I'm not Christian--I'm not anything. Sure, I believe there's a God, but that's about as far as I go. Religions are a convention people make up in their minds and congregate over. In other words, religions don't actually exist. They're ideas. But they have very little use. Atheists see through them, and that's great. Other people like me see through them and move past them, but don't drop the belief in God when they do so. If the Garden of Eden was real or a metaphor, the point is that there was no religion in the beginning--only relationship. Once shame came in, then man created religion (beliefs & actions) to suppress his shame. The only people Jesus spoke out against while he was alive were the religious. Otherwise, he hung out with the non-religious--the people who'd warded off religion and were fine with being sinners. He ate with them, which in that culture meant he accepted them just as they were. The religious would never eat with those people, ever, because of that. Jesus set out to destroy religion and get people into relationship with God, just like the Garden. Whether any of it's true or not isn't important to me. I'm here, now, in this century, and the past is the past. This article was just for anyone who might be interested in legitimately checking it out for informational purposes. I'm not going to argue any of it with anyone. I'm just sharing info.

[The King]

Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God.

[BoostedD1]

Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God.

Exactly.


This is key.

[jdgregory84]

Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God.

How can one read the bible, see how it values women, and think that it's the word of God and not men? Women created sin, women can be stoned to death...publicly...if there is a divorce, and if your first child is a female you can sell her into slavery. Is that truly the word of God?