I don't understand why some think he never existed. Regardless if you are a Christian or not, he's a historical figure. It's like saying Caesar or Hannibal never existed. I think people are just trying too hard to be negative about religion that they ignore common sense.
I'm not so knowledgeable about whether or not Jesus actually existed so I'll just ask the questions........ What proof do you have that he existed? Where is mentioned historically outside the Bible/Religious texts
Writings from non-Christian historians who lived within the Roman Emprire: "Nero fastened the guilt . . . on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of . . . Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome. . . ." - Tacitus "About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he . . . wrought surprising feats. . . . He was the Christ. When Pilate . . .condemned him to be crucified, those who had . . . come to love him did not give up their affection for him." - Josephus It's only because Jesus is associated with a mainstream religion that people want to deny his existence. It's comical.
I believed that he existed, perhaps he even was helpful to society. But he definitely didn't perform any miracles .
It's not important whether he 'existed' or not. What matters is how you feel about the idea of him, and what he represents to you.
A big thing about beliefs is respecting other people's beliefs. That is one thing you have no power to change: another's views on religion.
How about you guys look at it like this, god sends his messengers through all walks of life. Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha etc they were the herders of the sheep (us). But to be more specific, stories change shapes with the person telling them. The bible began being written about 40-50 years after Jesus died, so some stories are changed. It's just human nature to forget the details sometimes. And notice how the same stories are told all differently through the disciples, it's a perfect example.
For a moment let us pretend that there is a God as depicted in the Bible. The scriptures state that God is all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere at once. It is really hard to wrap your head around something that is that powerful. However, if God is all those things - we are not. The Bible even states that there is no way we can ever be perfect or good enough to be worthy of Gods attention. So, the Bible states that this God loves us anyway, that we are his children. OK, this is a fantastic concept! This powerful being that created everything looks upon us as his children! WOW! How do believers in this amazing God react to this fantastic concept? By piling restriction upon restriction on the "faithful." You have to go to church, you must read the Bible, you must pray, you should tithe.Yes, all of this along with a list of do's and don'ts. Utter, complete, nonsense. Really this incredibly powerful being seems somewhat like a prude to me then. How can something on someone that we would call God be LESS tolerant and LESS forgiving than me? I have no idea if their is a soul, or if there is a spirit realm, a God, or whatever. None of it can be proven by any widely accepted method. Given this fact, I tip my hat to the possibility of something beyond the physical, but lack the means to acquire a definitive answer to the reality of such.
If you believe in "God" you don't believe in free will. It was a fun problem to work out with my metaphysics professor, but it's all logically sound. Basically if you believe in god you shouldn't worry about much, your life exists on a train track that's already been planned and everything you do is already in the books long before you do it. Back on track though. Yeah, Jesus was probably real. I bet he was a rad dude too, like some leboski shit. Sucks his name is attached to all this nonsense today but I doubt he'd care anyway. As long as the message got through...
Unless you believe that god has given you the means to experience free will, and only the 'way points' are sort of mapped out, which you have already chosen (still free will) even if you no longer remember doing so, so it might feel like you have no free will until you realise you have nothing but it.
the real question is, why does it matter? What is it about religious people that makes them question why people dont care about their religion or religious figures? If jesus existed, thats just great for him, but hes dead. And has been for a long, long fucking time lol BUT then let me wager you this question... not op, but Christians in general... if your "proof" jesus existed is in writings, how do you deny dinosaurs existed and believe the earth is only 6 thousand years old when the evidence against that is solid, tangible, and isnt written by people thousands of years ago riddle me that
well the faith says god created the earth 6 thousand years ago... Im aware lots ofchristians are hardly "faithful", but it was for the point lol.
The reason the historical nature of Jesus is in question is because there is very little evidence that he was in fact a real person. There is certainly much less evidence than the other historical figures that you mentioned. Those people you quote weren't alive when Jesus supposedly lived so if the quotes were legitimate they would only be hearsay. The problem is both of those passages are almost certainly forgeries. Check out these sites for more info: Argument # 6: The Historicity of Jesus Argument. Debunking the historical Jesus by Dan Barker
There have been reports of dozens of Jesus-like savior figures in that time period. IMO there really never was one Jesus. It's just kind of a mush of a bunch of false-messiahs.
Thanks for the info and the links. I realized I had never really looked very deeply into the question if Jesus was real or not.
No problem, most people haven't done any real inquiries into whether or not Jesus existed so they just assume, as I did for a while despite always being a non-believer, that he was real without any real evidence to support that assertion.
Interestin question. I believe he was born of a virgin birth and changed water into wine and raised lazurus from the dead and ressurected himself. After all that, we are still going to hell because he was a magician. I want to stand next to Jesus on his day of ascension on the mount of Olives. I want him to hold my hand and take me with him into heaven and show me streets of gold and mansions. Then I will come back to Earth and be the most on fire born again christian the world has ever known.