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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. Jesus is not the first story of the son of a god, born on Dec 25th, of a virgin, and resurrected in the spring. Understanding these aspects of religious history, how is it possible to truly believe one story and not another?  Do those of you who believe have any knowledge of religious history or do you prefer to blind yourself to these realities?[/quote]

Of course. I'd guesstimate that 95% of Christians in the US are aware that December 25th is not Jesus' true birthdate. He probably wasn't born in 0 AD, either, but more like 3AD or 4AD.

Nobody is "blind" to this. Nobody is pretending that we actually know Jesus' true birthdate.

Reasonable people understand that lots of facts are lost to time, and Jesus' birthday is one of them. To celebrate his birth, somebody had to pick a day, and they picked December 25, probably because it coincided with other festivals. As good a day as any other.

The big reveal about 12/25 isn't going to shatter anybody's faith, because we all know it already. If you were Christian, you'd understand that this is a big ho-hum, because the magical part isn't the arbitrary 12/25 date, it's the birth itself. [/quote]

and faithful christians also don't find it odd that several other ancient gods were born on the that day, and/or had virgin mothers and died and rose again.   It doesn't occur to them (and they are certainly not taught) that Jesus as son of god is simply an updated myth.  People with faith understand these things.[/quote]

You need to read up on the history of early Christianity.  The Christians sought converts by appropriating other traditions, and this is well known to modern Christians.  The fact that they did so does not disprove who Jesus is nor does it disprove the existence of God.  What it proves is that the early Christians were very shrewd strategists when it came to recruiting converts.  Again, this has nothing to do with theology.  [/quote]

It proves that they had deceitful intents and were willing to fudge details in order to get what they wanted. [/quote]
And just what was this that the early Christians wanted to get and use "deceitful intents" to do so? If you read the New Testament starting at Acts and through the Epistles, there is no mention of using belief in Christ for material gain, or to lord anything over anyone. Indeed, 10 of the original apostles, and Paul, too, all were martyred for preaching Christ as the Son of God. And what was the message? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins, love your enemies, esteem others more worthy than yourself, share what you have, take care of the less fortunate, watch after widows and orphans. And for preaching this, they were persecuted and killed. Wow, that's some scam they had going on.[/quote]

Those values were also taught in other religions and cultures no Jesus involved -- they are basic human values that don't require a god.

As for the apostles martyrdom -- those are stories without basis in fact. [/quote]
I beg to differ. They are basic human values precisely because there IS a God. Do animals act altruistically? No, they do not. Humans were created in the image of God and given a conscience and moral responsibility. And the sad fact is that most people do not treat their fellow humans in this way. Go to Wal-Mart on the day after Thanksgiving if you doubt this.[/quote]

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