Reply to What am I if I think Jesus was the best moral teacher ever but am indifferent re his divinity?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yes, there are no contemporaneous accounts of Jesus, who was after all a poor carpenter from a humble family. History in that era was, as we know, about emperors and heroes. Jesus' own followers were by and large illiterate. Until a few decades later when Jesus and his message became "important" enough for officials like Josephus and Pliny to write about.

I wonder that 12/25 10:21 wants to toss out all four gospels and Paul, which together show that Jesus' teachings and the movement around him were strong and vibrant just 2-3 decades (Paul and Mark) after his death. Sure, if you disregard the several major narrative documents that appeared a few decades after Jesus' death then you're forced to rely on accounts from 80-90AD and later, and th historical links become more tenuous. But simply tossing out the earlier sources seems disingenuous.

It's also odd that some of you are trying to claim that all religion is about "controlling the masses." Who exactly created this fundamentally anti-Roman, anti-Temple ideology with the purpose of "controlling the masses"?  If anything, more historians would say that Christianity developed in revolt against the Roman conquerors, instead of as a tool used by them. But then there's also the tricky question around how Jesus was also opposed to the logical alternative leaders, the Temple lawyers and priests.

So who, exactly, developed this supposed "controlling ideology"? And how did it suddently appear as a significant movement, seemingly out of nowhere, by 55 AD?[/quote]

There is evidence to support that Josephus' account was later inserted by Christians.  Similarly, Tacitus, scholars claim, simply reiterated what he heard from Christians.  There may also be confusion between Christus and Chrestus.

So you're picking and choosing small accounts, which are not necessarily accurate, to prove that Jesus existed.  Again, there are extant works of famous Greek playwrights that are studied to this day.  Yet there are only a few accounts of so-called Jesus who performed miracles.

Study your history, scholar.  The pageant plays were designed to bring these biblical stories to the masses.  It's called indoctrination, and it was in the form of entertainment.  Greek tragedies were didactic. If you pissed off the gods, you were doomed.  not much different from today, eh?

Look - this is your belief. I get it. Many people NEED to believe in something to get them through life.  But faith isn't based on facts.  It's a feeling.  So even if scholars explain to you the reasons behind certain beliefs, your faith will trump evidence.

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