3 ms·

Why? What evidence is there?

Cthulhu_ 10y ago
I wonder if it actually matters if he was real or not, or whether he did what the major religions claim he did. What matters is that billions of people believe it, and he's an example to billions of people, giving them a moral example to strive towards. You know, like superheroes in the US. They don't exist (which is factually verifiable still), but people are fans of them. What if in 2000 years people forget or lose the origins but the story of e.g. Star Wars is passed on through the ages? It's not proven to be real, but it provides a moral example, a distinction of good vs evil, and a code to live by.
- qbrass 10y ago
  Now repeat the history of religious wars except now you know everyone's killing each other over movie preferences.
azernik 10y ago
Historical Jesus research is an interesting and deep subject. If you're interested, I'd recommend this lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_dOhg-Fpu0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_dOhg-Fpu0 Short version of the evidence is these two (rather thin) things: 1. The Biblical texts include many theologically inconvenient details. A purely fictional character would just not have been written with them. 2. A near-contemporary mention, before the rise of Christianity, in a source (Josephus) without an agenda in promoting Jesus's story. (This is complicated by the fact that later Christian redactors added in extra references with more theologically convenient bits.) This looks quite thin, but note that in this part of history sources are always hard to find - there are Roman emperors that we have much more tenuous direct evidence for! But it does mean that we can't really say much about this figure. EDIT: On re-viewing - note Dr. Martin's interesting philosophical cartwheels trying to not look (to himself even) like he's going against articles of Christian faith. EDIT 2: For the interested - skip to 27:00 after he's done hemming and hawing about theology vs. history and gets to actual information.

I wonder if it actually matters if he was real or not, or whether he did what the major religions claim he did. What matters is that billions of people believe it, and he's an example to billions of people, giving them a moral example to strive towards. You know, like superheroes in the US. They don't exist (which is factually verifiable still), but people are fans of them. What if in 2000 years people forget or lose the origins but the story of e.g. Star Wars is passed on through the ages? It's not proven to be real, but it provides a moral example, a distinction of good vs evil, and a code to live by.

qbrass 10y ago
Now repeat the history of religious wars except now you know everyone's killing each other over movie preferences.

azernik 10y ago

Historical Jesus research is an interesting and deep subject. If you're interested, I'd recommend this lecture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_dOhg-Fpu0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_dOhg-Fpu0 Short version of the evidence is these two (rather thin) things: 1. The Biblical texts include many theologically inconvenient details. A purely fictional character would just not have been written with them. 2. A near-contemporary mention, before the rise of Christianity, in a source (Josephus) without an agenda in promoting Jesus's story. (This is complicated by the fact that later Christian redactors added in extra references with more theologically convenient bits.) This looks quite thin, but note that in this part of history sources are always hard to find - there are Roman emperors that we have much more tenuous direct evidence for! But it does mean that we can't really say much about this figure. EDIT: On re-viewing - note Dr. Martin's interesting philosophical cartwheels trying to not look (to himself even) like he's going against articles of Christian faith. EDIT 2: For the interested - skip to 27:00 after he's done hemming and hawing about theology vs. history and gets to actual information.