Lately I’ve heard people attacking the veracity of the fairy tale book with statements like “Jesus wasn’t real” or it was a psy op operation by the Romans that got out of control. And I hate talking about reddit but it’s basically the atheism mods policy over there that Jesus wasn’t real.
I usually rely on the Wikipedia as my litmus test through life, which shouldn’t work in theory but is great in practice:
Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus
Virtually all scholars agree that a Jewish man called Jesus of Nazareth did exist in Palestine in the 1st century CE. The contrary perspective, that Jesus was mythical, is regarded as a fringe theory.
Edit: My suggestion to any who would like to see my opinion changed (see above quote) is to get on the Wikipedia and work towards changing the page. My upvote goes to Flying Squid for reminding us “does not matter at all because that’s not who Christians worship”
Edit 2: practicality changed to practice
Is easier to reject all aspects of the Bible as fairy tale than to accept that some parts are based in reality. It’s like reading historical fiction or films that are “based on a true story” but took a lot of dramatic liberties, and then reject all elements as false. If I write a fan fiction about Sherlock Holmes investigating the Zodiac Killer, the fact that the events are fabricated and the character of Sherlock Holmes is fictional doesn’t mean that the Zodiac Killer didn’t exist.
There could very well have been a person, Yeshua of Nazareth, who was a mystic and traveled with disciples and was ultimately crucified as a blasphemer. That is not at all a far fetched set of facts for the timeframe. Nor is the fact that over decades of oral retelling, his story became embellished, tweaked for interest, and ultimately mythologized. Certainly, some events, details and “miracles” were fabricated. But that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a dude about whom these exaggerated stories were told. Of course it’s possible that there was never such a man at all. That seems less likely to me, but it could be. But to claim knowledge that that’s the case would be asinine.
I have no problem with the notion that the book has some historical accuracy and some embellishment (and some outright fabrication).
What I have a problem with is people insisting that everything in the book is real and they’ll kill you for sorting yourself into the wrong Hogwarts house.
Since they can’t play nice with their fan-fiction, I’d prefer to shut the whole site down.
(sorry devolved into too many metaphors there)
Yes, but that’s not the same as claiming knowledge of the non-existence of a person from 2000 years ago, or rejecting the premise that some real person could have been the basis for the surreal stories about them. By all means criticize the believers, reject the merit of the book, and hold the question of the reality of a human Jesus as irrelevant or pointless. Just don’t put forth a gnostic claim of his non-existence when you cannot know that for a fact.
@kryptonianCodeMonkey
Honestly, for me it comes down to “who cares if he existed?”
In 1000 years, if people only ever tell stories about me that are largely (or entirely) made up, who cares if I actually existed?
As I said, that’s fine. I also agree that the existence or non-existence of a human that is the basis for the Jesus figure is irrelevant. What’s a problem is when people claim knowledge that they don’t have. It’s perfectly acceptable to not hold a belief without asserting to know that the belief is untrue. I can not believe that Jesus was a real person without asserting that he wasn’t.
I hope they do make up stories about me.
I’m boring. myths would be more entertaining.