Did Jesus Exist?

If Jesus never existed, Christianity becomes a mere sentiment.

If you want a label to mean something definite, of course it's going to be "exclusive." If you're a Democrat, that means you think the Republicans are wrong on things that are contrary to the Democrats. That's exclusive.If we get rid of the distinctions, Christianity could mean most anything. We could say it means being a nice person. In that sense, I could be called a Christian. I'm a nice person. {Your a nice off-topic person. People, don't reply to this message. - Adminnemooseus}This message has been edited by Adminnemooseus, 01-06-2006 11:03 AM

In that case, I say yes. Someone corresponding to Jesus Christ existed and was executed. I find it hard to believe that all those details were just made up. I suspect he was a very charismatic individual but not famous outside of his province.

Possible. I know.Also, the New Testament strikes me as a literary oddity. If you take out the miracles, it reads like a modern realistic novel about a man from the lower classes. But they didn't write that sort of thing in those days. They wrote epics about Kings and super-hero soldiers and mesmerizing maidens.The style of the NT is different (to me) than the style of the OT. The difference is the specificity of the details.But I'm far from an expert on this matter.

I'll check it out. I was going to last night but sleepiness interfered.

That may be, but that is not what Christianity is supposed to be about, traditionally speaking. It's supposed to be about the Fall and the Passion.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 01-07-2006 01:34 PM

There are some differences. I mentioned earlier what seems to me the literary oddity of the New Testament. But if we compare it to a modern fantasy, we have one version of Lord of the Rings, all of it written by one person. We have various versions of the life of Jesus which suggests that one person didn't make it up. Also, the NT has another stylistic feature which I think would be hard to create fictitiously: the intelligence of Jesus, which is obvious to anyone who reads it. Whoever made it up would also have to be that intelligent.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 01-07-2006 01:48 PM

I don't know what you are talking about. I certainly don't think humans are special. I'm a misanthrope.

Who created it?

My own view is that an extraordinary man who corresponds to Jesus lived during this period. What happens in such cases is that legends get built up about him. We've seen this with a lot of historical figures (to take a trivial example, Davy Crockett). During this time, to proclaim someone a god was not unusual. It happened with kings regularly. It is unusual for a person of the lower class to be proclaimed a god, however. But obviously, Jesus was special.However, he was not famous except in his own area--at first. Thus the lack of news items.

Common sense.

Mostly the way it works is, the character is said to be something special, but there is no real proof in the text.

Faith, attacking a dead person is not ad hominen. They are not in this debate. They are not members of evcforum.

No real proof. It may have been made up. But the way he saw through all those artificial rules seemed intelligent to me.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would agree that the following is ad hominem: