The Time Problem With A Mythical Jesus

Examples of modern, instantaneously occurring myths:1. Roswell, 1955. From a downed weather balloon, we immediatley had a whole plethora of conspiracy theories about a covered up crashed alien spaceship and recovered alien bodies that persist until this day.2. Medjugorje, 1981. Six people claim they see the Virgin Mary on a hillside and claim they were able to touch her. Next day thousands came and claim to have seen a light, and healing claims have flourished. Now the place is a tourist attraction.3. Sai Baba. A present day "miracle" worker who has attracted a following of millions from within India and beyond, despite the fact that investigators have denounced him as nothing more than a sleight of hand charlatan.The myths surrounding the above modern events arose immediatley after the events. Despite the fact that we live in a modern age of scientific knowledge, and global communication, it has been largely impossible to comprehensively debunk these events and stop the spread of the myth arising from them. And of course we had information about these events flowing directly from their occurrance: not just hearsay accounts written down a whole generation after the events. How could we expect the Jewish church to debunk the growing Christian myth 2000 years ago, in a time of rampant superstition when the scientific method of testing and knowledge gathering was non-existent??And besides the Bible itself, which demonstrates a flourishing and growing Christ myth throughout the consecutive Gospels, it is critical to remember that absolutely nothing was recorded or written about Jesus from either within Christian or non-Christian sources throughout the actual lifetime of Jesus. For a man who performed miracle to thousands, this is simply bewildering.

Hello Willow!Long time no chat.Willow writes:

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What is your spin on the hundreds of missing planes and ships that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle ? (without a trace in clear weather)(proof for Atlantis ?)

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It's sensationalised mythical wobbly shit. For want of a better term. Jar dealt with it above.Allowing for inclement weather, I'd gladly sail through the Bermuda Triangle.

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The proof that a flying saucer crashed at Roswell is a no brainer, why do UFO's and aliens scare you

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They don't scare me. You forget who your talking to. I can't count how many times in my youth I have camped on remote mountain tops, in spooky forests trying to find or invoke alien contact (or any supernatural phenomena, for that matter).Notice how UFO sightings grew after the advent of aviation, peaked when aviation was inventing wierd experimental stuff and science fiction was a world wide craze, and had now faded into obscurity. Why is that?Sorry I didn't take your bait, Willow. I know what you're trying to do. You are trying to attribute non-Christian supernatural claims to your fictional Nemisis and Scapegoat, Satan. It is the way you guys deal with conflicting claims.Of course, to us sceptics, Christian claims are as wacky as the rest: for the same reasons.

Point taken. Sorry; I can be accused of following Willow off topic.My examples of rapidly arising myths:1. Roswell
2. Medjugorje
3. Sai Babastill stand.And to those we can add Willow's useful input of the Bermuda Triangle. If I'm correct, this myth originally arose after the 1945 disappearance of Flight 19: five American Avenger Bombers. In this case the myth took about 20 years or so to flourish with the publication of articles and books in the 1960's.To the above examples, it could be argued, any urban legend could be added.The Christian argument that there was not enough time for the Christ myth to arise before the Gospels were written has always been a no brainer.

Willow wrote:

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Can we add Francis Crick's space aliens to this list ?Previously, you assert the Gospels to be myths.Not even your precious Jesus Seminar believes this.Burton L. Mack asserts that the "Q"/source document is contained within the gospels. He simply discards every passage and text except the natural sayings of Jesus and declares these to be the "Q" document. ("Lost Gospel: Book of "Q", [1994])Seems you are out of touch with your own "scholarship".

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I have no idea what point you are trying to make.Personally, I really don't care whether the Gospels are myths in their entirity or based on real world events with mythical elements thrown in. While I find the arguments of Earl Doherty's "Jesus Puzzle" compelling, I also respect the honest findings of those scholars from the Jesus Seminar and others such as Burton Mack who do not go so far as to deny a historical character at the core of Christianity.The fact that we have nothing written about Jesus in either Christian or non-Christian literature until decades after his life is compelling evidence in favour of an entirely mythical Jesus, but I don't deny the Christ myth may have originated from an actual messiahic nutcase, a self deluded fool, or a genuinely nice guy who had the best intentions to help those around him. From that central core has arisen mythology containing supernatural claims, that maybe even the historical Jesus might have found embarassing.Roswell, Medjugorje, Sai Baba and the Bermuda triangle have real people and real events at their core. The supernatural claims derive from the rapidly growing mythology that followed immediatly after.