It is perpetually disappointing the extent to which so many people who claim to be Christians fail to understand even the CliffsNotes version of the Gospel.
Jesus' arrest was probably bound to happen sooner or later though. As noted Biblical scholar Andrew Zaltzman has often pointed out, Pontius Pilate was a law and order administrator, and Jesus was absolutely guilty under the law at the time.
Also, without Jesus' arrest and crucifixion, he wouldn't have died and been resurrected, saving everyone's souls. So shouldn't Marjorie be thanking Jews for that?
And when the flying spaghetti monster flew out of his butthole and pasta for our sins we were saved a second time. Making humans the most saved beings in this universe at least.
The earliest set of Pauline epistles have a consensus dating around 50, 20 years after the nominal death of Jesus.
The gospel of Mark has consensus dating to 70, 40 years after the nominal death of Jesus.
Multiple Jewish and Roman historians wrote about the existence of Jesus, who weren't all getting their information from the Bible. There is a long and well-sourced Wikipedia article on this.
Virtually all scholars of antiquity accept that Jesus was a historical figure, and the idea that Jesus was a mythical figure has been consistently rejected by the scholarly consensus as a fringe theory.
Scholars differ about the beliefs and teachings of Jesus as well as the accuracy of the biblical accounts, with only two events being supported by nearly universal scholarly consensus: Jesus was baptized and Jesus was crucified
To call this "Historical Jesus" is misleading at best. It is reasonable to say DOZENS of people fit that description.
Let's try the same argument today...
"A preacher named John was baptized and later was convicted of serious crimes and sentenced by a judge." How many fit this description? Isn't it more likely true than false? What does that prove?
This whole argument tries to equate mundane statistics with miracles. It adds nothing to any reasonable discussion outside of post-hoc theological justification.
The thing is that people are basing the magical sky wizards manifesting himself as his son as this “Jesus” character they’ve made up and have decided existed in the way they pretend because there is some tangential corroboration somewhere.
Check the talk page on that (and similar) articles. There are some very zealous editors making sure that they come down harder than the sources really support on the "everyone definitely agrees that he existed" side of the argument...
I’m leaving this one to the experts. If you don’t believe the them that’s up to you to prove. I personal don’t believe either of us is more informed than they are.
It can be summed up as, "People who have made their livelihood around a potentially fictitious persons of history all claim that said person exists because reasons."
this conversation is split into so many parts im just trying to chase down this one key point: it's not enough to say "well I don't believe them" - I want to be proved wrong here, for my own education. But I want to be proved wrong - with proof. Not just a throwaway comment of "they have not met my (undefined, and unexplained) threshold of proof"
What do you have to show that Jesus didnt exist as a real human? That isn't your own belief or thought process as your primary source?
You can't be proved wrong. Noone can ever prove that someone never existed, but you can prove that someone did exist. If you have such proof for the existance for jesus, please share it.
the smell test is irrelevant. This is a conversation about whether the scientific / historian community is at a concensus on the historical existence of the person in question.
really, mine and your individual opinions are also irrelevant, because even if both you and I never existed- the historical, academic consensus suggests the guy lived.
I'm happy to be the bad guy in that conversation because it's really not me thats on trial here - it's your personal faith/belief, that's as vulnerable to subjectivity as a belief in the spritual Christian (or Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, etc) deity's existence.
I am not commenting on whether I believe Jesus was a deity, nor am I commented on whether I personally believe there was a real Jesus as political and historical figure at the start of the Common Era - I am saying that to say definitively he did not exist is a faith/belief based assertion, and it's misinformation to claim it as a fact, it is a belief/opinion that flies in the face of established, peer-reviewed consensus.
You are performing a sleight of hand here by saying "Jesus" and shifting between which one you are saying is real. "Historical" is a statistical no brainer as I stated above. You then shift to equate that guy to the supernatural founder of Christianity.
We (atheists and skeptics) securely say "Jesus the miracle worker and son of God" did not exist. The proof is not there. We fail to accept the proposal of a deity or reports of miracles. No faith involved.
Others use faith to claim the opposite.
It is bit like saying the garden of eden existed because DNA proved a mitochondrial Eve.
that the terms weren't clearly defined in the original comment is not my fault, and equally you could've said that you don't believe in the divinity of Jesus - which is a very fair statement, but note how it self-defines belief and separates it from categorical fact.
Too much sophistry and you can prove that Santa Claus exists and Joe Biden doesn't.
You did not at any point specify you were talking about the divinity of Jesus, you just said he didn't exist- which the simplest response is "ok so who's the guy with long hair on a cross in every church then?" - obviously in many definitions of "exists" - he exists, including that it is generally accepted that he lived as a real person.
You're also addressing me as if I'm saying Jesus was a diety. I am not.
Well, again, I ask you - where's your sources? Me and another guy provided a source that also contained sources. I would genuinely like to read the first-party or academic sources for your argument for my own education.
...and Pontius Pilot was one historical figure we can prove exists. In letters from Rome telling him to stop genosiding so many Jews. We are supposed to believe that if this really happened, such a guy cared what the Jews thought, and would give them a choice on who to kill? Really? He would have killed Jesus, the other guy, and the crowd for good measure.
It's clearly written to absolve Rome of any guilt since they founded the religion and all of the source material is more likely attributed to Mithra and Simon Magus.
I feel like the stigma of sin is vastly overplayed when it's just an element of being human. Adultery and murder are the same as existing? Alrighty, almighty!
Valhalla seems pretty chill, I'll look forward to seeing you there... or maybe I'll go chill with my pa in the sky people's city. Honestly, I think I'd probably want to be an afterlife tourist... I wonder how early I need to book that.
You all can have your little LARP and potluck, but kindly leave the rest of us the fuck out of it. I get that the world sucks and thinking someone will give you cookies for taking all the shit rich folks pile on you day after day is appealing, but it's just excusing your own exploitation. I'm not about that life.