Posted: Feb 26, 2010 12:55 pm
Without getting into hours of typing, I'll jump to the end and say the people that argue that he simply did not exist don't make any sense.
The reasons are simple-
You don't NEED to prove he did not exist to explain christianity, in fact it makes more sense if you accept that he did.
The reason has to do with dissimilarity. (A scholar's verision of "truth is stranger than fiction.")
In other words, the story of Jesus as christians told it would not have been made up the way it was. It would have been too difficult. The predicted messiah was not supposed to suffer and die. The fact that we have nutball christians that think he did, and came up with all kinds of excuses (like he died for your sins, or appeared again as a miracle) was troublesome for them.
People who make up stories don't make up stories that are so hard to convince people of.
Occam's razor.
The reasons are simple-
You don't NEED to prove he did not exist to explain christianity, in fact it makes more sense if you accept that he did.
The reason has to do with dissimilarity. (A scholar's verision of "truth is stranger than fiction.")
In other words, the story of Jesus as christians told it would not have been made up the way it was. It would have been too difficult. The predicted messiah was not supposed to suffer and die. The fact that we have nutball christians that think he did, and came up with all kinds of excuses (like he died for your sins, or appeared again as a miracle) was troublesome for them.
People who make up stories don't make up stories that are so hard to convince people of.
Occam's razor.