Is the New or Old Testament more believable?

[deaman]

They encourage people to support through false hope, blood, sweat, tears and more than anything money.

 

[Giordano]

In collision with this forum and elsewhere, my native anti-theism and acquired theism are in the process of neutralising themselves.

Cpl Ferro

So where does that leave you? Did the supernatural events described in the NT actually occur?

 

[SezMe]

Then what do they purport to do, SezMe?

At the risk of a self-aggrandizing self-reference, may I quote myself:

... They were written as political advocacy documents, spun, twisted, made up and mistranslated countless times in order to gain political and religious power. I personally don't even think they "purport" to "detail" the life of Jesus.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

Yes, but what do you think those propaganda spinsters were telling their flock? "Here's some lies about Jesus that we cooked up, to make you gullible marks give us your money"?

I'll point out the meaning of "purport", especially meaning 1. It doesn't mean that the author believed it. It means that that's what it's pretending to be.

And at the very least Luke does that. The mini-preface to his gospel (Luke 1:1-4) makes the pretty explicit claim that it's a well-researched, historical reconstruction of what happened. How is that not purporting?

 

[Correa Neto]

Then what do they purport to do, SezMe?

Cpl Ferro

Nobody asked me but...

-A way to register, settle, formalize and spread a group of dogmas, beliefs and tales compiled and edited several times in order to match the goals and (maybe) the beliefs of a religious elite.

What SezMe said.

 

[pakeha]

Documents detailing the life and intentions of the most important man on Earth. What else? Why else would they have been written if that was not what they meant? Cpl Ferro

Good point. If they are lies they are influential lies, like any culture's core body of myth. Cpl Ferro

Here's the thing, though.
When we see the details of his life and career as written up in the NT texts shown to be totally inaccurate in view of what we know, what are we to think?
Is it any wonder people dig into these texts and ponder about their origins?

In collision with this forum and elsewhere, my native anti-theism and acquired theism are in the process of neutralising themselves. Cpl Ferro

You have my deepest sympathy. I remember how bewildering it is to realise the NT is basically religious propaganda, more akin to fiction of the time or hagiography than an historically accurate account of events.

 

[CplFerro]

So where does that leave you? Did the supernatural events described in the NT actually occur?

As much as it would make life more interesting and terrifying, I would have to say no.

What remains is disentangling the dogmas of Christianity from the artistic and political value of God and Christ. Call me 90% atheist.

Cpl Ferro