Gday,
There are many other issues, but I reject Christ myth for this reason. It's just easier to believe the stories were based on a Galileean preacher who actually existed and inspired a cult.
Easier to believe?
That's all you care about?
You don't care what's true and correct?
A conspiracy to invent him faces the problems of the criterion of embarassment
WHAT conspiracy?
No-one here claimed a conspiracy!
Believers bring this up ALL the time - as if there are ONLY TWO possibilities -
* truth
* conspiracy
Please cj.23, if you want to discuss this subject, how about you learn what it's ABOUT !
It's NOT about a conspiracy.
No-one here claimed it's a conspiracy.
Please pay attention.
we might have expected Palestinian Christians ot notice the absolute lack of any memory of their messiah among the general populace, and people who were in Jerusalem in the year in question to go "you what???"
Who?
When?
The Gospels did not become known until mid 2nd century.
By then, Jerusalem had been destroyed and everyone was dead.
WHO, WHEN would have questioned - be specific.
Furthermore -
when the Gospels DID come to light - sceptics DID say they were fiction, myth, invented, lies !
Celsus, in late 2nd century, attacked the Gospels as fiction based on myths :
"Clearly the christians have used...myths... in fabricating the story of Jesus' birth...It is clear to me that the writings of the christians are a lie and that your fables are not well-enough constructed to conceal this monstrous fiction"
Marcion, in mid 2nd century, claimed Jesus was a phantom or spiritual entity -
“...they deny ... His humanity, and teach that His appearances to those who saw Him as man were illusory, inasmuch as He did not bear with Him true manhood, but was rather a kind of phantom manifestation. Of this class are, for example, Marcion...”
Christian
Minucius Felix, in mid 2nd century, explicitly denies the incarnation and crucifixion along with other horrible accusations.
"...he who explains their ceremonies by reference to a man punished by extreme suffering for his wickedness, and to the deadly wood of the cross, appropriates fitting altars for reprobate and wicked men ... when you attribute to our religion the worship of a criminal and his cross you wander far from the truth", and also: "Men who have died cannot become gods, because a god cannot die; nor can men who are born (become gods) ... Why, I pray, are gods not born today, if such have ever been born?" -
Tatian, in later 2nd century, compared Christianity with pagan mythology and wrote:
“Compare you own stories with our narratives. Take a look at your own records and accept us merely on the grounds that we too tell stories”
Caius, claimed the truth about Jesus was falsified from the late 2nd century :
"For they say that ... from ... Zephyrinus the truth was falsified ..."
Porphyry, in late 3rd century, claimed the Gospels were invented :
"... the evangelists were inventors – not historians”
Julian, in the 4th century, claimed Jesus was spurious, counterfeit, invented :
"why do you worship this spurious son...a counterfeit son", "you have invented your new kind of sacrifice ".
Julian was
“convinced that the fabrication of the Galilaeans is a fiction of men composed by wickedness.. ”
Believers just ignore all this evidence that the Gospel stories were manufactured myths,
then say
"why did no-one question these myths?"
They DID!
Many pagans, many times, claimed the Jesus stories were MYTHS, FICTION, LIES, FABRICATED.
How do you explain that cj?
K.
) reference when I have a little more free time. As a side note, when kurious kathy was asked to explain why she changed from being a "sinful Pagan" to an evangelical Christian, her description of her conversion experience sounded very much like a hypnagogic hallucination. She claims she was shown Hell and that is what convinced her Christianity is true.
