Baby Jeebus

[Cassia]

The fuctitios virgin birth was the main reason I ditched the myths. Paul, Mark and John know nothing about it. Silence. But Luke and Mathew make up totally different stories about how the man from Nazareth was "really" born in the prophesized town of Bethlehem. In fact, this is the best reason to think there may have been a historical character.

To bring Mary and Joe to Bethlehem, Mathew redoes the Moses story with Herod playing the part of first-born killing Pharoah, while Luke makes up the census nonsense excuse.

The Mathew account has the Magi or wise men, who followed a star from the East to Bethlehem in search of a newborn king. There they found Mary and the baby Jesus and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I guess Jesus wasn't so poor after all. The Magi were important Zoroastrianism priests from Persia. Which is odd because Herod and the Roman army had just won power in Judea from them. And yet these Persians come back and tell Herod he is no longer the king because Baby Jesus is. Right. Political bullshit.

The best part is that the Persians were wrongly believed by many Romans to be astrologer/star worshipers because of some mis-translated ancient text. In fact, the Persians would have interpreted the star of Bethlehem to be Satanic, LOL. They would have run from it. BTW, we can thank them for the Satan character seeping into the Jewish "monotheism".

[Mike Cl]

I have heard and read that the absence of proof is not proof of absence.  I still take issue with that in most cases.  One absence of proof for jesus is that there is not one word written about him in the first century.  Nope--not one word!!!  Think about that--all the miracles and preachings and healings and world changing happenings that he wrought.  There was not a lack of writers in that time frame--I think there were about 122 authors writing in that time frame and not one mentions anything about him.  Jesus did not hide what he did--he made every effort to be as open as possible to save as man souls as he could.  No writings--nothing.  That is proof enough for me to think that jesus was and is, a fantasy.

[Cassia]

I have heard and read that the absence of proof is not proof of absence.  I still take issue with that in most cases.  One absence of proof for jesus is that there is not one word written about him in the first century.  Nope--not one word!!!  Think about that--all the miracles and preachings and healings and world changing happenings that he wrought.  There was not a lack of writers in that time frame--I think there were about 122 authors writing in that time frame and not one mentions anything about him.  Jesus did not hide what he did--he made every effort to be as open as possible to save as man souls as he could.  No writings--nothing.  That is proof enough for me to think that jesus was and is, a fantasy.

I am curious if he is 100% fictitious, why not just call him Jesus of Bethlehem? Just skip the whole Nazareth thing. I guess perhaps someone forgot the prophecy of the scriptures about Bethlehem and then just two of the authors scrambled to fix that omission in different ways.

Carrier puts the historicity at 1/3 probability. I think it's more like 50/50. I doubt a mortal 1st century wandering preacher on the outskirts of the empire would get much or anything written about him by historians, or anybody for that matter. Once the oral mythology got cranked up, that would actually be an advantage when the scribes started crafting their lessons, LOL. The existence question is immaterial to my lack of belief. The gospels are obviously allegories as is much of the scriptures.

[Unbeliever]

Of course there was a guy named Jesus - quite a few of them, actually. Josephus mentioned 7 different guys named Jesus. I don't know if any of them were carpenters, though. 🤔

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There was no Roman census that year. And the family would have gone to HIS hometown, not Nazareth, to be counted. (Stupid idea that people would march many miles to say "here" and then turn around and go home.)

[Cassia]

Even if it was definitively proven he didn't exist, it wouldn't matter to many followers. Look at the support for the demi-god criminal Trump. The fatal flaw of the monkey brain is the emotional attachment to fantasy.

[the_antithesis]

I thought he went back to ODB. I'm so out of the loop.

[aitm]

Even if it was definitively proven he didn't exist, it wouldn't matter to many followers. Look at the support for the demi-god criminal Trump. The fatal flaw of the monkey brain is the emotional attachment to fantasy.

I would suggest the emotional attachment to investment. These people were lulled into bull shit, bragged about it, wore clothing bragging about it, told everyone they were right....too much emotional investment to admit they were wrong. They more than likely know they are wrong, but to admit it?

[Cassia]

I would suggest the emotional attachment to investment. These people were lulled into bull shit, bragged about it, wore clothing bragging about it, told everyone they were right....too much emotional investment to admit they were wrong. They more than likely know they are wrong, but to admit it?

Probably true. The ole "double down" mentality.
And I for one (yes, it is a beautiful image) don't know how you can find a manger or town even by using a star, LOL.