A religion assignment I had to do =]

[Balor's Eye]

This is an assignment I had to do for my religion class on if Jesus existed or not. Comment if you'd like =]




[u]esus Does Not Exist[/u]


How do we know that a belief in Jesus wasnt started by a great chain of people who spread the delusion from one generation to next? How do we know Jesus was real? The reality is, we dont.

Jesus didnt leave us any written record of what he claimed. All the records were written decades or more after his death; many of them by people who never knew Jesus. Can we be sure of what he claimed? How do we know the Bible and Jesus spoke “the word of God”? The authorities relied upon to prove the reality of Christ in the four Gospels of the New Testament; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Now we know absolutely nothing of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, apart from what is said of them in the Gospels. Additionally, the Gospels themselves do not claim to have been written by these men. They are not called "The Gospel of Matthew," or "The Gospel of Mark," but "The Gospel According to Matthew," "The Gospel According to Mark”. Furthermore, there is nothing to show that these Gospels, which are the only sources as to the existence of Christ, were written until a hundred and fifty years after the events they describe. So how can Gospels which were not written until a hundred and fifty years after Christs’ supposed death have any value as evidence that he really existed?

After Jesus is born he is no longer mentioned until he reaches the age of thirty. There is only one incident in “The Gospel according to Luke” where Jesus is found with doctors in the Temple at Jerusalem when he was about twelve years old. If the writers of the Gospels knew the facts of the life of Christ, why is it that they tell us absolutely nothing of thirty years of that life? The fact is that they knew nothing about the life of Jesus before his ministry, and denied themselves from inventing a childhood and early manhood for Jesus because it didnt serve their purpose.

If Jesus performed the miracles described in the New Testament, giving sight to the blind and raising the dead, how did the Jews being seen as civilized people at that time, become so filled with murderous hate towards a kind and loving man who went about doing good?
If Jesus was real, if he was a reformer, if he performed wonderful miracles that attracted the attention of many, if he came in conflict with the authorities and was crucified, how do we explain the fact that history has not even recorded his name? Some of the greatest writers the Jewish race has heard of lived in that age. And yet, in all the writings of that period, there is not one line, not one word, not one letter, about Jesus. Why was it then that these great writers wrote extensively of events of minor importance, but not once wrote a word about the greatest man who appeared on earth, a man who at his command gave sight to the blind and gave life to the dead?


Whether Christ did, or didnt live, has nothing to do with what the church teaches, or with what we believe, it is a matter of evidence and a question of science. The question is, what does history say? If the thinking world is to believe that Christ was real, there must be enough evidence to support that belief. If no evidence for his existence can be proven; if it is found that Jesus’ story was created by art and imagination, he will have to take his place with the other demigods whose lives make up the best selling books in the world.





[/u]

[Release.the.bats]

It's written fairly well.
Most historians do believe Christ existed and they also have reason to believe that during the giant age gaps in the bible, he was actually studying under The Cult of Isis in Egypt.
I don't completely believe what is written about Jesus, after all a lot of people forget to take into account the time periods in which the portions of the bible were written, which plays a large influence in the way it should be interpreted.
There are many theories about what Jesus was really like way back when, I rather like the theory that he was somewhat ordinary and simply inspired the biblical teachings.
It makes more sense to me, for him to be a great representation of human nature than to be a magnificent God figure.

[stormer89]

I like it.