Atheists, without using abrasive / abusive language, what do you think about Jesus?

Question

what are your thoughts about this website?

http://www.atheists-for-jesus.com/

Answer 1

Yes, Actually I support this view, and indeed I have answered as such in previous questions despite being a staunch atheist.

I think that the historical jesus was a good man, who had good ideas about how to behave and conduct oneself. However, I don't believe it had anything to with a 'higher power' or indeed anything supernatural.

There are many good inspirational works from people in history. I for one have a library of Chinese Philosophy centering around Daoism mainly from BCE.

Answer 2

I am an agnostic.

Jesus was a historical figure - he had a brilliant grasp of ethics and was very charismatic.

The website sounds very accurate.

The cannonical bible depends on faith and not historical documentation. The choice is either believe in the cannonical version or be expelled from the religion.

I can quite accept that Christ's message was deliberately distorted over the past two millenia. Events causing harm to millions like the Spanish Inquisition, apartheid and the ban on contraceptives were based on the bible.

The way the books were selected for the bible shows the influence of Paul. The first acceptable list of books making up the Christian bible was compiled by Irenaeus and in 367 the list was made official by Athanasius.

In 1611 the council of 17 decided which books were to become part of the authorised bible and which books were to be removed from the bible and be published as the apocrypha. Did the right books go to the right categories?

The Gospels of Peter, Thomas, Mary, Judas and Truth have since been discovered. Older versions of the existing gospels (including the codex sinaticus) were found in Sinai. These older versions don't have the virgin birth and the son of god stories.

These books are not included in the bible because they would undermine the existing Christian organisations.

The Koran also was meddled with. By order of the calif Osman in the year 30 of the Hejira, Zeid and three assistants made a careful revision of the Koran which was adopted as the standard, and all the other copies were ordered to be burned.

I will fight for the right of people to believe what the want, as long as they don't hurt others. A rational person will investigate what they are basing their belief on, before blindly committing themselves to the idea. Most religious texts are a dubious foundation for a lifetime committment.

Answer 3

i am not aethiest, im actually catholic. but i dont reallyhave many beliefs, not of the religios sort anyways. I dont go to church, because jesus didnt live in church, there fore how is it a house of god? i see a higher being in a sunset or the crash of the surf, or in the birth of a newborn child. i consider myself a realist and while i dont exactly buy into the da vinci code story, it does pose an interestion question. it has now been 2006 years since this man died. after so long, how do we now what is truth and what has been distorted? how does one know that this wasntused to impose fear into the hearts of followers? you cant and dont. its all in what you believe, and always will be. these stories from the bible, how do you know they werent an ancient version of aesops fables? we dont and never will for certain. i dont like having religion shoved down my throat, and i think at the center, no one does. i say to each his own, why should one religion be considered better over another. And by the way, crusades, or religios wars, what was the point? to spreadthe word? NO IT WAS TO ACQUIRE LAND aND TROOPS. no god would want his followers or children to kill others especially children in his name because they didnt believe. the roman empire didnt even convert to christianity until some 400 yrs ad. before that, the holy roman empire were pagans. and that is not a rumor or a shadow of a rumor. that is fact. sure there might have been a man named jesus, and sure he was probably even a good samaritan, but how does one know.

Answer 4

I'm 67 and I have had more 'Religion' in my life than just about any Bible thumper I have ever known. I had 8 years of parochial grade school under the Sisters of Loretto and 4 years of High School where I was brainwashed by the Jesuits.

The positive thing I got from the Jesuits is, I learned how to think for myself and that is something religion (ALL RELIGIONS) don't want the 'faithful' to be able to do.

I really STUDIED religion... at the technical level... and now I don't believe in the Bible, in God or in Geezus and I hope I never get so ignorant that I start to believe that stuff. Religion appeals to the weak and the weak minded and I truly hope I never become either. One description of religion is that it's "Opium for the Masses"... and I couldn't agree more.

The whole purpose for religion is CONTROL... to control the masses and keep them on their assez... it is a self serving and self perpetuating entity that takes everything from it's believers and gives nothing in return but empty promises.

My saying is: IT'S BETTER TO HAVE A BRAIN AND NO RELIGION THAN TO HAVE A RELIGION AND NO BRAIN.

I tried not to be abrasive or abusive because I am hoping I may have said something that will make your think.!

Answer 5

After a quick skim of the site I see it as something that I could support. I've felt for a long time that the message of Jesus is a relatively decent one. However, I don't think that he is the originator of the ideas of love and compassion. I do, though, believe that his words and deeds have been warped by history into intolerance and bloodthirst.

I have no problem with my fellow atheists trying to convince people to be more compassionate, but wonder why they would want to bring the message of Jesus, as it has become twisted, into the equation. It would seem to me that an appeal for basic human decency is enough.

Answer 6

Suppose you are on a road and you cannot ever turn around and never return from whence you came. You come to a fork in that road and you must go forward and thus you must choose one of the roads. Suppose you see other people and you ask them which road you should take. Now suppose that you get different advice, but a "few" people tell you You are on the road of life. You must make choices every day of your life.
that they have "heard" from others that the left fork holds dangers and that there is a very high priced toll booth, but "nobody" knows anything about the right fork, and they are taking that one.
These are just rumors, right?
Who would you believe? Which road will you take?
Will you take the road that is rumored to be dangerous? Or the road, about which, no one knows or ever heard?

Answer 7

They're asking interesting questions on the site. I use to study this sort of thing, but don't recall the Ebionites at all. Pauline Christianity is VERY different from what Jesus is recorded as saying. It seems reasonable, based on textual evidence, to think there probably was someone teaching around that time who might have even been called Jesus. I wonder what he, whoever he was, would have thought about all of the intolerance and cruelty that has been done in his name.

Answer 8

Jesus, the man, was a political rebel, educated in the prophacy by John and other clergy and used this to the advantage of his agenda, which was to close the gap in the cast society system of the time, and chalenge the Roman Government and the power held by the Empire. Probably the most brilliant scholar of his era, but not a product of any sort of divine birth.

Answer 9

FYI, you don't have to be an atheist to NOT believe in Jesus as the son of god. As a previous agnostic I cared very little for the man. Take him or leave him he's dead now. And if current translations of the bible are anything remotely like what he actually said then he was quite the motivational speaker. Bummer about the crucifixion though.

Answer 10

I'm all for Jesus, I've read some of the gospels, and he sounds like he had alot of wisdom to offer. And I firmly agree with gravesendian, I wish people had written down what he said. I generally believe what the biblical scholars have to say, Q source and all. They researched it to see what makes the most sense, with an open mind, it seems like they're probably closest to the truth.

I'm not sure I qualify as an atheist, but I'm definitely not christian. I've been to too many christian churchs whose main message is judging others and I can't reconcile it with what Jesus said in the bible. Not that I'm all for the bible. It just seems silly and hypocritical to get spiritual guidance from people who flaunt the spirit of the laws they say they support. I refuse to let people who gossip about, degrade, and ostracize others give me advice on how to do what Jesus asked.

I think that the website you sent captures that essense, and some of my disappointment with conservative christian churchs. I realize I'm generalizing, and I'm sure there are exceptions, but the amount of gossip, and the encouragement in judging others, in the congragations I've witnessed is the great shame of christiandom in my opinion. It is the last thing Jesus would have wanted from what I've read of the gospels.