Why believe in the jesus myth?

Question

There is NO credible evidence for the existence of jesus outside of bibles. I looked for a very long time. I found none. Zip. Zero. Nadda.
Its one of the main reasons that I left
the church. Faith does very little if it is based upon myth. I found out that I had been seriously misled by the professional liars aka pastors.

DuckPhuP has answered for me in the last post.
Yes people I know about Josephus. Read the entire 3 vol set of the Cambridge History of the Bible too. Did my homework... Which, please Christians, make a serious argument . Comparing evidence of Shakespear to evidence for Jesus is plain silly. The Bard never claimed to be God or his kid!

Thank you many few. Some decent info ltrs, a whole lot of fallacious reasoning. Try again any one?

The lady said god done spit me out. Kool, now I can think for myself!

Answer 1

that is one of the reasons i became an athiest

Answer 2

Although this seems to be a question that pops up quite frequently on these pages, I thought I'd give you a few links to a case that was thrown out of court in January (or Feb) 2006 when Luigi Cascioli took a priest to court because he said that Jesus existed, when Luigi said he did not. (see links below) If this does end up making it to another court appearance, perhaps we will all finally get a bit more information from them in the know?

It is interesting that many people do only believe in the existence of Jesus from the Bible, which would definitely be a biased source, although there are several other writings that have mention of him:

Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, as does Josephus (gee, this one was sure a popular one for posting :) ), 2nd century writings of Thomas and several of the other writings of the apocrypha (as well as those of Mary, Nicodemus) and the Qur'an, although it also must be said that these writings do not all agree with each other. Although in the end the fact that many works conflict with each other may make the man himself seem a complete fable, it doesn't necessarily mean that everything about these writings are not true. For example, there are people with some very different interpretations of many world events (the holocaust is, unfortunately one of these for some people, but also in the list are the winners of several civil wars and a host of others) but to disregard them as untrue events simply because people can't get all of the facts together, could be considered a bit premature an hypothesis.

One more thing about the issue of items not agreeing with each other, I have two other examples that might make what I'm trying to say more clear.

The first one is to remember the old proverb about the blind men and the elephant. (They all described something different to each other and started fighting about each other being wrong about thier discriptions because they were holding onto different areas. So, even though they each held only a trunk, leg, tail, tusk, etc. in the end, they were all holding onto the same elephant.) The other idea is, go on an outing with 10 friends, (zoo, party, concert, whatever) and then ask them all to write an account of what happened, more then likely, you are going to get 10 slightly different versions. Each one will probably have someone saying something different as to what time you set out, what you saw (and when), what everyone did etc.Although the conflict doesn't mean that you all weren't there, it just means that everyone has different interpretations.

In the end, it does become a question of faith. It's too bad that people are taught to only have blind faith and not some harder facts about what they believe (and many feel to daunted to research) so that questions like this can get a "quicker" or more reliable answer.

Answer 3

The bible itself is not evidence. That is a circular reference... "the bible is true because the bible sauys it is true." That's nonsense.

A few responses mentioned the writings of Josephus... but modern biblical scholarship regards the mentions of Jesus in Josephus' writings as highly dubious. First, we don't have any of Josephus' ORIGINAL writings... and evidence indicates that the mentions of Jesus were inserted by Christian scribes during copying the works of Josephus.

Somebody mentioned that the records of Pilate make reference to the crucifixion of Christ. That is just plain false... there is no such record.

The actual written record, if evaluated honestly (without a predisposition to the idea that Jesus actually existed) provides a huge amount of compelling evidence that the whole works is a fabrication.

Answer 4

Excuse Me?! How do you know Jesus Christ, Our Savior, The Holy one is a myth. Can you prove it? Which means, the Jesus myth is a myth. You have ignorance to say this. You have no right. I'm speaking with God's word. Did you know God loves you. He does and He sent His only, begotten Son so that He could pay the price for you! Go back and read the bible. Then come back and reply. And I mean dont read the part about Adam
and Eve. I mean the parts where it CLEARLY states that Jesus is real! I will pray for you and just another thing. God loves you and I hope you never forget that!

Answer 5

There are a lot of mythical Jesus's out there and yes one should not believe in a false Jesus but there is also a myth that there is no Jesus at all and that there is not evidence outside the Bible for His reality. This is the most dangerous myth. It denies that even in the Bible there are many witnesses not just one. It also denies Historical records outside the Bible like the historian Josephus for one. Watch out for that myth its a deceiver.

Answer 6

Actually there are at least two non-Christian confirmations of the extistance of Jesus.

Josephus, a revolutionary Jewish General turned defector, who wrote a history of the Jewish people entitled Antiquities while at court in Rome, makes reference to Jesus. Scholars believe that Christian scribes made additions to his paragraph on Jesus, but they can retrieve some reliable data from it.

Later, the Roman historian Tacitus, a solid pagan, made mention of "Christus" as being the founder of a sect set out for persecution by the emperor Nero.

These confirm the existance of a man named Jesus, but not that he was God. Of course, if they believed he was God they would no longer be outside sources.

Putting that aside, the idea that the Gospels are a complete fabrication is a bit of stretch. The Gospels were not written by a handful of people all at once. They were written by seperate authors across the acient world, relying on tradition from Apostles who spread themselves around the known world. It would be impossible to create a cohesive fraudulant account of Jesus given these conditions.

Answer 7

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not scene."

If God spent time showing us a bunch of evidence then we wouldn't have the opportunity for faith. Faith and confession in Christ is what brings us to salvation so by not bombarding us with evidence God allows us the opportunity for salvation.


Put things in perspective man-
Your existance on this earth (maybe 80 years) is so small in the scheme of things that it is like a drop of water in the ocean. And you are saying that because YOU can't find any evidence of Jesus that no one should believe? Now does that make any sense at all?

BTW what evidence do you have that he does not exist? None.

If you don't believe then you don't believe...that's up to you. Not everyone has been called to have the capacity to believe. But come on man...calling it a myth? I think you have completely missed the point of this site. It is to ask real questions if you want real answers. It seems like you've already got your mind made up. Find something better to do with your time.

Answer 8

all religions are based on myth, except for buddhism which could be called a way of life rather than a religion.

Your questions raise a very good point. You are taught all your life that jesus died for you, that all non christians are going to hell even if they are good, and that serial killers are going to heaven if they repent before the gas chamber. How can you worship a god like that, where there is no karmic retribution whatsoever?

I think faith is the placebo affect. People will feel good in church because they want to feel good, not because there is some divine intervention reigning down upon them.

Answer 9

I believe in Jesus because I have felt His presence in my life. All my life, actually. Although I have believed in God as long as I could remember, I hadn't really read the bible much. Someone brought me to a very good bible teaching church when I was over 40 years old. When I began studying and learning about Jesus, I recognized that presence in my life, that had always been with me. It was Him.

In all my years of bible study, I have seen the things in God's word proven over and over...felt His presence many times, most often in the stillness of nature. All these reasons are why I believe that Jesus is indeed not a "myth".

If you don't believe in Jesus, or the bible...that's really up to you. But since you asked the question, that is my answer.

Answer 10

Secular Historians Outside The Bible That Record Jesus Christ And Christianity.
http://www.myfortress.org/historians.html

Secular historians and others from antiquity attest to the historical reality of Jesus Christ.



JOSEPHUS: (37-101 A.D.)

Josephus was born in Jerusalem only four years after Jesus' crucifixion. He was an eyewitness to much of what he recorded in the first century A.D. Josephus mentions many events and people from the Gospels. Josephus was an Orthodox Jew who was commissioned by the Romans to write a history of the Jewish people and Rome up until that point.

Mentions Jesus: Antiquities, Book 18, ch. 3, par. 3.

Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.

TACITUS: (55-117 A.D.)

Cornelius Tactitus is regarded as the greatest historian of ancient Rome. Writing on the reign of Nero, Tacitus alludes to the death of Christ and to the existence of Christians in Rome.

"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular."

BABYLONIAN TALMUD: (Completed in the 6th Century A.D.)

The Babylonian Talmud is a Rabbinic commentary on the Jewish scriptures (Tanach: Old Testament). They are a look into what a hostile source was saying about Jesus. They couldn't deny his miracles so they claim that it was sorcery rather than admit to what was a known fact. They also admit that Yeshu (Hebrew for Jesus) was hanged (Crucified: Luke 23:39, Galatians 3:13).

Answer 11

Check out the book of Josephus. It is considered the premier book of ancient history, and it was written just a few years after the various events mentioned in it happened. Jesus is mentioned at least twice in that book. There is another book as well, but I can't remember the title. There is more extra-biblical proof of the existence of Jesus as a man, then there is for Shakespeare.