For Non-Christians, who do you think Jesus was?

Question

Do you think he actually existed?
Do you believe he existed, but have some other believe about him?
Who do you think Jesus was?

And if you think he was a fraud and everything he taught was a lie, why do you personally think that literally thousands of people have died in His name, fighting for his causes, and under gone such persecution through the years? How can you explain all the records of him appearing to hundreds of people who witnessed him after he rose from the dead, and how can you explain all the miracles, and all the power that he had that historical evidence documents clearly along with the Biblical account? Why would the story be so strong and important in people's minds after 2000 years. Why would people do all that for a lie? Would you die for a cause you knew was a lie? I'm just curious what people think, thanks.

Answer 1

Hello
I strongly believe he existed. Jesus was the long promised messaiah. He is the son of God (Mark 1:10) and he is one and same with father. There are many verses in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Psalms etc... that clearly point to Jesus Christ to be the messaiah.. the saviour of the world. In verses such as Isaiah 40:3, 42:1,2,3,4, 50:6 and many other such verses in the bible we can see the prophecies which foretold about Jesus Christ.
Another reason to believe in Him is that there is not even one flaw in His teachings. He guidelines for the way of life are flawless. No man can have such great insight into what would be best for the human life and no man can be so tolerant and patient.
People today even after all these years consider it to be so important in their life becoz His words have that love and that life changing power. If anyone who is sensible reads the words of Jesus they would experience the comfort, the love, the forgivance, the truth, the peace, the security, the life changing force, the flawlessness, the purity which can be found no where else in the world.
There is not even one word spoken by Lord Jesus which has a selfish motive behind it. Who among men can do it? And all the ways He wanted people to follow can only lead people to a life of peace (when we look back at our lives in our old age i believe that is what we look for). And it is not a stringent and narrow minded way... there is an understanding of the human tendency to falter and the Lord put His life on the cross as a sacrifice to forgive our sins.
I dont think any man can ever have such profound knowledge about the state of a man, love and forgiving.... and i believe this point is what incites a deep faith in people ... to the point that they are ready to give up their lives rather than desert the Lord.
Take care

Answer 2

I think that there is a higher than average probability that Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth. I do not believe he is the son of a deity but a person who did not care for the established belief system of the time period so he found a belief system more suitable to his own internal beliefs. He was anti-establishment (that is not an insult; being anti-establishment is not always a bad thing) therefore creating friction between him and other theologians of the time period.

It is my own personal belief that the people that shared his belief system elevated his status so that he became who he appears to be to many today.

You ask why would people follow or die for a cause for a lie. Well belief systems and therein the faith invested in it is a matter of perception. To the followers of christianity it is not a lie, to some non-believers it is and to some it is merely something that has been so tampered with by many people over so many years it's hard to tell what truths or fallacies may be there.

As with any system of belief, for those who choose christianity it is a personal choice.

Answer 3

There was such a person, by most evidence. Nothing suggests that he was less or more human than any other human being. We can reasonably trust some stories verified by professional historians.

As for people died in somebody's name, we have full human history of people dying in name of somebody or something. Don't we have right now a president on short wire with God, and other lunatics sending people to death? Not to mention Hitler, Stalin, Mao etc. If you don't want recent examples, we can recall that many religions are much more ancient than Christianity. For example: Judaism, Buddhism, and Hindu.

Second confession by popularity after Christianity is Islam (newer and so more aggressive religion). Third one is Hindu. That is all. Fourth popular view on the world is Atheism, which is not a blind believe into something. Then you find less popular views - Buddhism and other less popular religions and sects. Now, you probably realize that large part of ‘believers’ is just following tradition. For example, I like Santa and Hollowing too. Also, many people chose to 'believe' something for practical reasons.

Thus, I would not be surprised if Atheism comes first by popularity after a more accurate count. Of course, the truth about the world is not defined by vote. You better trust people who gain knowledge about the world by hard work – I mean scientists of course. And scientists just hate when somebody treats a fantasy or speculation as a fact.

Answer 4

jesus was just a person who interpreted the bible in his own way and people did not like that..

However the only records of jesus is in the bible there are no other historical evidence of jesus..

people have and will always use religion, god and jesus as an excuse to hinder, kill and violate the rights of others by using the excuse that they are doing it in their name..

No I would not die for a cause that was a lie, but many have, many more will and many will KILL for that lie...

If there were hundreds of witness then they would have recorded that he "rose from the dead" but they have not.

Overall
1) jesus was made up
2) jesus was just a person who preached the bible according to his ideology and all the so-called "miracles" were really nothing more than palor tricks

Answer 5

Well your three original questions seemed fairly innocent, compared to the blatantly accusatory paragraph to follow. But to answer: I think Jesus was a "real person," probably a pretty spiffy guy, but I hesitate to call him the son of god since it's safe to say I'm an atheist. But moving on, I'm sure the thousands of people that have died in his name didn't believe that anything about his story was a lie, did they. The records of him certainly suggest that he existed, but it's safe to assume they're an exaggeration - much like the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, or countless other historically biased biographies. The story is so strong in people's minds because, and this is a compliment to Christianity, it has that magical mix of selflessness, righteousness, and fear to inspire quite a broad audience. However, I believe the ancient Greeks would have insisted that Zeus existed as certainly as you claim your Christian god does. What makes you right? Majority rules?

Answer 6

People don't always believe in something you do.

I'm not very religious, but I try to stay open minded on it all.

I think Jesus was damn cool, becuase he tried to NOT hate everyone, and forgive them, even if they disagreed withi what he believed in, he forgave them.

There are people dying in holy wars all the time, which is horrible too, and all sorts of predjudice and stuff that came out of religion which is horrible, but there is a lot of good too.

Jesus was damn cool, but he didn't want it to end up all hateful.

Answer 7

Jesus (peace be upon him) was a Prophet of God who submitted to only One God. He taught all of mankind monotheism. The main concept we Muslims cling to. The Christians forgot about.

Jesus brought the greatest commandment:

“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12:28-30).

That is what we Muslims like Jesus (pbuh) preach. Your Lord is one Lord.

Answer 8

A very educated (for that time) highly realistic and very cunning man . Husband of a princess named Mary Magdalene, father of 3 children. He was executed before he could make reality the new religion (not Christianity) he was promoting. Mary Magdalene was later prosecuted and and her children chased and her writings aborted and hidden so they could not be placed in the new testament. (just like the writings of Judas).

Answer 9

Jesus may or may not have existed as a man in a similar context to the one the Bible presents. I think he probably did exist, probably in the way the Loch Ness monster exists. I think he was probably dramatically exaggerated, and perhaps history's greatest philosophers (who came in contact with the stories of him) tweaked the stories that were passed down to them in such a way that the end story, the Bible, became amazing and believible to some. Or maybe the story was still patchy, and it fell into someone's hands, and that person made something amazing of it (fictionalized it).

I don't think "he" was a fraud, because I don't think he existed in the way Christians think he did. There's no good reason to believe he did, and every reason to believe the Bible is an interesting, phenominal text created by humans with several specific (and maybe one singular brilliant) goals in mind. Thousands of people have died in his name for thousands of reasons. A few: 1. As humans, we relish the idea of dying in anyone's name. If not Jesus', Mohammad's, if not his, the man who served those crazies the tainted cool aide; if not his, the king's; if not his, a bronze goat's. Whatever. The notion is romantic, it gives us a sense of purpose, and it gives us a reason to do something humans have always loved to do--fight and kill one another. It also gives the wonderful illusion of selflessness. 2. The Bible is a masterful fraud. Whoever came up with it, however, did a good job of tying up loose ends, presenting it as something some people can believe in, and appealing to the average minds of the masses. If you don't use your brain, it's easy to believe because on the surface, and I mean the very, very surface, it makes vague sense--particularly if you're taught it from an early age (which gives the added incentives of the deeply rooted fear of hell, the sense that "this is right" because I was always told it is, and all the other strong, strong beliefs we get from conditioning). Also, the story was preserved, used by great numbers of powerful people, and enhanced to become propaganda, religion, and, sadly, history (according to some). 3. Jesus is a conveinent, pre-packaged, very, very dumbed-down way for people to be introduced to the idea that we are immortal souls who will remain "alive" after death. Most people probably would not believe that so strongly without something like Jesus to anchor them to the idea, simply because the idea is so hard to really comprehend. 4. This is just a thought, but the people who really "get it" when it comes to the truth about what the soul is, the truth about what we humans are, haven't bothered to enlighten Christians because Christians are getting part of it right, and it would be impossible to entangle them from Christianity and enlighten them to the broader sense of what we are mostly because they're conditioned, brainwashed, and thus afraid of the truth.

As to why people have undergone such persecution through the years, that's so vague it's impossible to answer in a forum like this. Real history should explain why any number of groups have been persecuted adequately enough.

If you have "all the records" of him appearing to hundreds of people after he rose from the dead, do share. You may astonish the world. The fact is, records of him are nil to ridiculously faulty depending on who you ask and how much you know. There is absolutely no way to prove he rose from the dead or appeared to anyone or was born to the virgin Mary or any of the rest of it, and if you see the need for such proof, even Christianity is obviously over your head.

If you think historical evidence documents Jesus' miracles or his power, you're taking History Channel shows way out of context. Most of the details that are documented historically "along with Biblical account" are details like the location of a mountain, or details of a battle like the one where the walls of Jerrico fell; and I'm sorry to tell you, the historical accounts don't tell the story quite the way the Bible does. Basically, many biblical events are recorded as having happened--minus the Biblical slant. Why? Because the Biblical slant was, however intentionally, fabricated. Do your research here; if the Biblical accounts of Jesus' miracles, etc. were well-documented, "proven," if you will, far fewer people would doubt Christianity. But aside from the fact that "documented" can mean ten jillion things, and it's almost impossible to find anything from that long ago clearly documented, even documents don't mean much, as evidenced by the Bible.

Why would the story be so strong after thousands of years? For the same reason Hitler's stories about the jews were so strong in people's minds. Anything can be strong in people's minds with the right amount of effort and preservation. Frat guys everywhere go through hazing and, even on their deathbeds, refuse to give up secrets of their fraternity. Why? Because it was designed that way. And even if Christianity wasn't "designed" as a fraud--and I don't belive it was from the start--it became one. Whoever made the Bible what it is created a real gem, and with a lot of effort (very concentrated effort--just research the Catholic church, for one), and people's amazingly strong desire to believe (in anything, everything), and what an amazing document it is, plus thousands of years of cultural twists, conveinences, and hot-heads willing to twist it to their wills and use to to reach their ends, it is totally unsurprising that Christianity is what it is today. Take a secular history of religion course, and a course on the history of the world and its societies. It all makes perfect sense.

"People" wouldn't abstain from sex before marriage, condemn gays, believe in the ridiculous notions of heaven and hell, ETC., ETC., ETC., for what they thought was a lie. Christians don't believe it's a lie, obviously. The powers that were promoted Christianity, a lie, because it benefitted them; people believed it because of everything I've written here and much more. People will believe anything, and with that in mind, why not believe what you think makes sense rather than an outdated, inconsistent, obviously fabricated story, when there is so much more out there for you to wrap your brain around, and when the subject, who and what we are, is so important?

Answer 10

Dear Haroon, how can you acknowledge Jesus as a prophet of the almighty allah, yet does not believe in what the prophet of your almighty and all His words?

It is so contradicting, or because you all does not really believe the prophet, but just the identity?