Atheists, I know you don't believe in a God...but what do you think about Jesus?

Question

Ok, I know you don't believe he was the son of God or anything, but over all do you think he was a pretty cool person? I'm a christian and have an atheist friend that thinks that Jesus is someone to look up to, not because he was the son of God or anything like that...but from his teaching and morals. I was just wondering if any other atheists thought along these lines. Thanks!

Answer 1

i think he taught good beliefs, that he walked the earth, blah blah blah

but i dont think he was a messiah, just a good person

i also think he would be ashamed of how most of his followers have perverted his beliefs

Answer 2

Like Thomas Jefferson, who also didn't believe in the divinity of Jesus, I think there is much in the Christian scriptures to be admired. None of it may be historically correct, but I admire many of the sentiments and examples given nonetheless. The parable of the Good Samaritan and Golden Rule certainly resonate with Humanists. As some have pointed out, these beliefs weren't new; they reflected thinking from earlier times and cultures that still makes sense today. On the other side of the coin, some of the alleged teachings of Jesus and his followers I find completely unjust and immoral. To threaten people with eternal suffering in hell for not believing in him as the true son of God does not reflect a positive morality in my book. And utterances like "He that is not with me is against me" indicate an elitist and intolerant attitude. In the end, I'd have to say that, though I find inspiration in many of his sayings and actions, I would not pattern my life after that of the scriptural Jesus.

Answer 3

5

Answer 4

I have a lot of respect for Jesus the Man. If the Gospels can be trusted, he knew where he was going, and went there anyway to prove a point.

And I find his faith in Love to be truly inspiring. In fact, replace the word "God" or "Father" with "Love" and I think his parables and teachings are worthy of emulation.

But there are very few who actually believe in Love that much. What a world we'd have.

Answer 5

Christianity adopted its ideas from other philosophies.

They are universal philosophies and are not unique to Christians or Christianity.

If Christians actually practiced what they claimed to believe, they would be fine folks to know. But, they don't even know what Jesus preached, so can't follow it.

But, what he preached has little or nothing to do with what lying, self-serving charlatans are claiming Sunday mornings in millions of churches.

Jesus was a communist, but you were never told or knew that, did you?

Answer 6

I do have confidence that Jesus existed, he became into purely a properly-liked guy, who became into attempting to make the international a extra advantageous place, purely like John Lennon or Bob Marley. yet, the undeniable fact that Jesus existed for genuine is not any data of the life of god, nor does it mean that Jesus unquestionably walked on water or expanded the breads or healed the crippled. in case you seem in a London telephone e book, i'm specific you will discover a minimum of one Harry Potter, does that mean that folk would desire to have confidence in magic 2,000 years from now?

Answer 7

Interesting question.

There is no evidence to back up the existence of Jesus and so I don't believe in him either. as a fictional character I do agree he had the makings of a decent person and possibly somebody to model oneself on. Although he does appear to be a bit of a know-it-all and possibly quite irritating if you spend too much time with him.

Answer 8

That's what I thought, too, up until about 4 months ago, when I began to come up to speed with modern biblical scholarship. Now, I am absolutely convinced that Jesus never existed at all, and that the entire New Testament is a fabrication.

Answer 9

I do believe he was a human person who had a lot to teach the world about living better lives, but I only think he was a person-married, kids, weakness, death all that. In order for the rulers to regain control they turned him into a god like figure and changed what he originally said, added a bunch of other stories and made it into a religion to control the people who were starting to revolt against them

Answer 10

Yeah- that was a good story. But that's all it was.

Besides that, it would take a really nice guy to become the ultimate scapegoat for christians to use as rationale for comitting horrible acts of cruelty, predjudice, and televangelism... (lets not forget the crusades, salem witch trials, and Pat Robertson, just to name a few).

Answer 11

I am nor an Atheist ,i believe in real Gods .who concern humanity totaly and intimately .all the time ,and who can be seen every day.
Gaia the Earth provides all the material for life and all of its needs ,without Baal, the Sun, this life is not possible and sun spots relate directly to human activity on a large scale .
Isis the
these gods have been worshipped forever,Christianity is based on the life cycle of the Sun ansd is in fact origianlly sun worship.
the symbolic story of Osiris,and horus depicts this .this story was later changed to Jehova and Jesus .over time the symbolism got lost ,the story was humanized by devious manipulators ,who were the descendents of the Anunaki ,they created the Adams race ,to mine gold for them .
their leader ,who was known as the creator usurped the jesus story and put himself in osiris place (god).
but he was not a God ,only a learned refugee from mars who created humans from genetic engineering and clonong ,
neandertyhaler,cro magnum,home erectus and the others were examples of his experiments (not evolution)
they all lived at the same time ,in the same place near the place where they found the oldest gold mines on this planet ,(what use is gold to cave men)
todays illuminati can be found in the Bilderberg group,the UN,the club of rome(vatican) and the round tabler .
these effectively rule the world
theit strategy has been (for 6000 years )to divide humanity by religions and rule them by finance and war,
the people who still buy the story of jesus have been led by the nose ,as millions of others ,so that they can be manipulated and directed slaves to the illuminati
some more thoughts on this in my answer on the second page of this question
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnJib0JPlNdLRqrUKrT272Lsy6IX?qid=20060802152308AApcO2z