A poll for atheists?

Question

do you believe Jesus the person existed - not the stories about Him or the religion just if He existed
please add the reason for your belief

Answer 1

Josephus Flavius mentioned him, and I remember reading some other examples of evidence otuside the NT as well. People don't seem to doubt he was real in the first century in the 1st Century. Why would he be any less real than Buddha or Mohammed?

Answer 2

probably a Jewish rabbi or teacher called Jesus did exist, but not the Jesus of the bible or christian myths. there is no reliable extra biblical evidence for it. there are some texts but they are unreliable or probably faked. Josephus: origen an early church father does not mention the passages about Jesus when commenting on Josephus. i believe that the first person to mention this was basil of caesarea in the 4th century and we only have copies of the antiquities of the Jews from the 10th century and the two passages that mention Jesus seem out of character for a Jew who was a Pharisee, describing Jesus as Christ. a Pharisee would not do this.
thallus, there is no direct text from thallus, only the word of Julius Africanus, a christian apologist.
the various Romans, such as Pliny the yonger and Suetonius only mention christians and not jesus, (even thought these are often quoted as proof without a full explanation).
if jesus was truly an historical religious figure then one writer that would have mentioned him would have been philo of alexandria, he doesn't. there are others who wrote histories of this time and area and they do not mention jesus either such as plint the elder and justus of tiberia who writes about pontius pilate. also there are great problems with the gospels and some of the texts supposedly to originate with peter. there is a great deal of evidence for this. to get a fuller insight visit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_as_myth

Answer 3

I think that there was no real historical Jesus. Any evidence outside religious texts is very scarce, and all of it is second- or third-hand so that it probably was influenced by early religious movements already. Therefore it is well possible that Jesus is a legend constructed out of actual persons and events, legends and hearsay, and wishful thinking (especially the messiah thing since it was prophesied and people just wished it to become real).

Answer 4

I think that there are enough books and scripts written, within 100 years of his death to justify his existence. I don't think that so many manuscripts would have been written if no-one existed. The problem for most Christians is that most of the manuscripts found, contradict one another, and definitely contradict the current doctrine of modern Christianity. Most accounts of Christ after the Crucifixion don't even exist until 150 years after his death. The end of the book of Mark was added on up to 400 years after it was written. All of this tells me that Christ probably existed, he probably said some wonderful things, and stirred up the Jewish population, however the accounts of his Resurrection and life after death are sketchy at best and have been altered over the years. That tells me that he probably wasn't God.

Answer 5

I've not heard of any reliable historical documents to say one way or the other. I'm inclined to say that on the balance of probabilities then yes, I think Jesus existed. However, I am not sufficiently informed on this subject to offer a serious argument.

What I would say is that without those historical documents, the reported miracles should be treated with extreme scepticism.

Answer 6

Possibly. It's impossible to prove he certainly didn't exist. I think there must have been some figure to start the belief. So yes, I do think Jesus existed.

Answer 7

It's possible. Little documentation exists outside of religious texts and the bible, however, which are, for obvious reasons, not infallible. If there were more records from independent sources from that time, I might give the character more credence. Some of the teachings attributed to him are worthwhile. It's unfortunate his followers don't pay more attention.

Answer 8

There is some documentary evidence, but nothing that I would consider conclusive. My position about Jesus is that if he did exist, his identity and role in history have been greatly twisted and exaggerated to fit the expectations of prophecy. In other words, there was supposed to be a Messiah, and the story of Jesus was altered to fit in with that.

Answer 9

I definitely believe he existed. Matthew Mark Luke John are the only authentic parts of the bible that have any relevance to the Jesus truth... and It all sounds reasonable and endearing enough to believe somewhat.

Answer 10

I believe he existed for sure, But I don't believe at all that he was the son of god...People create myths about Great leaders all the time. The romans never Crucified anyone for claiming to be the son of God...they had different punishments for crazy people. The killed him because he opposed the romans. If anyone paid attention to history they would know what was going on during the time of his crucification. He was almost like a revolutionary. He wanted the jews to rise up against rome.