What historical evidence exist that the founders of the worlds major religions ever lived?

Question

I am interested in hearing from historians here both amateur and professional?

Answer 1

The existence of Mohammed and of Buddha is well-documented by reliable sources. Jesus is also generally accepted to have existed, although during his lifetime he was almost completely unknown. There are a few references to him in classical history, most notably by Josephus, but all of these are fakes, inserted by later writers in order to strengthen the early Church. Nearly all reputable scholars agree on that point.

The tricky figure is Moses. Although this does not get much press, it has been well-known for more than a century that the Egyptian Captivity never happened. (It was most likely a story written around 600 B.C.E. after the fall of the Temple, in order to rally the Jews scattered and nearly crushed by the Babylonians.) The Egyptians were an unusual ancient culture in that they wrote down nearly everything--official histories, bills of lading, beer recipes. In all of this material, there is not a single mention of Jewish captivity. Archaeological support is also lacking.

Did Moses exist? It is very hard to be sure. Many scholars advance a cautious "yes," although what he actually did and what he was actually like may never be settled for certain. (The Torah/Old Testament, the oldest parts of which were written down some 300 years after Moses supposedly lived, are not a reliable source.) Parallels are often drawn to Homer; it's generally accepted that "Homer" was simply a man who got saddled with hundreds of years of prior tradition--the man the buck stopped with, not the man who made it all up from scratch. Moses may have been like that.

The issue is confused insofar as history as we see it is a pretty recent invention. We assume history should be absolutely true, and should be silent when it doesn't know what actually happened, or say "I don't know here, but here goes." The ancients apparently did not think this at all. If "what actually happened" got in the way of their message about the city-state, they'd twist the facts to fit. Except that they didn't care about facts, really, so it wasn't "twisting" like we'd think of it. They cared about bigger truths, to put it in terms as close as possible to the ones we use. It's a bit like George Washington, the cherry tree, and the resulting story about the incorruptible honesty of the founding American leader.

This is the biggest single problem with history. It's not just trying to figure out what happened, but trying to figure out what people thought about what happened.

Answer 2

Well, in my case, professional historian/sociologist.

It depends--
>Judaism--we don't have direct historical evvidence of either Abraham or Moses. They may have been historical figures--but (from a suclar standpoint) we don't know.
>Christianity--there is a fairly massive body of evidence that Jesus was a historical figure--and most historians regard him as such. The only ones I've seen that doubt that also have an ideological agenda--which doesn't help their case any--though they've not much of a case in any event.
>Hinduism--this is lost in prehistory. Generally, its considered to have evolved, rather than be founded, C. 1500BCE as Aryan invaders assimilated into the Indian populations they had conquered.
>Buddism--Siddartha (the Buddda) is a historical figure--that's certain
>Islam--Mohammed was also definately a historical figure
>Jainism and Sikhism--the founders of those religions are also known to be historical figures
>Shinto (Jaapan) and the ancestor -oriented beliefs of China didn't have specific founders, they emerged from folk beliefs.
>Confucianism--Confucius was an ancient Chinese philosopher--definately real.

Answer 3

Ah, a healthy dose of doubt have we? We used to think that ancient accounts of places like Troy or Ninevah or Ugarit or Ebla were legends and myths--until someone dug them up.

There is more evidence of Moses, Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammad after centuries and even millennia than there will be evidence of you or me a mere century from now. Future people will not even have us on their radar to ask if we ever existed.

I think it is a fascinating question. With most people who dig into our past, a thing doesn't exist if it isn't written down, and of course, the thought or fact originated with whomever's writing was the oldest. But you jump right past that, did the biggest people of the ancient times really, actually exist?

To borrow from poker, I'll call that doubt with my cynicism. But then you would probably call into question the actual existence of Greek cynic philosophers since we don't have the bone and direct, written words of Diogenes or Socrates. Doubt is nice, in moderation, okay?

Answer 4

well...the fact that we hear the founders name still today...after so many years...from millions of people, proves that the founders of those religions lived on this earth.