Why do some atheists doubt Jesus's (pbuh) existance, but not Plato's or Socrates who were born before Jesus?

Question

'Verily, the likeness of 'Iesa (Jesus) before Allah is the likeness of Adam. He created him from dust, then (He) said to him: "Be!" - and he was.'
'(This is) the truth from your Lord, so be not of those who doubt.' (Qur'an 3:59-60)

Answer 1

Plato and Socrates wrote books. They had friends who wrote about them. There were historians who wrote about them. Real people writing real histories, not some book that everyone claims was transcribed by god.

By the way, almost nobody denies Jesus' existance, they doubt his godhood.

Answer 2

I have to say that Socrates is seen in history as having a birthday and a date of death, something that Jesus does not have. Jesus never had a birth day and the day of his fictional death is also never mentioned. But the way to understand what was Jesus is to learn about why he was composed in the first place. This is in Roman history, and to shorten this story, the Roman aristocrats and some royals had become concerned about so many slaves and other ignorants of the masses joining Judaism. In the mid 60sCE there were about twenty thousand Judeans living outside of Judea and about ten percent of that number were living in and around Rome. The Romans were concerned about the new recruits possibly being conscripted into the army of the Pharisees which would present a major problem for Rome. The Romans decided that they had to have a way to weaken Judaism as that was where the Judeans were getting their belief that they could over power Rome,. They came up with the idea to make a new religion that would be or seem to be passive; 'turn the other cheek'. They stole the god of the Judeans and wrote the NT story that Jesus was born of that god in their attempt to trick the Judeans to believe that Jesus was from their god. This naturally did not succeed. Jesus was a composite character placed into a fictional story, that is it was fictional where the character of Jesus was concerned, as most of it is about comic parody of the great war between the Romans and Pharisees 70 ~73 CE. (The book Piso Christ) can give plenty details on this and who were the writers of the NT. As for Paul he also was not a real person, and Paul would never have been brought into the story but the writers had to have realized after they had fictionally killed the fictional Jesus that they forgot to have him open the new religion, and that is why they brought Paul into the story. Although, there was a prototype of the book of Mark which was called 'ur Marcus' that a relative of the NT writers had tried to pass to the Judeans in the very early 60s ce, but Nero stopped that. The NT story as seen in the bible now was not begun until the year 70CE . The writers placed it in a different and earlier time in history to make it seem more believable, and fewer persons would be able to know what they had done. All of the writers were related and they also played the disciples as well. To the point, Jesus was not a real person and that has been proved.

Answer 3

Before I began to frequent this R&S forum I thought Jesus had been a real human being, but I doubted His divinity. Now I understand that the town of Nazareth didn't even exist until decades after Jesus of Nazareth was supposedly executed. No tangible trace of His physical existence has ever been found. The only records of Jesus are found in the Gospels and they were written between 50 AD and 90 AD, or between 20 and 60 years after His crucifixion. There is no reason to assume that the gospels are entirely accurate, since they were written by men whose agenda was to establish the early Christian church. It is the complete lack of any non-Biblical historical record of Christ's earthly existence that fills many atheists with doubt.

On the other hand, abundant independent historical evidence exists for for both Socrates and Plato. There is no doubt that they both existed because much of their work was preserved by Arab scholars, to be translated into Latin. Numerous other philosophers also mention Socrates and Plato in their own works. There is no reason to doubt their existence.

Answer 4

because people gain nothing from creating Plato or Socrates.

Jesus, on the other hand, is more of a mascot for a marketing campaign. Therefore his existence is put into question by the fact he is used to promote an objective of conversion. For example, he couldn't actually heal people, but it sure sounds good. So one falsehood leaves Jesus on a slippery slope to fiction. Plus, it is pretty annoying to see a Jewish guy living in the middle east depicted as a blue eyed blond haired white guy.

Most atheist probably don't think that he never existed but simply that he didn't exist like he does in the Bible, i.e. he didn't do magic tricks and wasn't born from a virgin, etc.

Also, as far as I know, the only record of Jesus is from the Bible, which is not the most honest of documents.

Answer 5

There is historical evidence for the existence of Socrates and
Plato. Most importantly, Jesus never wrote anything or left anything behind. Most likely he was a composite character that gradually formed in the stories of radical Jews who were opposed to the Roman ocupation. Every cause needs martyrs, the Hebrews simply combined these stories.

Answer 6

I don't doubt the existence of a MAN named Jesus but i do doubt his divinity. I believe that a man named Jesus was born but was not the son of god. We also have works written by Plato and Socrates themselves.

Answer 7

Plato and Socrates do not threaten their belief system! Jesus does, when He tell them, "Ye must repent and be born again"!!! Plato and Socrates don't ask the atheists to believe in the existence of God, whereas Jesus ask ALL mankind to believe that He IS GOD!!!
Naturally the atheists will doubt and try to prove Jesus didn't exist became He threatens their whole way of life!!!! The other two, mortal men, in NO way threaten the beliefs or way of life of anyone!!!!

Answer 8

Outside of the Bible, there are no contemporary accounts of Christ that exist. Socrates and Plato are mentioned by name in several works, including by people that disagreed with them (Aristophanes, Aristotle).

Furthermore, many of the features of Christ's 'biography' also existed in the mythological figures that were prominent in the Middle East at the time (Dionysus, Horus, Mithras). I doubt that that's a coincidence.

Answer 9

Because there was no mythology created based on the existence of Plato or Socrates.

Jesus may have existed, but he certainly wasn't divine. Christianity is based on plagiarized pagan beliefs/religions, and is pure fiction.

Answer 10

The idea is that there no other proof of Jesus' existence outside the Bible, no historical proof, nothing. Plato and Socrates on the other hand do have historical data outside of their own writings.

All the people who say 'They do not doubt the existence of Jesus." Is incorrect, its not just Athiest, as a Hindu, I also do not believe he existed, along with King Aurthor, The Easter Bunny, and Santa Clause.

Answer 11

Doubting his existence and doubting that he was the son of God are two different things.

Yet some doubt his existence simply because there is not a lot of historical evidence regarding his life. Not so for the others you mentioned.