Was Jesus actually the central part of human history? What with the movements he started and the turning point between B.C.E. and C.E. and the wars started over him, was he actually the most influencial and controversial man in history?
2007-08-10 08:26:27 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
He's the big man in Western religious history. In non-religious history, he's way down at the bottom of the heap.
Lets take Julius Caesar for instance. In addition to being the Dictator of the entire Roman Empire, he corrected the calender . He was a great historian, he improved shorthand to where speaches could be recorded at normal speaking speed.
Bede recorded everything he could get his hands on. Without him much of history would have been lost forever.
Alfred insisted on everyone becomming educated.
The background of almost everything we use today comes from Edison.
Take religion away from Jesus, and he comes up empty.
2007-08-10 08:49:32 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some believe Jesus is a myth.
Current theories arose from nineteenth century scholarship on the formation of myth, in the work of writers such as Max Müller and James Frazer. Müller argued that religions originated in mythic stories of the birth, death, and rebirth of the sun. Frazer further attempted to explain the origins of humanity's mythic beliefs in the idea of a "sacrificial king", associated with the sun as a dying and reviving god and its connection to the regeneration of the earth in springtime.
The later works by George Albert Wells drew on the Pauline Epistles and the lack of early non-Christian documents to argue that the Jesus figure of the Gospels was symbolic, not historical.
Earl Doherty proposed that Jewish mysticism influenced the development of a Christ myth, while John M. Allegro proposed that Christianity began as shamanic religion based on the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Most recently Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy have popularized the Jesus-myth concept in their book "The Jesus Mysteries."
2007-08-10 15:39:22 · answer #2 · answered by Mike H. 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That he existed is in little doubt- Romans kept pretty good records and as they saw him as nothing more than a pain in the **** who didnt pay his taxes and narked off the jews it's unlikely they made him up. No way was he the cornerstone of human history, despite what christians may tell you- the Romans had been going for ages, and before them the Greeks, Pheonicians, Egytians Hitites, , etc.
A lot has been done in Jesus' name, but as far as direct individual influence goes I'd put my money on Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan (It turns out nearly everyone's distantly related to Genghis - he was a busy boy)
2007-08-10 15:39:27 · answer #3 · answered by miserable old git 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think it really depends. For me He was because of the many ways I tried to "find God", nothing worked. Going through Jesus not only worked, it was a complete and utter reality. Everyone else in history is dead and gone. Jesus lives in my heart as both Lord and personal Savior. Who can compete with that?
2007-08-10 18:03:45 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Central part of human history..well..umm..no..
Human history started around 150,000 years ago...jesus came around 2,000 years ago...and half of 150,000 (the midpoint/center) is 75,000 so that means you're only about 73,000 years off...
*edit*
Sorry...I think I misunderstood your question.
I think christianity could be considered a main part of human history, yes. As for Jesus...being that he lived 2,000 years ago and christianity didn't become widespread till about 200 years later, meaning their wouldn't be much documentation about him till then...I really don't know what to think about him.
2007-08-10 15:38:36 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Jesus did not exist. He was nothing. It would be more accurate to say that Christianity was a central part of RECENT human history.
2007-08-10 15:33:20 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
I'll let you answer that....or maybe I should look to how Napolean answered it....what other man has commanded so many books to be written about Him, so many works of arts, so many songs. what other man have so many of the world dedicated their life to?
As for influencing the world...I'd say Jesus, Mohammed and maybe one or two others have had this impact.
Must be something there....hhhmmmm....
2007-08-10 15:36:13 · answer #7 · answered by Last Stand 2010 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
He was basically the biggest hippie socialist in all of human history, a great moral philosopher no doubt...Love thy neighbor, feed and clothe the poor, turn the other cheek, etc.
2007-08-10 15:31:22 · answer #8 · answered by Memetics 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
As of today, Jesus is number two. Number one is Karl Marx, whose mistaken ideas were the costliest blunder in all of human history. The cost has run to tens of millions of lives, and trillions of dollars, and is continuing to increase every day.
2007-08-10 15:38:52 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
If only your headline were so. No, Christianity aside, he would be no different from a hundred other Jewish radicals saying much the same thing at much the same time in a really fairly unimportant little armpit of the Roman empire.
2007-08-10 15:32:00 · answer #10 · answered by Voyager 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋