Atheists, do you believe a man named Jesus existed for real?

Question

What's your brief opinion on existence of historical Jesus?

And why do you think are there so many similarities between Jesus, Horus and other Sun gods, messiahs etc, of his time and time preceding the alleged birth of Jesus?

Answer 1

I do not believe in a historical jesus. I have done much research and have seen little to no evidence to support it.
Yes I have seen the usual, pliny and josephus and titus, and none of it is convincing at all. If jesus was a miracle working son of god as claimed, there should be at least a few non biblical sources. There really are none.

Also almost every feature of jesus can be attributed to another mangod,saviour, who came before him in the pagan world. While one may not cover all of his attributes, they are all present before jesus.

http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/marshall_gauvin/did_jesus_really_live.html
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/nizrael/jesusrefutation.html
http://jesuspuzzle.humanists.net/home.htm
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/rmsbrg00.htm
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen048.html


Shika, please provide me with any evidence at all for the claims you just made.

Answer 2

I believe there is every chance that Jesus existed and He may well have preached a peaceful life, but being the son of God or God I doubt very much.
I think those years that are missing in the "Bible", where spent in Egypt, maybe studying at the Great Library of Alexandria, as many great thinkers of the time did. Which would explain any similarities to His life and those derived from Egyptian Gods, He would have also have had influences from many other religions and stories as the Egyptians would confiscate any new books/parchments they came across, copy and then return to the owners (sometimes they would get the copies).
I don't think Jesus was the only Bible character to have used Egypt as a place of learning or starting point for their religious beliefs.
Which would explain Egypt being one of the most mentioned/referred country in the Bible.

Answer 3

In order:

No.
History doesn't support any of the tales of Christ (outside of the bible). Check this site out for a much better explanation, than I'd be able to provide, through this limited forum: nobeliefs.com/exist.

The similarities between Jesus and Horus are a fabrication, based on 18th century conjecture about Egyptian myth. Horus was not born of a virgin, but the Godess Isis (who consumated her marriage to another god). There is no crucifixion myth for Horus (according to the myth, Horus was torn to pieces, and brought back to life by the Crocodile god). Horus was not attended by shepherds, since he was born in a swamp. The man of the sea walked on water, not Horus. Horus did not have 12 disciples (there is an Egyptian painting of 12 reapers, but Horus doesn't appear within it); he was attended by 4 minor gods. The list goes on.

Messianic myth was common, and many tales handed down. These stories spread to other lands, by way of travelers, and culturally adapted and changed. In some cases (such as Mithras) many details were blatantly stolen to support a monotheistic faith, as opposed to a pagan one.

Answer 4

I will always leave open the possibility that he was a real dude that helped the jews, past that though, i think lot of exaggeration and prophesizing was involved, the thing about the past is no one was there to know what happened, and people who documented things did the best they could w/ the knowledge they had, but all because i say "my neighbor is a saint for saving that kid from drowning" doesnt make him, you know, a saint. Like i think the "turned water into wine" couldve meant all they had before was water and he opened the lines of communication or made some trade agreement and they were able to aquire alcohol, it definately wasnt magic.

And every civilization w/ any intelligence will eventually create some means of keeping their populations in order. Religion is what they had before public servants, cops, etc. Now that law enforcement is in order though maybe we can tone down the religion thing, just a tad,. Its a little suffocating and depressing to think soooo many people could have that low a self esteem to go w/ that and then torture their kids from birth w/ the same crap.

Answer 5

Evidence suggests that Jesus more then likely existed.The extent of his "power" however could easily have been fabricated through rumor and speculations.The fact that his story in a religious context reflects many other stories from other religions and mythology's seems to support the fact that his "power" was more or less just a compilation of the powers of similar savior deities of other beliefs.

Answer 6

It was a common name at the time, but that's not what you meant.

Yes, it seems likely to me that one of the leaders of the various sects active in the 1st century was called something like Jesus and said a few of the things that have been ascribed to him. The evidence is pretty dodgy, though, so I wouldn't be shocked if independent proof was found to the contrary.

The rest is myth, syncretism and propaganda (in plain language, lies).

Answer 7

A man by the name of Jesus might actually existed, the stories about him might be fabricated.

Answer 8

personally, i don't know or care whether a guy called jesus existed. when christians assert the existence of their demigod though, the evidence is almost always about a guy called jesus, so i suppose that part is possible at least.

Answer 9

I think that ther was a good amn spreading messages of peace a long time ago. He wasn't a god, but just a good, kind person that wanted the world to be peaceful.

Answer 10

i'm not a total atheist but...

i think a man named Jesus did exist ... he might have been the son of God, or a prophet or most probably just a man... it doesn't make a difference at all to the validity of his teachings of peace and tolerance..