Can you help me with this class assignment about Jesus?

Question

In my comparative religions class our professor asked us to explain what we would do (those of us who are Christian - Muslims have a different assignment, etc) in essay form,
if we somehow got a tour of the Vatican archives and came upon a room that contained hundreds of documents explaining how Christianity was a political tool, made up by some organization, which slowly became the Catholic Church, and that Jesus was completely made up, the Bible was made up, the whole thing was an elaborate political hoax, etc.
You gather experts from around the world and they are shocked that, after reviewing it all, lo and behold, there is no refuting it, Christianity was completely made up! Jesus never existed at all and before you is more than enough evidence to bring, not only Christianity, but Islam and Judaism down.
We are to imagine that the evidence is irrefutable, if we don't believe something can be irrefutable, then we are to pretend that this is irrefutable.
How would we change?

Answer 1

90 % of the things Jesus did was made up .the truth about Jesus is that he came to free us fron religion,not to die for our sins.he was murdered by the slavemasters because he wanted to set the slaves free.after he died the church knew they had to do something. that is why they called him the son of God ,pasted him on the church and called it christianity. the ebionites were his first followers that didnt believe in christianity goto http://ebionite.com/AntiChrist.htm and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Way_of_the_disciple_of_the_Nazirene/

Answer 2

John, this is an unfair question. Because the Vatican Archives are filled with witnessing that demonstrates that the Way that Christ taught is excellent and those that follow His Way produce good results in their own Time and in History. So it is a poignantly abusive question to alter a reference point that if you studied it, would reveal to you the fruits of what Christ has taught. It is there to create suspicion and distrust, and because it is a discriminatory question you should answer it with an objective view that may cause you to get a bad grade. However, the Vatican has many documents at your disposal. The Summa of Thomas Aquinas contains arguments against those who say such things, and many professors both Protestant and Jewish have used his arguments. The Catholic Faith never teaches anyone to act unjustly, and a study of the Catechism alone (which is a wonderful compendium of what is in the Archives) is a perfect example and available for you to read.
Below is a sight which has much of what is contained in the Archives. Be aware that the Apocrypha is labeled this because it is extent and not much reliance is put upon it, yet it is there as well, in terms of writings not contained in the Bible. Learn what is taught without prejudice first. The encyclicals written by the Popes are contained at EWTN library. Thus the first argument is to study the teachings and reprove the questioner.

A second argument is this: IF Christ never existed, and yet the Church has taught this for 2000 years, then they would be lying. If they were lying, their teachings would be lies. Therefore evil would profit by their teachings, and good would not be accomplished by these teachings. Since the devil hates the Church and is constantly trying to destroy from within and from without, Jesus himself says this: a house divided against itself will fail. Yet Jesus says, thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And they have not. Because their teachings are based upon the Ten Commandments (the Law) and the Prophets, and Jesus is demonstrated to be the fulfillment of them.

The Third Argument is the holy priesthood, which is a demonstration of the Covenant with Christ and the Eucharist which Jesus says: if you do not eat of my body and drink of my blood you will not have the Life within you. And the Life is demonstrated by the consistency of the teachings of the Church throughout the 2000 year history.

Therefore, the question does require some research to be fair. A true teacher does not ask a slanted question unless he is trying to insist that his students learn how not to be swayed by it (an authority figure who is not authentic.) How can you compare religions authentically if you take a slanted view of one or more of them?

Answer 3

Sounds like you are being asked to develop something like a humanist approach to morality, which many of us already do. You can take the survival of the species as a criterion but it shouldn't be the only criterion. There are circumstances when human survival is less important than freedom and happiness. If we knew the world was going to come to an end in twenty years, would that be reason enough for us to abandon morality and do whatever we want *regardless of whether it hurts other people*? Or would we prefer to find a way to maximise happiness for all? If you use survival of the species as the only criterion, this could conceivably give rise to circumstances when rape would be morally acceptable to the majority; the pain and suffering visited on the victims would count for nothing. There is no such thing as 'fundamental atheism', by the way. There is just atheism i.e. the belief that there is no god. It doesn't come in degrees.

Answer 4

If you are a real believer, the answer to this is simple! Belief is its own reward. The principles that Jesus taught are valid whether Jesus exists or not. Its hard for fundamentalist Christians to understand this because to them it's all about Jesus' existence, but I think his teachings are excellent and -right- even if he didn't exist.

Jesus sometimes answered questions by telling a story. Then he'd turn to the person who asked the question 'So what do you think'? This is a very Jewish thing. I'm sure you're as familiar with these stories as I am, the parables. Do you think those stories were true? If they weren't true, if Jesus just made them up on the spot, would they not still be very useful to make his point? Sure they would. It doesn't really matter if they were true, it's the -moral- of the story that's important.

Answer 5

Funny seeing how many people can't even make it past the "Assume for the sake of the argument that its irrefutable" part.

Maybe you can write that, even if you were shown it was all a fraud (and again, we ARE assuming this for the purpose of the assignment), that doesn't mean you have to throw the whole thing away. Maybe belief in it would still "work" for you. Joseph Campbell spent a lifetime showing that the authenticity of mythology is irrelevant to the purpose of mythology, which is to teach certain timeless lessons through archetypes.

To put this in perspective of another religion: if Buddhists were to find out that Buddah didn't really exist, it wouldn't really matter, because the important thing for them is that Buddah represents certain qualities that they strive to model themselves after. Similarly you COULD in this case take the story of the Gosepels as an important story about moral behavior, sacrifice and redemption, etc.

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

If it were me, I would simply write a paper about how your professor is a Euro-centric fool who is completely ignorant of the origins of Christianity and the influence of the see of Rome in formulating the dogma of the Christian religion.
But that's just me.

Also, I would get out of that school immediately. It is probably not accredited - no legitimate school could possibly screw up that many facts regarding the origins of the Christian religion, especially in a Comparitive Religion class. It isn't just that parts that are to be assumed, it is that the entire premise is faulty. Imagine that the assignment is this: "Assume that you are touring the New Orleans City Hall, and you find a document that proves that the Mayor of New York City is not really the King of Prussia, but that the whole thing was made up by Chairman Mao in the year 2332..."

Answer 7

I would think that the Jesuits were busy and have a long time to construct the works you described.

It would only mean that I wouldn't be surprised at finding such things at the Vatican.

Answer 8

Many would not change. Faith is belief in things unseen. True faith would stand as it's own testament for many, even with irrefutable evidence.

Answer 9

It would be a 'law of the jungle' world, as Neitzche clearly saw. Neitzche's "God is dead" was not a victory shout, but the tortured realization that "Without God, we may treat each other however we want. "

Answer 10

...as your "professor" has wondered into the "room" of "if" and "should'a", "could'a", "would'a"... please remind the "educated-one" that Gods Word has already been challenged over the millenniums by every "tom", "dick" and "harry" out-there and still remains "Rock" solid... Even the secular Hebrew historian Josephus documents the life of Yeshua (Jesus)... Take "lightly" and "humorously" anything written by the Church of Rome who over the centuries has "skewed" and "altered" Gods Words to fit their dogma's, doctrines and bulls from "religious" zealots who have created religious gymnastics to hold their followers in bondage... The words of Rome read like a cosmic comic book with all that "they" have taken out of context... Gods Word is.... the words of Roman Church "are not"...