What are the chances that Jesus tricked everyone?

Question

Human beings are driven by a desire to understand. When they cannot, they invent explanations for strange phenomena as often as not.

Look at many (read: all) early religions. They created mythology around unexplained natural phenomena in an attempt to understand it. For example, the Greeks and Romans believed that the cause of winter was that Persephone was visiting her husband in the underworld. Persephone's mother, Demeter, was the Goddess of the Harvest, so during the time her daughter spent in Hades she made the earth cold and fallow.

The point is... people have been basing their religious beliefs on stuff they made up for thousands of years. Back in the day anythin that people couldn't explain must be the work of God or Gods.

Don't you think it's possible that Jesus was merely a skilled manipulator? That perhaps his miracles were staged, or he used sleight of hand, and once he gained a critical mass of followers they drove him to the point of godhood?

~Swingers

Answer 1

One can manipulate others through example, of course, but manipulation can be merely a result of ones chosen behavior, rather than a goal in itself.

Yes, people have always formulated paradigms in order to explain the world in ways that prove to be convenient to their desires. Some explain this as a quest to reduce "cognitive dissonance."

The hypotheses posed in this question, for example, serve to reduce any anxiety which may otherwise result from the pursuit of particular lifestyle preferences.

Answer 2

to respond to the first question, are you able to quite stay a "righteous existence"? What primary is that by utilizing? who's righteous? till you imagine your proper, i'm certain you've made some blunders on your existence. God set the classic as perfection. that would want to seem steep, yet do not you want a proper heaven? in case you've self belief Jesus replaced right into a magnificent guy, then why might want to he lie about being God. some human beings say he did not, yet it is not any longer authentic. Jews in that element never spoke the interest Yahweh, which stands for God, yet Jesus used countless different procedures to point he replaced into God. He reported "i'm" which replaced right into a popularity of God. He forgave sins, which in worry-free words God can do. even as someone reported he replaced into sturdy, he reported that in worry-free words God is sturdy. Jesus replaced into unlike Moses and Abraham. They both sinned at one time or yet another. (seem it up) you want Jesus' proper existence to grant you that righteousness which we were speaking about. seem on the books the Case for Christ, or the Case for faith by utilizing Lee Strobel. i imagine they both have student variations also in case you needed.

Answer 3

The chances of Jesus fooling anyone is zero percent.

Did you even read the Bible? You shouldn't read what his followers thought of Jesus. You should instead focus on what his enemies thought of him.

Then you would understand why they wanted him dead. But they did not understand He was God in the flesh. That is why he rose again from death.

The Jewish leaders knew who he was, and was not a con man, and a lot of them you read in the book of Acts were secret followers of his.

Muslims know Jesus existed and did not fool anyone and they are not ashamed to call him a prophet.

In those stories there are too many historical stories and events there to discount them as fakes. If they were fakes they would have been exposed long ago. Also you go to Jerusalem, and other holy places in Israel and elsewhere there and you will see evidence of landmarks where Jesus was.

Answer 4

I'm wondering why such a person would not be smart enough to avoid execution rather than willingly surrender himself into the hands of the Romans.

Answer 5

The writers about jebus never tricked me. Sorry, but the mayor of my city of 300,000 is a recognizable person. He cannot go anywhere in public with someone seeing him and a reporter reporting about him that day in the paper, news, internet, radio and gossip chain. 2,000 years ago, if THE person who was prophecied about showed up, it would have been written about. During his THIRTY THREE YEARS on earth, there would be some writing or some documentation somewhere about THE event. You might think that jebus himself would have written something. Alas there is not one shred.

Answer 6

Or more likely he was just a run-of-the-mill prophet who happened to be crucified for hostility towards the Roman occupation of Jerusalem and crucified, only to be glorified in myth by his followers who, over time, added more and more to the story?

Answer 7

I think Jesus was the Houdini of his day...if he existed at all. There are contradictions about him in the Bible. Two different authors of parts of the NT say he was born at least eleven years apart. His nature is different in different parts. There are strong reasons to doubt he really lived.

Answer 8

how could Jesus trick anyone- the Romans soldiers KNEW that He was dead before they took Him down from that cross- also guards were standing at the entrance to the tomb. A skilled manipulator would not want people to live eternally with Him- and die to prove it. Miracles or not- He died on the cross and rose from the dead- that is miracle in itself don't you think? There were people who chose to not believe even when they saw.

Answer 9

Jesus did not trick anyone... he couldn't... he is fictional. It is the storywriters who invented and embellished upon the fictional Jesus who tricked everyone. In other words... christianity is a complete fraud. Christians are the victims of that fraud.

Modern biblical scholarship makes a very compelling case for the idea that Jesus never existed... that he was, in fact, entirely fictional. Richard Carrier's review of 'The Jesus Puzzle' is probably the best place to start, if you're really interested in investigating this...
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/jesuspuzzle.shtml

The Jesus Puzzle
http://pages.ca.inter.net/%7Eoblio/jhcjp.htm
http://jesuspuzzle.humanists.net/home.htm

Answer 10

The Gospels are clearly mythological/legendary. If there was a historical Jesus, there's no reason to suspect he faked any of the stories in the gospels. The simpler explanataion is that those stories were attached to his persona later on, when he had already become a legendary figure - sort of like Santa vs. St. Nicholas.