Atheists, do you believe Jesus Christ is real?

Question

As a regular man?
As a super-natural man?

... and explain your answer as to why you believe this.

Is there any historical evidence or otherwise of a man named Jesus Christ who existed during those times?

I'm an atheist, and I've heard of other atheists believing there was a human with that name. I just wonder why that is.

"As a super-natural man?"
Strike that then. :)

Answer 1

>No. There is historical evidence that proves he is dead and has been in that condition for around 2000 years.<

Answer 2

I personally think it is possible a regular man may have existed who became the template for the Jesus depicted in the bible.. I do not believe he was the son of any god, I think if he did exist he was a regular person who was simply extraordinarily charismatic.. and spawned exaggerated historical accounts of his doings which were incorporated into a mythological book. However there is no concrete evidence that the Jesus in the bible really existed and any evidence found so far cannot be verified as proof of THE Jesus in the bible. I do keep an open mind and I don't discount that which has not been utterly disproven. I do however utterly disbelieve that anyone could provide evidence of a supernatural Jesus, a regular one maybe.. I will keep my mind open to both, but I favor the more probable explanation..

Answer 3

actual, the Jews might save some form of writings on the time of folk claimed to probably be the Messiah and fake Messiahs... Jesus, if he existed, wasn't even important sufficient or inflicting sufficient of a stir to get a point out. The Romans have been staunch checklist-keepers besides, yet there's no writings approximately Jesus in Roman information. There are actually not any surviving writings approximately Jesus from ANY of Jesus' contemporaries in any respect (The apostles did not write the Bible... purpose historic evidence helps that their books have been written an prolonged time, even a century, later) Earliest writings some Jesus parent have been mere mentions that occurred an prolonged time after his purported dying. there's no actual evidence-- not a grave or maintains to be, a private belonging-- not something-- from an historic Jesus. i think the story is guy-made; if he did exist, i think of his tale develop into in basic terms a legend that grew uncontrolled.

Answer 4

As an atheist, I have no need to believe that Jesus Christ is real quite simply because there is NO CREDIBLE EVIDENCE TO DEMONSTRATE THAT HE EVER EXISTED AS A HISTORICAL REALITY.

JESUS NEVER EXISTED. He is just another example of the kind of resurrecting god myth that was common to the Middle East in antiquity, just like Attis, Osirus, and Tammuz. Only the uneducated and the low-class pathetically cling to such ridiculous fairy tales as Jesus.

Answer 5

I rather imagine Jesus of Nazareth (Yeshua ben Joseph/Yusef) was a real human being. You can argue all day long about the supernatural side of things. However, to clarify, "Christ" means "God's anointed". It's not his last name. It's like "Mahatma Gandhi". Mahatma comes from Maha (great) + atman (soul). Gandhi's name was Mohandas Gandhi, not Mahatma Gandhi. So your question is a bit like asking if an atheist or agnostic believes "Lord Jesus" was a real person. It sort of assumes the conclusion as a precondition.

It seems pretty clear that someone by that name, or resembling the descriptions mentioned in the gospels, did exist in the time period in question, did travel to the places mentioned, etc.

Again, you'd have to argue over whether and when miracles were performed and such.

Answer 6

I'm not an atheist, really, I'm more of a secular humanist, and I do not consider myself a Christian. Jesus was a real, historical person, a very charismatic one. He was not, however, the Christ, any more than the rest of humanity is.

I was raised a Catholic, by the way, and I majored in Theology at a Jesuit university. I think that Jesus was re-created as the Christ by his followers because that is what early Christians needed him to be. The further out you get historically from Jesus' life, the more "God-like" he is portrayed in the Gospels. It is not necessary to believe Jesus was supernatural to partake in his message.

Answer 7

As an athiest, I believe that he was a real person who thought differently than most people of his time. However I also believe that what he said and the story of his life was embelished in order to support a movement that he had not started. Over several generations that movement corrupted the message of peace and respect, and has caused a lot of harm.

The "do unto others..." message was the essence of what Jesus taught. It was pretty good message, although not original to Jesus, and it is a good way to live. Even as an athiest, I wish more people today lived that message since it would make the world a nicer place.

Answer 8

Linguistic evidence suggests that there was a single story-teller of some skill behind MOST -- but not all -- of the parables. That man may have been named Y'hoshu'ah ben Yosef.

The only historical mentions of that name come much later and are less than reliable.

Unless something more substantial surfaces, the most reasonable explanation of the complete body of evidence as it stands is that there -may- have been a teacher, but he had little impact or influence outside his circle during his lifetime.

Answer 9

Since I don't believe on Gods that makes the whole "Son of God" thing impossible.
As for the idea that some preaching rebel rabbi called Jesus existed as a human being. "Maybe" is the answer. However it seems very unlikely and the only histories are so corrupted that it is absolutely impossible to prove such a person existed.

Answer 10

If a man named Jesus existed he was simply an influential traveling story teller not a 1/2 deity... People have embellished and added to the storys of the story teller for so long reality has been lost amongst the embellishments..

Answer 11

There may have been a person named Jesus in that time although there is very little evidence to support it. More than likely the Jesus of the biblical stories is a conglomeration of the characteristics of several people and the stories of the bible mere parables, not factual, historically accurate accounts.