The Great Conspiracy-what if Jesus was never born?

Originally posted by MatrixProphet
reply to post by OldThinker

 

For me the summation is....humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up...that certainly has application to 'how' one relates to others I would hope...humility is the key!

Unfortunately, YOU get thrown into the morass of evangelicals on ATS because they give a bad name to Christianity.

Yes MP that is a shame! You catch the SuperBowl yesterday?

btw, thx for being consistent here on ATS....the posts of late have been insightful, for sure!

OT

I don't believe Jesus was ever born. I don't think he was a real person, that he was crucified, that he was the Son of God, or that he ever taught the things described in the New Testament. I don't believe he was a historical person like the Buddha or Confucius. However, I do believe that "his" teachings are just as worthy of recognition as those of the aforementioned. The problem is not that people accept "his" teachings, its that they accept him as a deity. Buddha never claimed to be a god (though he is highly revered). Same with Confucius.

All that said, since I don't believe in Jesus, I imagine the world would be exactly the same if he was never born. On the other hand, if "his" teachings had never been recorded, the world would be greatly different. Whether better or worse ... well, that' a bit more complicated.

I think Jesus was a real person, but if I somehow found out that he never existed I could believe that too. This is because most of what Jesus taught was not completely original; a lot of what he said came from Greek Philosophy.

"In the Epicurean view, the highest pleasure (tranquility and freedom from fear) was obtained by knowledge, friendship and living a virtuous and temperate life. He lauded the enjoyment of simple pleasures, by which he meant abstaining from bodily desires, such as sex and appetites."

As you can see, the life of an Epicurean is fairly similar to the life of a follower of Jesus.

I think Jesus was well read in Greek Philosophy; it is apparent in Scripture that Paul certainly was, and a lot of his views were shaped by Greek Philosophy.

If Jesus wasn't ever born, then he was just a tool to bring Greek Philosophy to the masses. Regardless of whether he was born or not, Jesus's teachings are good and reasonable, but they weren't as groundbreaking as most people proclaim. The only reason Jesus's teachings are more well known than Greek Philosophy is because he claimed to be a divine being with a divine father.