Jesus Christ – History or Myth? Why I Believe He Didn’t Exist

historicus (31)in #christianity • 7 years ago

I am an atheist and so obviously argue from the position of a non-belief in a god or gods. Doing this requires me to have some knowledge of the points I am arguing and it was while doing some research that I came across the theory that Jesus as a historical person never existed. While not believing that the miracle performing, Son of God Jesus was real I had always been open to the suggestion that the Jesus story was based on a real person or an amalgamation of people.

The theory postulated that the Jesus of the Gospels is nothing more than a myth and that Christianity exists in its present-day form because of misunderstandings and the propaganda promulgated by the early Christian Church. As it is now a widely held belief among scholars that the Patriarchs of the Old Testament (Moses, Joshua, Noah, Sampson etc) are mythical creations then why not Jesus? [1]

After looking at a very well constructed argument presented in the book ‘On the Historicity of Jesus – Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt’ by Richard Carrier and then after doing further research I have come to agree with the theory. I now believe that Jesus didn’t exist – definitely not as the Jesus portrayed in the Gospels and almost with a one hundred percent certainty, not as a historical person.

There is a wealth of information to publish in order to fully explain the Jesus Myth theory so I intend to do a series of posts outlining the various arguments. Some of the topics will cover:-

* How many past and present biblical scholars cannot be relied upon to present evidence-based arguments for the existence of Jesus. * Why the Bible cannot be taken as anything even closely resembling a historical document Which I have covered to some extent in my posts of the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. (see below for links) * Why Christianity had its origins in a Jewish break-away cult based on a myth which, in turn, had its roots in much older belief systems. * Why present-day Christianity is the result of winning a ‘propaganda war’ and is now nothing like the first Christians believed.

I believe that the Jesus Myth theory strikes at the very heart of Christianity – the belief in a divine Jesus who walked the earth two thousand years ago, performed miracles and was resurrected after dying on the cross in order to atone for the sins of humankind – and therefore needs to be carefully studied and subjected to a rigorous review.

If nothing else this theory should spark a debate on the reasons why Christians believe what they do and maybe force a revaluation of long-held beliefs and the institutions that uphold and guard those beliefs.

By the way, I am focusing on Christianity for the simple reasons that it is the religion I am most familiar with and it is the religion that the theory deals with. As it happens I think that what applies to Christianity also applies to almost all the religions of the world.

So, in order to further the debate, I invite all those interested - whether you are a believer, an agnostic or an atheist - to take part in a debate over the next few weeks (via the comments section) based on the various articles I will post.

Rules For The Debate

To enable a productive debate the following rules must be observed when commenting.

Be civil. I appreciate that this subject may press a few buttons but please don’t take it personally. Politeness doesn’t cost anything.

With that in mind; any abusive or offensive behaviour to others will be flagged and the instigator ignored in future debates.

If you decide to take place in the debate and you cite something please provide the source. Provide evidence for what you say; ‘because I have faith’ doesn’t cut it. Neither does ‘look around you at and see how everything fits in beautifully together. There must be a god behind it all’. That is Creationism and has no relevance to this topic. a debate for another day maybe?

And that's it. I am aware that in publishing these posts I may alienate or antagonise some but I hope that the majority out there will be open-minded enough to explore new ideas. So, what do you think? Are you up to debate this subject and maybe challenge beliefs you have held all your life? I look forward to talking with you in the weeks ahead.

Subsequent posts will be long – sorry about that – but there is a lot of information to get through.

Throughout this series of posts, I will rely heavily on the aforementioned book - ‘On the Historicity of Jesus – Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt’ by Richard Carrier. I will attempt to state the relevant chapters from where I have gathered my information as well as any sources Carrier uses.

Any other sources will be notated as and when used.