Splane: "So we know that Jesus existed because he took this selfie right after he resurrected..."
Verifiable proof of Jesus' existance outside the Bible
by unsure 44 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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OneEyedJoe
It's frustrating in the event that it is actually all true and we must believe even if the Bible is all there is.
If the god of the bible really does exist and exists as claimed, namely he is both just and loving, then ask yourself this: If god endowed you with the power of reason and sufficient agency to decide what you believe, and he requires that you believe wholeheartedly in something for which there is no reasonable evidence, could such a god truly be both just and loving?
To put it another way, would such a just and loving god deny you eternal reward if, after living a good life, your only mistake was failure to believe without (and indeed in spite of all) evidence? Live a good life - it's generally rewarding to do so. If by some bizarre coincidence there happens to be an afterlife, then you'll get in or not get in based mostly on whether the god of that afterlife is worthy of any veneration at all.
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Half banana
@ Unsure, Most of us have been in your shoes and asked ourselves, "What if it is true?" The further you are away from the Wt cult you will find that their teachings become less and less convincing and the whole pattern of their religious indoctrination and abusive control slowly becomes apparent.
Nobody has come up with evidence outside of the Bible that Jesus was a living man. Laughably Nazareth did not exist when Jesus was supposed to have been a child, which fact indicates how much later the writings of the NT were (when Nazareth did exist). Since the miracle working God-man Jesus had already existed as a theatrical saviour character in folk tales for millennia, how stupid it was for the early Christians to believe that a literary character in the plays of of the touring theatres became a living, breathing man? This is one reason the Romans were annoyed by the Christ cults in the first century, for being naive.
The Bible was one of the tools used by the Catholic Church to unite the masses. It most clearly is not inspired, there are no prophecies worth pointing to which give any confidence of a divine writer behind it. The Jesus character got it blatantly wrong (Mark 9,1). It was a work of propaganda selected from many sources to unify all the cults in the Roman world and strengthen and unify the empire in the fourth century. After a further century and a half, Rome fell but the religious imperatives remained and the Catholic hierarchy became even more powerful.
So don't be fearful of Bible threats. They're not worth the parchment they are written on!
@ deegee, I actually meant to quote James Mixon with reference to the parallel of Jesus early life and that of Horus. But I note that you also understand the nature of Biblical text being borrowed from earlier writings and from other cultures. Thank you for the references.
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redvip2000
Who cares if he existed? In fact, he probably did exist.
He was likely a delusional jewish hippie, with a tremendous ego who knew of the prophecy about the Messiah and decided that he was going to be this person. And people believed him.
If you consider all of the people today who claim to be of the anointed class, they are also this type of personality, who insists on being special. These folks love adulation, they love for others to look at them and say "look, he is special". There are over 13,000 of these folks today, and every single one of them is also delusional.
Jesus or whoever this man was, probably basked in the attention given to him as well.
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deegee
Thank you for the references.--------Half banana
I’m adding one more reference regarding the origin of the Adam & Eve myth, as it comes with audio – Unsure commented in another thread, that he/she is pressed for time to do research, so he/she can listen to this reference while doing other things if he/she so desires:
Folk-lore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion Legend & Law - James George Frazer
https://archive.org/stream/folkloreinoldte00frazgoog#page/n9/mode/1up