Atheist Forum

Most atheists claimed Jesus Christ was a mythical character invented by the writers of the New Testament. How is that possible if people were worshipping him three decades before the Gospels were written?

http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/...242&page=1

Because they were mourning the leader of their cult.

Yes, the leading archeaologists believe this cave was used by the 70 Disciples of Jesus Christ when they fled from Jerusalem so they were not persecuted by the Romans.

Nothing wrong with that then.

And I don't think many people say that Jesus was a mythical character. I believe that if he were around today he would not recognise the description of himself in the bible but I'm sure he existed.

Perhaps you should read the entire article before jumping to conclusions.

I really don't know what to believe when it comes to Jesus. There are good arguments for and against his existence. I reckon he probably existed as a person, and either he started going around claiming to be the Son of God so he would be worshipped, or everything about him was made up later on.

You said everything about his divinity was later added in the Gospels? Then explain why people worshipped him three decades before the Gospels were written. Surely Jesus must have proven himself in front of this large group of people.

Many people in the past have claimed to be a Messiah, but all of these so-called Messiah's were NOT worshipped before it was written.

This is where it gets tricky for atheists.

I can't say if jesus was real or not but even if he was, I can say that he was not god. He was just a man. No one with super powers or any of that nonsense. Just some crazy man who claimed he was god and people being dumb enough to believe it.

Even if he was real, he was no god. Just some guy who claimed he was.

jesus god - Dismissed!

It isn't tricky at all because you are looking at it from one way and we are looking at it from another. Lets humor the article and say that the dates they have given are accurate.

What does this tell us?

Only that Jesus was being worshiped before the gospels speak of his divinity. Many people are worshiped for various reasons. Certainly the prophet Muhammad of Islam is worshiped in some ways by Muslims, but he never claimed to be the son of God. Perhaps these people were simply worshiping Jesus as a prophet? Did that ever cross your mind?

Even if this is not the case, I am not against the theory that Jesus was suffering from a God complex and managed to get a group of followers who believed that he really was the Messiah.

this won't work on them.....

That Jesus existed most historians agree. We have documented evidence from Christian, Roman and Jewish texts writen at the time or directly after. We can not take the Christian sources as unbais, but the Roman sources had no reason to lie about the existance of the then cult figure Jesus and the Jews actully had resons to try and disprove the existence of Jesus.

Weather he did miricles is debatable but the existence of the real man is as sure as ancient history can be. The fact that people were worshiping him in 33AD, just a few years after his cruxifiction, only further proves the mans existance, as there is little time for an invention, but not his divine powers.