Why the insistence on no apology offered?

[_Trevor]

Hmmm....Wade hasn't commented on my response. I wonder if he thinks I have hope.

;)

Let's keep our fingers crossed. I'd hate for you to be in the same awful position as me and beastie here. Heaven forfend!

[_beastie]

So...just out of curiosity...Trevor and Beastie...are you both athiests? Do you both consider Jesus fictitious?

Yes, I'm an atheist. Technically, I'm an agnostic atheist, because I do not believe it is possible to possess reliable information about whether or not a godbeing exists in the first place, but I am also an atheist because I lack belief in any such being (or any other supernatural claim, either).

I think it's possible a man named Jesus existed, upon whose life later myths were constructed, but I really haven't studied it thoroughly. I read a few books on the subject, but it was years ago. I leave that to others more interested in that particular topic.

[_beastie]

I hate to have to judge myself in this way, but I can't quite make out your horrible distortions. Anyone have a good therapist recommendation?

Why, yes, as a matter of fact. Wade!

;)

[_wenglund]

I am sorry, but for the third time in less days I again don't recognize the words you just put into my mouth. However, this tendency by you does ironically strike me as a repetative sitcom ending. ;-)

Not to worry, Wade. Any sane person would recognize that I maliciously distort your words.

Not suprisingly, I am not the least bit worried, nor do I think you are being malicious, nor do I think sane people would think your distortions are malicious. However, we may find the seeming inevitibility of you putting words into our mouths to be ironically sitcom-ish, if not also boardering on cartoonish. ;-)

Thanks, -Wade Englund-

[_Trevor]

So...just out of curiosity...Trevor and Beastie...are you both athiests? Do you both consider Jesus fictitious?

I do not like the term atheist, since I am rather fond of myths, so long as they remain in a certain sphere. I prefer the designation 'humanist.' I also don't like defining myself against theology, as though theology deserved the privilege.

As for Jesus being fictitious--I think it is possible that such a person existed in history. I am not that confident that the gospels are an accurate representation of that person's life, if such a person existed. I am open to the idea that the figure is a composite that draws on the memory of several different imperial-era Jewish holy men. It could be that Jesus was some kind of deity before he was historicized as a person, although I find this less likely.

While I think the myth of Jesus continues to be powerful, I do not believe that he is literally the son of God, that he really rose from the dead, or that he will return to earth in a literal second coming. If Jesus is the name people use to attach their highest aspirations and hopes to, that's OK with me. I still find meaning in the myth of Jesus. I just don't want others running my life according to the dictates of their myths.

[_beastie]

Not suprisingly, I am not the least bit worried, nor do I think you are being malicious, nor do I think sane people would think your distortions are malicious. However, we may find the seeming inevitibility of you putting words into our mouths to be ironically sitcom-ish, if not also boardering on cartoonish. ;-)

Well, then, certainly, let's amend that to my cartoonish distortions.

by the way, is this the same "we" that ran SAD? And your anti-bigotry group?

[_Sethbag]

So...just out of curiosity...Trevor and Beastie...are you both athiests? Do you both consider Jesus fictitious?

Yes, I'm an atheist. Technically, I'm an agnostic atheist, because I do not believe it is possible to possess reliable information about whether or not a godbeing exists in the first place, but I am also an atheist because I lack belief in any such being (or any other supernatural claim, either).

I think it's possible a man named Jesus existed, upon whose life later myths were constructed, but I really haven't studied it thoroughly. I read a few books on the subject, but it was years ago. I leave that to others more interested in that particular topic.

This is pretty much exactly where I stand. I'm in the "there is almost certainly no God" camp, rather than the "hell no there's no God, guaranteed!" camp, which I think is actually pretty small. I believe that Jesus may well have existed, but that the stories about him that were written well after the fact are exaggerated, embellished, and mythologized, and that he wasn't really the Saviour of all mankind, etc. I don't believe Jesus is alive today, up in a Celestial Kingdom which I think doesn't exist, and that he's never coming back. So, today, Jesus only exists as a fantastic caricature and figment of our imaginations, but not in any real, tangible sense.