5 reasons to suspect Jesus never existed...

[_honorentheos]

MG:
Tell me a bit more about this 'latter day work' that came about through Charles Manson.

We wouldn't have the great catalog of music created by the Beatles, who were writing their songs to send messages to Manson. The musical landscape would be completely different without Charles Manson. We should always abide by the principle that a person should be given credit for whatever other good he claimed for himself, regardless of other explanations. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for WWII and it's influence on the lives of my grandparents. That entire European fascism thing was truly a great work since I can point directly to it for my family relationships and the value they hold for me.

He was a great man, wasn't he? By their fruits ye shall know them.



Regards,
MG

Apparently so. I like the Beatles, anyway, so it's only appropriate to accept his claims in order to acknowledge the goodness of his works.

In the spirit of Praise to the Man, I think someone ought to sing praise to Manson using the Vietnamese National Anthem. Nothing against Vietnam, mind you, just that I'm not likely to hear it anywhere unlike Scotland the Brave. Which Mormonism has forever ruined, by the way. We should blame Joseph Smith for that.

[_honorentheos]

Goodbye topic...

To be fair, it never really was on the tracks to begin with.

[_Jersey Girl]

But there were moments...

[_honorentheos]

But there were moments...

It was just a dream. Go back to sleep.

[_Jersey Girl]

But there were moments...

It was just a dream. Go back to sleep.

[_ludwigm]

What did Joseph Smith do?

Well, without him we wouldn't be hassling over whether or not the true church is on the earth.

Or if we were, it would be some other guy that would be dissed.

Regards,
MG

You have a very good point, MG! If there was never a Joseph Smith there would be no MDB. What would I do with my spare time? I'm sure my wife has a list.

For these sentences only, it was worth to read this 11 pages.

Unfortunately, my wife doesn't read this material called YOUR liar internet...
(her words, the stress can not be written, there is no such smilie)

[_I have a question]

I'm guessing that you're saying that there is nothing that could sway me from choosing to believe in God. That's actually not true either.

What could sway you from choosing to believe in God?

Bumping for MG.

[Guest]

http://www.alternet.org/belief/5-reasons-suspect-jesus-never-existed

1. No first century secular evidence whatsoever exists to support the actuality of Yeshua ben Yosef.

That is manifestly false. There is Josephus. And Tacitus.

2. The earliest New Testament writers seem ignorant of the details of Jesus’ life, which become more crystalized in later texts.

Only if you uncritically accept the dates for the New Testament books advocated by some New Testament scholars, which are based on a "tyranny of assumptions."

3. Even the New Testament stories don’t claim to be first-hand accounts.

So? In John 21:24, for example, we read "This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true." The Gospel of John appears to claim to be based on a first-hand account and there is good reason to believe that it is, in fact, an early gospel.

4. The gospels, our only accounts of a historical Jesus, contradict each other.

So?

5. Modern scholars who claim to have uncovered the real historical Jesus depict wildly different persons.

So?

Valerie Tarico is vapid.

[_Calculus Crusader]

I think it's safe to say the New Testament writings of who Jesus was and the events of his life have little accuracy.

No. It is not.

[_KevinSim]

IHaveAQuestion, surely you could have found a better word to use than bitchy. Bitchy, like bastard, while not always used to talk derogatorily about women and illegitimate children, are still sufficiently connected to those concepts that use of those two terms is always in very bad taste in my opinion.

Google 'bitchy'

bitchy
ˈbɪtʃi/
adjectiveinformal
malicious or spitefully critical.
"bitchy remarks"

Kevin, I look forward to your apology.

I certainly have had more than my share of incidents where I misunderstood what another poster had posted, and in many of those incidents my misunderstanding was sufficient that I felt an apology was warranted, and I therefore apologized, so I have no inherent problem in apologizing. But I have a kind of personal rule where I don't apologize unless I realize that I need to apologize. So I took a look at the definition of bitchy at "http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bitchy?s=t" and found:

bitchy
adjective, bitchier, bitchiest. Slang.
1. characteristic of a bitch; spiteful; malicious.

This referred to the word bitch, so I took a look at the definition of bitch at "http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bitch?s=t" and found:

bitch
noun
3. Slang.
a. a malicious, unpleasant, selfish person, especially a woman.
b. a lewd woman.
c. Disparaging and Offensive. any woman.

So, IHaveAQuestion, help me out on this. Why exactly do you think I owe you an apology?