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Originally Posted by Fish
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Originally Posted by Skybird
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Originally Posted by Letum
A little ironic that that passage is from the most printed book in the world.
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It's hear-say anyway, and between the fixing of the gospels in writing, and the life of Jesus lay more than 70 years, that is 2 generations. Someobdy called the gosepls "70 years of Chinese whispers" for that reason, but at least parts of the gospels make much more sense and reveal far greater reaosn than the rest of the bible. I would say that at least about the sermon on the mountain. If you cut away all the rest of the bible, I would say it is no loss, and if it would have been done earlier, and there would have been no Bible and no Quran from the beginning, than mankind probably would have been far better off in general. In the end, all I ask for is reason, and desist from missionizing and trying to make somebody else's decisions for him (no matter what your motive is). Your freedom to believe what you want ends where you start to limit the freedom of the other. |
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Epistles from the Christian Scriptures (New Testament):  Liberal theologians believe that some of these were written as late as 150 CE, up to 4 generations after Jesus' death, by authors who were not eye witnesses of his ministry. Those writers could have based their letters on traditional sayings attributed to Jesus which dated from an earlier era. An analysis by G.A. Wells showed to his satisfaction that the authors definitely believed in the existence of Jesus, but did not cite any evidence that he lived in the 1st century.
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http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcno.htm |
Interesting, but no matter wether Jesus lived for real or not, he is dead since 2000 years and is not meant to ever come back. That's why I always refuse to join that personal cult around him, and refer only to some small parts of the bible that eventually I cvonsider to be reasonable and respectable BY THIER CONTENT. If Jesus lived for real or not, is relatively unimporant for me. the story around him, fictional or real, is no illustration of events by which man has been freed from taking responsibility for himself. The story only illustrates in what way we need to pick up and accept that responsibility. In other words: the story of his crucification does not mean that there was a man dying in our place, and now we are forgiven once and for all. It only means he died to hint us the way that nevertheless we need to go ourselves. Pick up your cross and carry it yourself. In plain English: accept the responsibility for your life, for your deeds, your thoughts, and the consequences you cause in the world, for they will fall back onto you in some way. From here, it is not far to the Karma idea in Asian philosophy.