Did Christianity start with a real human Jesus?

[Itoero]

The strange thing...many people believe in Jesus' existence because the stories of Jesus are written in great detail...….this is the main reason the stories are made up.

[Strange]

15 minutes ago, Itoero said:

The strange thing...many people believe in Jesus' existence because the stories of Jesus are written in great detail...….this is the main reason the stories are made up.

So you think the Gospels are “Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative” as WS Gilbert put it.

[Itoero]

5 hours ago, Strange said:

So you think the Gospels are “Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative” as WS Gilbert put it.

Not really.The Gospels don't make an narrative more convincing. They basically create the narrative. The nativity of Jesus in Bethlehem and Jesus living in Nazareth are only told in the Gospels.

[mistermack]

I really don't think it follows that a real human is easier to build a religion around. If there had been a real Jesus, it would have been easier for people who were there, or knew people involved, to refute some of the stories. And refutation can spread by word of mouth, just as made up stories can. 

[Ten oz]

On 10/18/2018 at 3:19 PM, mistermack said:

I really don't think it follows that a real human is easier to build a religion around. If there had been a real Jesus, it would have been easier for people who were there, or knew people involved, to refute some of the stories. And refutation can spread by word of mouth, just as made up stories can. 

I agree with the caveat that a religion can  e built around a real person; Joseph Smith for example. 

It could go either way so the existence of Christianity alone is not  proof of anything far as Jesus's historicity is concerned. 

[dimreepr]

3 hours ago, Ten oz said:

I agree with the caveat that a religion can  e built around a real person; Joseph Smith for example. 

It could go either way so the existence of Christianity alone is not  proof of anything far as Jesus's historicity is concerned. 

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A radical idea that goes viral is never by committee; the historicity of Jesus is in name alone.