Entry 143, on 2005-03-12 at 13:27:23 (Rating 4, Religion)
I listened to an interview with Tom Harper this morning about his new book, The Pagan Christ. In this book he shows that there is no historical evidence for the existence of Christ, and that the stories of the New Testament are all based on earlier pagan myths.
For example, the walking on water, 12 disciples stories, etc are all borrowed from earlier Greek mythologies. The reason these stories all mention 12 disciples is that they represent the 12 signs of the zodiac. The 12 disciples never existed as real people.
I have done a small amount of research on the historical accuracy of Christ myself, and the only definite reference to Jesus outside the Bible is a Jewish historian Josephus, and his record has been shown to be tampered with by later Christians, so even that doesn't count for anything. In fact it makes other references less valuable because we immediately suspect Christian interference with the facts.
Many Christians use the Bible itself as evidence of Christ, but most theological historians now accept the gospels of the New Testament were written hundreds of years after the events they were supposed to portray. Also, the early Catholic Church destroyed a lot of records which were contrary to what they wanted to believe, and choose the four gospels we have now from a much greater number, many of which were contradictory.
So Christianity is just one big myth, created to control believers and advance the power of the church. This is the greatest example of corruption of power and cynical manipulation of people in the history of the world. Science has destroyed the creation myth, the flood myth, and other stories of the Old Testament, and history has now destroyed the New Testament in its entirety.
Anybody who still follows the church is just stupid or suffering from self delusion. There is no reason left to follow the pathetic beliefs of the organised traditional church. A belief in some abstract concept of God might help some people who don't have the intellectual prowess to handle the truth, but Christian beliefs are just plain wrong.
Comment 1 by rrr on 2007-03-31 at 00:58:29:
Either it is the most elaborate hoax ever conceived by man or it is real. Think about it, how could each one of the books point to the same God and qualities when the authors of the books have never meet each other (understanding that you have probably read the Bible in its entirety)? Although your points are very well thought out, they lack diversity and are not enough to disprove Christianity as a whole. Besides, we don't want our souls to turn to dust when we die.
To clarify, the gospels were written fifty years after Christ risen and knew Him. They devoted their lives after His ascension to follow Jesus' Great Commission and to preach what happened. In the final years of their life the disciples wrote the gospels to carry on what they have been preaching. Besides, what evidence against Christianity can you find in New Zealand?
Comment 2 by OJB on 2007-03-31 at 13:52:01:
Its more than a hoax, its a belief system reinforced by the church and by constant propaganda and pressure. Do you think that Islam is a hoax, because if it is, its almost as big as Christianity. How about Hinduism? That's big too. Clearly they aren't all true. In fact, none of them are. Obviously it is possible to sustain a false belief for long periods of time. Call it a hoax if you want to.
I don't think our souls turn to dust when we die, because I don't believe souls exist. Anyway, pretending life after death is true won't actually make it true. You're still dead!
The books of the Bible do contradict each other (for example are the two creation myths in Genesis 1 and 2). The gospels obviously copy from the first one, Mark. I think we accept the authorship of the letters of Paul, but the rest is doubtful.
Ever wonder why people waited 50 years after Jesus' allegedly died before writing the Gospels? How old would those people be by then? Ever wonder why there is no good evidence, outside the Bible, that Jesus even existed? Ever wonder why there are so many contradictory stories. Maybe the early church deliberately chose and altered the stories to suit its own purposes.
Comment 3 by WF99 on 2007-09-21 at 08:22:23:
I think that it's stepping out on a limb to say that, since the flood was similar to paganism, walking on water was similar to paganism - the disciples obviously copied them. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that there is a God, there is the possibility that he deliberately chose those events to contrast to early pagan myths.
Obviously that's not a possibility you'll jump to believe, but it's a possibility other than the one offered, anyway.
Comment 4 by OJB on 2007-09-21 at 13:55:40:
I will never deny the tiny possibility that unlikely theories might be true. There's a small chance that the Earth is flat, there's a small chance the Flood happened, there's a small chance that the Moon landings were faked, there's a small chance the US government planned 9/11. But my policy is to accept the theory which is supported by the best evidence, while always being aware that the evidence might change and that might require a change in the theory.
Currently I have rejected most Biblical stories (Creation, the Flood, etc are clearly untrue based on current evidence) but I think there is a reasonable chance the Jesus story might be based on the life of a real person (although that's far from certain). Of course, the miracles, resurrection, etc are later embellishments.
Comment 5 by WF99 on 2007-10-02 at 10:25:53:
Fair enough.
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