this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
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Last month Trump vowed to defend Christianity and urged Christians to vote for him

“This is really a battle between good and evil,” evangelical TV preacher Hank Kunneman says of the slew of criminal charges facing Donald Trump. “There’s something on President Trump that the enemy fears: It’s called the anointing.” 

The Nebraska pastor, who was speaking on cable news show “FlashPoint” last summer, is among several voices in Christian media pressing a message of Biblical proportions: The 2024 presidential race is a fight for America’s soul, and a persecuted Trump has God’s protection.

“They’re just trying to bankrupt him. They’re trying to take everything he’s got. They’re trying to put him in prison,” author, media personality and self-proclaimed prophet Lance Wallnau said in October on “The Jim Bakker Show”, an hour-long daily broadcast that focuses on news and revelations about the end times that it says we are living in.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (9 children)

The historical existence of Jesus is not disputed.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Don't worry. These are the same people who think that reindeer and narwhals are also fictional.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Yeah, I totally meant that a man named Jesus never existed.

Really though, Jesus never turned a man unblind nor a river into wine. It's all story time in Gallilee.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Attack ideas not people please. It ought to be really easy for you to present evidence for your Messiah.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

We aren't saying Jesus was a messiah or in any way divine, but he was there and did things (probably different from what Christianity claims)

You can dislike and oppose Christianity w/o denying the fact that Jesus exists.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago

Ok you weakened your claim. Fine, now prove your weakened claim. This really shouldn't be that difficult.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Don't stop reading there. Wikipedia is biased. I'm making a talk point to remove that line because it's biased and unnecessary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

[–] [email protected] -4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

And? 95% of the humans race believes in some form of God. About 66% of biblical scholars believe the Resurrection was a true historical event as well as the gospel author citations being accurate

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Are you being intentionally clueless? The image specifically says "modern scholars", whereas all of your examples are of unqualified people. Moreover, most scholars of antiquity are not Christian.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes modern scholars. The typical modern scholar of the bible believes the events really happened and the attributions are correct.

How much longer are you going to continue to use the circular logic of something is true because it is believed to be true and it is believed to be true because people believe that it is true?

Present evidence, not arguments from authority or No True Scotsmen. I can demonstrate vaccines work by data not be invoking some doctor who said something one time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Scholars of antiquity, not Biblical scholars?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago

True Scotsmen, not regular Scotsmen

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Bro it's 2024. The sky being blue is disputed.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Nobody’s “sure”, but there are enough records and accounts to be reasonably confident that among the many traveling rabbis collecting followers in Roman Judaea was one from Nazareth named Joshua/Jesus, and that he was executed for political activities.

That’s it though.

Beyond that, his story is largely a creation of his followers, some of whom were apocalyptically charismatic enough in their own right to keep an ember alive, and eventually it sort of spread among the Jewish diaspora and the military, and happened to be in (relative) ascendance with the latter when an Eastern emperor needed to rethink some political strategies.

After that, it’s largely survivorship bias, with every hint of writing about him being preserved, transcribed, recreated, or invented from whole cloth, and anything from his contemporary itinerant preachers being ignored or suppressed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

After that, it’s largely survivorship bias, with every hint of writing about him being preserved, transcribed, recreated, or invented from whole cloth, and anything from his contemporary itinerant preachers being ignored or suppressed.

Not quite. In fact, there's a rather significant survivorship bias around the versions of Jesus. Literally the very earliest primary documents involve someone known for persecuting Christians telling Christians in an area he has no authority to persecute that they should abandon other versions of Jesus they accepted or other gospels in favor of the version he claimed based on spiritual visions of someone he never met in life.

We have nothing but fragments recorded by its critics of the Gospel of the Egyptians, for example, and the Gospel of Thomas we only have because of a single person burying it in a jar around the time it became punishable by death to possess.

The version of Jesus with female disciples that was talking about Greek atomism and Epicurean proto-evolutionary thought is actually super interesting historically given the overall philosophy, but it's barely extant and only is because of archeological discoveries after the church lost effectively mega-monarchal status to just become a mega corporation instead.

And even in the modern era discoveries the church has any purview over like the Mar Saba letter abruptly go missing before it can be further validated by scholars.

The survivorship around "other versions" of Jesus look like they were conducted by Stalin with a two millennia reach. It involved literally burning down the successor to the library of Alexandria (and with it sources potentially related to a "Gospel of the Egyptians").

[–] [email protected] -3 points 7 months ago

May I see those records? Contemporary first hand please.

Also I was wondering if you could explain why Paul never mentions Nazareth or anyone else until Mark needs a name of smallest toen he can find in the area. Man, Mark could really set a scene well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes. Was he the son of god or messiah? No. Be he was around and did spread something religious.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

The historical existence of several Jewish reformers of the era baked into a singular allegory is not disputed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

It's not worth arguing with the folk that push this narrative.

If they are as poorly informed to make the argument it's likely in large part because of an affinity for the concept greater than an affinity for knowledge of any details surrounding it.

So providing a counterpoint or more details just falls on willfully deaf ears.

To be fair though, the blame falls more on proselytizers deafening so many ears with their bullshit than on the people with such an acquired distaste for the canonical Jesus that they feel the need to throw out historical Jesus with the bathwater. I definitely get the sentiment, even if the historical Jesus became one of my hyperfocus interests over the past few years.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ergo, he's make believe - just like his dad.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago

You don't have to deny Jesus' existence, which is overtly true, to deny that what he taught was true— or the same as modern day Christianity

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Given that you just saw someone dispute it, you know that isn't true.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Obviously there are fringe cases. His existence (not his role as Messiah— you seem to be conflating the two) is not disputed by modern scholars of antiquity.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 7 months ago

Argument from authority

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ha ha ha, Jesus never existed. Stop living in the Bronze Age.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You don't have to deny Jesus' existence, which is overtly true, to deny that what he taught was true— or the same as modern day Christianity

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Jesus did not exist, which is overtly true.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah! And neither did Pontius Pilate! \s

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilate_stone

Contemporary physical evidence of Pilate. Please produce some for your Messiah.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Our messiah? accepting Jesus' existence historically does not mean we are Christians

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Fine you are not a Christian. Cool. Now do you have evidence of your weakened claim or are you just going to point to other people to make your argument for you?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Why would the assumption be that acknowledging the existence of Jesus makes you Christian? And how is not being Christian weakening my claim?

Non-Christian sources used to study and establish the historicity of Jesus include the c. first century Jewish historian Josephus and Roman historian Tacitus. These sources are compared to Christian sources, such as the Pauline letters and synoptic gospels, and are usually independent of each other; that is, the Jewish sources do not draw upon the Roman sources. Similarities and differences between these sources are used in the authentication process.[82][83][84][85] From these two independent sources alone, certain facts about Jesus can be adduced: that he existed, his personal name was Jesus, he was called a messiah, he had a brother named James, he won over Jews and gentiles, Jewish leaders had unfavorable opinions of him, Pontius Pilate decided his execution, he was executed by crucifixion, and he was executed during Pilate's governorship.[33] Josephus and Tacitus agree on four sequential points: a movement was started by Jesus, he was executed by Pontius Pilate, his movement continued after his death, and that a group of "Christians" still existed; analogous to common knowledge of founders and their followers like Plato and Platonists.[86]

Serious historians of the early Christian movement—all of them—have spent many years preparing to be experts in their field. Just to read the ancient sources requires expertise in a range of ancient languages: Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and often Aramaic, Syriac, and Coptic, not to mention the modern languages of scholarship (for example, German and French). And that is just for starters. Expertise requires years of patiently examining ancient texts and a thorough grounding in the history and culture of Greek and Roman antiquity, the religions of the ancient Mediterranean world, both pagan and Jewish, knowledge of the history of the Christian church and the development of its social life and theology, and, well, lots of other things. It is striking that virtually everyone who has spent all the years needed to attain these qualifications is convinced that Jesus of Nazareth was a real historical figure."

The idea that Jesus was a purely mythical figure has been and still is considered an untenable fringe theory in academic scholarship for more than two centuries,[note 4] but has gained popular attention in recent decades due to the growth of the internet.[8]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Copying and posting gish gallop

first century Jewish historian Josephus

Two passages one talking about James which might be a fraud. The other passage mentioning Jesus and we know that one is a a complete fabrication. Also we know that you can't follow instructions now because Josphius was writing +40 years after the supposed events and I asked for contemporary.

Roman historian Tacitus.

Talks about a group called Christus (annoited ones) not Christians (followers of the Annoited one) gets the rank wrong for Pilat indicating that he wasn't even checking Roman records. Lived almost an entire century after the supposed events.

such as the Pauline letters a

Paul reported his visions, admits that he never met the apostles or Jesus before he started preaching, and admits that his.knowledge of Jesus came from dreams not feom humans

synoptic gospels

Seriously? John copied off Luke and Matthew, Luke copied off Matthew, Matthew copied off Mark and Mark combined a few random stories from OT with some Roman literature specifically to bash the James community. There is no evidence any of the events in the Gospels occurred and we know the authors were lying about the oral traditions that they were told.

and are usually independent of each other;

Bull fucking shit. Mark had access to the letters of Paul and possibly had heard him speak. Additionally Paul was probably dead by the time the Mark Gospel was written. For 4 decades Paul was going around Rome telling stories about his imaginary friend which is amble time for the weird sandwich stories found in Mark. We can trace an exact line between the Gospels and Paul how what he wrote had to be dealt with by later offers. They are independent in the sense that Obama and Biden are independent.

the Jewish sources do not draw upon the Roman sources.

Citation needed. Please prove that no Jewish person in history used Roman records for anything.

From these two independent sources alone, certain facts about Jesus can be adduced: that he existed, his personal name was Jesus, he was called a messiah, he had a brother named James, he won over Jews and gentiles, Jewish leaders had unfavorable opinions of him, Pontius Pilate decided his execution, he was executed by crucifixion, and he was executed during Pilate’s governorship.

Jesus means saviour. The odds of a saviour being named saviour are about the odds of a revolutionary leader being given the name Rebel at birth. And you haven't established any of the facts you claim not can you elaborate on any of them.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

I don't give a flying fuck about a "messiah." I just don't see any good reason to deny the existence of a historical figure (in this case, a Jewish carpenter who pissed people off and got executed for it) out of pure delusional spite.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago

He never existed, nothing to do with delusion or spite.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 7 months ago
  • total lack of relics
  • Total lack of any contemporary records
  • A timeline of events that are way too short and full of contradictions
  • The ability of anyone with some basic knowledge of the texts at the time to find where each line of the NT was stolen from
  • The most prolific writer about the guy admits he got his ideas from dreams not from witnesses
  • No royal lineage established

There are reasons to believe the man didn't exist and you have not provided a single shred of evidence that he did exist.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

exactly. no one is delusional enough to think he was real.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You don't have to deny Jesus' existence, which is overtly true, to deny that what he taught was true— or the same as modern day Christianity

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof by those making the claim. good luck.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

How is "some guy existed and said something about religion but idk what he said" extraordinary?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago

Very well. Explain where all the traditions about his acts and sayings came from. There is evidence of attestation and you should be able to address that.

Because the whole thing is a con explanation does address that. They were running a grift and that was it. Of course the stories and sayings are all mixed up, liars need amazing memories. And of course the Jerusalem church was doing well they could draw in the crowds each week with yet another amazing adventure of Jesus.