Apparently you can't do polls on here.... but


A. Believed he existed, claims are false

B. Believed he existed, claims are exaggerated

C. Don't believe he existed


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A. There may have been a man named jesus who existed and did good things, but was not the son of god and certainly did not have any magical powers.
I'm in this boat.
I feel the same way and from the Archeology magazine I read, Jesus was a common name back then.
I believe that could be a background character for jesus, maybe more than one, i read somewhere that jesus could have been the first jew that interacted with buddhism beliefs and then mixed up both religions. Now if jesus the regular guy existed yeah its possible but now for the supernatural hippie i doubt it
I fall under category A as well but - which "Jesus" are we talking about? The one born somewhere in the middle east, the one who most likely lived in the 1800's in Mexico or the douchebag kid I know from high school? LOL.
I also think it's highly likely that Jesus is from more than one character. Many mythological characters are just amalgamations. I have never done the research myself, but I have heard that at the same time as Jesus, there were many other rabbis claiming to be the Messiah and to heal etc. It's an interesting idea. Definitely think his claims are false though.
I agree eventualdave. I've read similar historical texts with vague references to a Yeshua (jesus) being crucified by the romans. Jesus was about as common a name as jim, bob and dave all put together. It's never mentioned in the same sentence as christ, though the word christus (annointed one) is found in several places. To my reckoning, it seems a man called jesus had a small cult following but no renown to speak of. His story grew over decades and, when the romans needed to unite the various peoples under one belief system, he was chosen due to the similarities of the jewish messiah prophesies. Much of the gospels are probably magnified and even added to, to match the prophesies in the old testament, especially in Mathew. The jews disregarded the claim that jesus was the messiah they'd been waiting for and the romans biased the writings in the gospels to incriminate the jews as being responsible for jesus' death. It is more likely that the romans just executed a troublemaker without much influence from the jews. Pilate was known for his brutality and wouldn't have 'asked' the people if they'd like either jesus or barabas saved. Barabas being on a cross in the first place is very unlikely. Common offenses didn't get crucifiction, only crimes against the state. Jesus, according to seemingly unedited parts of the gospels, blatantly flouted indifference to established roman rule in favour of fundamental following of old testament law. Also, if the crowd had become unruly, demanding the crucifiction, Pilate would have sent in the troops to quell them and it would have looked more like tiananmen square. He was actually recalled to Rome, from his post, because he was too inhumane.
I like this claim. I still think the Catholic Church exaggerated his existence in terms of the Shroud of Turin.
E. Not sure, doesn't really matter
I am with Nate on this one.

E. Don't really have enough knowledge of the subject matter at hand to commit to a solid answer, doesn't matter.

However if a person called Jesus did exist, I suspect (with a far amount of certainty) that his amazing abilities have been greatly exaggerated, if not totally made up.

As well, despite any supposed claims of divine parentage, he was as human as I am.
With Nate and Jay :o)
I'm with Nate as well.


Honestly, I doubt he existed. People with far less historical significance are well documented. So I can believe a bunch of guys named Jesus could have lived in the same time and places the prophet/deity Jesus was said to live, but I really doubt one of those dudes was walking on water, making wine, and generally pissing off the Roman and Jewish authorities.


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