Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Italian priest ordered to prove Jesus existed

troutman · 01-04-2006, 09:04 AM

Can we get that judge from Pennsylvania?

I used to think that Jesus probably lived, but that he was a human (not a divine entity born by virgin birth, and resurrected after death).

The more I have studied the topic, I think it is far more likely than not that Jesus is entirely a mythical creation (and not a very original one either). I don't know what the standard of proof in the Italian court will be. Even on a balance of probabilities, I don't think the priest can prove to an objective court that Jesus existed. There is not much reliable evidence. What are they going to do; pull out the Shroud of Turin?

www.jesuspuzzle.com

The sheen has come off the biblical record, or perhaps it's the blinders that have finally come off many of those engaged in examining it. At the same time, certain elements of the population have undergone a maturation. For them, the advance of science and rationality make it no longer possible to accept the old stories as factual, or even as inspiring, much less pointing to some eternal truth. Those books on which so much of western culture has been built are increasingly being seen for what they are: products of a primitive and superstitious age, rooted in ignorance and ancient fantasy.

This question can never be answered with 100% certainty. If Jesus is mythical, this need not be the end of Christianity. The Church will move to a less literal reading of the bible. Some branches are already emphasizing the metaphorical lessons.

Too many of our best scholars, themselves indoctrinated from infancy in a religion of one kind or another based upon the Bible, are so locked into the idea of their own god as a supernatural fact -- something final, not symbolic of transcendence, but a personage with a character and will of his own - that they are unable to grasp the idea of a worship that is not of the symbol but of its reference, which is of a mystery of much greater age and of more immediate inward reality than the name-and-form of any historical ethinic idea of a deity, whatsoever ... and is of a sophistication that makes the sentimentalism of our popular Bible-story theology seem undeveloped.
-- Joseph Campbell, quoted from Famous Dead Non-theists

01-04-2006, 09:04 AM	#11
troutman Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Crowsnest Pass Exp:	Can we get that judge from Pennsylvania? I used to think that Jesus probably lived, but that he was a human (not a divine entity born by virgin birth, and resurrected after death). The more I have studied the topic, I think it is far more likely than not that Jesus is entirely a mythical creation (and not a very original one either). I don't know what the standard of proof in the Italian court will be. Even on a balance of probabilities, I don't think the priest can prove to an objective court that Jesus existed. There is not much reliable evidence. What are they going to do; pull out the Shroud of Turin? www.jesuspuzzle.com The sheen has come off the biblical record, or perhaps it's the blinders that have finally come off many of those engaged in examining it. At the same time, certain elements of the population have undergone a maturation. For them, the advance of science and rationality make it no longer possible to accept the old stories as factual, or even as inspiring, much less pointing to some eternal truth. Those books on which so much of western culture has been built are increasingly being seen for what they are: products of a primitive and superstitious age, rooted in ignorance and ancient fantasy. This question can never be answered with 100% certainty. If Jesus is mythical, this need not be the end of Christianity. The Church will move to a less literal reading of the bible. Some branches are already emphasizing the metaphorical lessons. Too many of our best scholars, themselves indoctrinated from infancy in a religion of one kind or another based upon the Bible, are so locked into the idea of their own god as a supernatural fact -- something final, not symbolic of transcendence, but a personage with a character and will of his own - that they are unable to grasp the idea of a worship that is not of the symbol but of its reference, which is of a mystery of much greater age and of more immediate inward reality than the name-and-form of any historical ethinic idea of a deity, whatsoever ... and is of a sophistication that makes the sentimentalism of our popular Bible-story theology seem undeveloped. -- Joseph Campbell, quoted from Famous Dead Non-theists Last edited by troutman; 01-04-2006 at 10:33 AM.