Quote Originally Posted by Bilbo View Post
Greenbeanz. Do you have any idea of how ancient history study works, and how much contemporary material you would expect to find about any ancient figure?

There is as much contemporary written sources for the existance of Jesus as there is for Julius Ceasar, Alexander the Great, Themistocles, Miltiades, Xerxes os any other great historical figure.

The Bible, whether you believe its claims or not is one of the most important historical documents of the ancient world, having 4 Gospels written about you in the Bible is in itself a massive proof that he existed. Having an independent Roman historian, the greatest historian no less, confirm that by AD 60 Chritisna were already noticeably split and distinct from the rest of the Jewish population, and had already started to be persecuted as a group confims beyond any doubt that the Christian movement must have began immediately following the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, it is simply not credible to hold any other opinion.

The names that Mars quoted are just names he grabbed from silly websites that spout false, spurious and outated nonense, like you are doing.

Again, as to Jesus' claims, the miracles, the healings, his death and resurrection. I couldn't care less if you believe any of that or not. I cannot, and have never pretended to be able to provide evidence or proof for that. Believing Jesus to be the Son of God is purely a matter of faith.

I have pointed out though that clearly, the early Christians, his immediate followers, and those they came into contact with and were the first converts, were so convinced of this truth, that they willingly suffered the most horrendous of deaths and tortures for this belief. Does that mean they were right when they believed they saw Jesus raised again, and witnessed his miracles? Not necessarily, but it does clearly show that he managed to convince them, and was therefore a real man.

You are really talking garbage. Look at the examples you gave that you compared to Jesus. Scientology, The Waco seige, let's look at some more Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnessess etc.

I agree with you most of these are based on nonsense. But how many were not founded by anybody? Scientology was the invention of Run HUbbard, The Waco cult, David Koresh. Mormonism Jospeh Smith. Did these people not exist either?

The evidence for the actual existence of an historical Jesus is beyond reasonable doubt. You are simply wrong to believe otherwise.
You know the Mormons live a good life they are actually mostly very good law abiding people.
More than 20 million of them now and they all give a lot more than 1 dollar each per week! You could do alot worse than them, but it is a very big business too. Catholic is much bigger. Imagine that amount of people all tithe around 10 % of their income.
Its astounding.