Equating Jesus to fiction is irrational

[Tart]

For the past few years I have been seeing nonbelievers equate Jesus to any fiction of their choice. They say "Jesus is like Spider-man", "James Bond is just as real as Jesus", "We have the same about of evidence for King Arthur as we do for Jesus", etc... The list goes on and on.

So I want to give you guys a chance to prove this, if you believe these things.. I am willing to actually take these claims, and see if they can be justified, by comparing the evidence of any fiction of myth, to that of Jesus.. The historical evidence...

I am convinced that there is more historical evidence for Jesus then there is for ANY known fictional and/or mythological person. But i am willing for anyone to prove me wrong, and justify these comparisons.

For the purpose of discussion:
What fictional or mythological person is comparable to Jesus (bring your evidence)? Is there any fictional people who have the magnitude of historical evidence that Jesus does?

(and id allow anyone to question the validity of the evidence as well)

Does anyone really think Jesus should be equated to any fictional/mythological person?


If not, maybe we should stop making these claims...

[Willum]

There are two or three things that lead rational people to discount the historicity of a son on God:

Reality: Observing that miracles don't happen. Gods and men should not be genetically compatible. Some miracles are impossible, even for omnipotence, and so on.
History: Were Jesus real, Lazarus would have had a history overwhelming any of the other Apostles. Everyone would want the opinions, philosophies and story of the man back from the dead. Were it true, WERE IT TRUE, it would be required reading in schools today.
Then there is no evidence of the witnesses themselves, there books were mostly written long after they were alive.

Also, we know that he supported paying Caesar's tax, or, in Latin, his tithes. Tithes to another god, using coins that were graven images giving homage to other gods. That is enough to make anyone believe he is fictional. Then he abrogated his Father's punishment for adultery, or if you believe it was a ruse, he abrogated the punishment for bearing false witness.

Also, all his carpentry works were lost. Imagine that, instead of fetching high prices at auction.

Assuming a non-miraculous Jesus, his father was a Tiberius Panderia, and a simple fraud.

[JoeyKnothead]

FromPost 107:

Excellent analysis.

Not that it's where your post is, but I fear folks might wanna slippery slope 'em an argument here.

It may well be perfectly rational to believe some dude strolled him into town, but it's a whole different 'nother thing to believe he was dead when he strolled him out of it.

[Aetixintro]

For the past few years I have been seeing nonbelievers equate Jesus to any fiction of their choice. They say "Jesus is like Spider-man", "James Bond is just as real as Jesus", "We have the same about of evidence for King Arthur as we do for Jesus", etc... The list goes on and on.

So I want to give you guys a chance to prove this, if you believe these things.. I am willing to actually take these claims, and see if they can be justified, by comparing the evidence of any fiction of myth, to that of Jesus.. The historical evidence...

I am convinced that there is more historical evidence for Jesus then there is for ANY known fictional and/or mythological person. But i am willing for anyone to prove me wrong, and justify these comparisons.

For the purpose of discussion:
What fictional or mythological person is comparable to Jesus (bring your evidence)? Is there any fictional people who have the magnitude of historical evidence that Jesus does?

(and id allow anyone to question the validity of the evidence as well)

Does anyone really think Jesus should be equated to any fictional/mythological person?


If not, maybe we should stop making these claims...

I can support a kind of interpretative account of Jesus on par with Iraqi poetry from the same era given that the Bible is written 500 years or so after the alleged Death of Jesus.

However, given this "white cross" account of Jesus and the historical account of Jesus, I don't find any important theological difference. Either way, the Bible remains most holy and the message is the same as well. Jesus has won over death, regardless and sits next to God in Heaven.

It should be noted that the information on the Persian Immortals may well have been known to the authors of the Bible and thus Jesus may have been a symbolic person for this victory over death in dealing with various troubles which religious people have been suffering at the time, perhaps a bit like ours, overcoming the crazy people hell-bent for evil.

Ok?