Is Christ too small to be a god?

[marco]

Is Christ a man-made God or indeed a man made God? Imagine aliens more intelligent than Einstein or Newton or Aristotle or Stephen King, learning that Jesus was from Nazareth, a garden plot on Earth, and he walked about bipedally and said a few wise words. Would they adore him? Did Jesus have anything to say about higher intelligences? Is the son of a carpenter really the stuff of divine intelligence or just another man-made myth that raises man above koalas and kangaroos in cosmic importance?

[Filthy Tugboat]

[Replying to post 1 by marco]

I have always felt like Jesus was just a man, from the first time I ever heard of him, I took him to be like some sort of magician or something similar to a wizard in a storybook. It has always seemed so alien that Jesus would be a god or the God or whatever. Perhaps it is because he is so small and far away, to me, a god or the God would never come across as small, nor far away.

[marco]

[Replying to post 1 by marco]

I have always felt like Jesus was just a man, from the first time I ever heard of him, I took him to be like some sort of magician or something similar to a wizard in a storybook. It has always seemed so alien that Jesus would be a god or the God or whatever. Perhaps it is because he is so small and far away, to me, a god or the God would never come across as small, nor far away.

Much is made of the smallness, converting it into a virtue. The fox has its earth to live in but the Son of man has nowhere to lie down. His method of committing suicide was ignoble crucifixion, which, by the same paradoxical means, raised his status.


Some operas, like Turandot, have the important hero come in disguise, so I suppose it's a common theme in fiction. Zeus disguised himself but more imaginatively.


As a boy I found something attractive in the precocious schoolboy, Christ, boastfully putting down his elders and betters. That had the makings of a better opera. Then he overdid it with dead bodies and fish. It didn't make him bigger.

[ttruscott]

Is Christ a man-made God or indeed a man made God?

And yet for saying nothing important and doing nothing but dying for the redemption of the sinful elect who can be rehabilitated once they are free from the legal requirements against their evil,

here He is! Still. Biggest number of followers on this planet. And among all the aliens too for all we know. Surviving all gently toned witticisms against Him quite well, no matter how sarcastic.

[Tcg]

here He is! Still.

He isn't here. His followers are. Given that modern humans have been around for at least 200,000 years, less than 2,000 years of popularity isn't much of a feat.

Biggest number of followers on this planet.

Which proves nothing but that he has the biggest number of followers on this planet, assuming that your unsupported claim is true.



Tcg

[Tcg]

[Replying to post 1 by marco]


For a dude who is claimed to have done such great things, even his biggest act wasn't very impressive. It is claimed that he died. Actual death is permanent. He gave up a weekend or so.


Even as a Christian, I never could generate much sympathy on Good Friday. You guys do remember Easter is two days away?



Tcg

[ttruscott]

Actual death is permanent.

Who proved this? I do not live with this idea as a reality: death is the state of a body without an animating spirit and even this is reversed by resurrection. Eternal (permanent) death is the state of an eternally self and other aware spirit (maybe in physical body) outside of GOD's prevue. So it depends upon which death when to say it is permanent.

Suggesting Christians accept death to be the same as secular materialism's idea of a permanent death of is a short sighted straw man mistake.

[Divine Insight]

,... he walked about bipedally and said a few wise words.

That's exactly what he did. Moreover the few wise words he said weren't even original ideas. Jesus introduced absolutely nothing that hadn't already previously been suggested by other humans who had lived long before Jesus was ever even born.

So Jesus added absolutely nothing to human thought.

[marco]

Biggest number of followers on this planet.

Numbers don't come with intelligent wings. I'm not impressed by the philosophical activity in a flock of starlings or a herd of sheep. In human history it's the brave, clever, bold individual who changes society; numbers are fine if they carry guns or swords. That sort of numerical activity fattened the calf of Christianity.

[marco]

For a dude who is claimed to have done such great things, even his biggest act wasn't very impressive. It is claimed that he died. Actual death is permanent. He gave up a weekend or so.


Even as a Christian, I never could generate much sympathy on Good Friday. You guys do remember Easter is two days away?

One of my Jewish friends says he celebrates Good Friday rather than Easter Sunday. To be fair if he was relying on Yahweh to resurrect him, I think Christ was very brave in going through with it.

What an odd, silly mixed-up life if it ever was!