I think I am quite able to question and doubt. I can see logical doubts about the reality of God and Jesus being raised from the dead. On the other hand I think the evidence of the New Testament and the existence of Jesus followers going back into the first part of the first century is very strong evidence that Jesus existed and was in at least a general form the person presented in the gospels.
Double thumbs up on this, huckelberry. Thanks for posting a brief summary. This makes a good deal of sense and I have no particular objection. I've been objectionable enough with your views and would like to say you are a delightful person to talk to on these topics.
Always true of Huck. Not so much of that Res Ipsa dude.
he/him we all just have to live through it,
holding each other’s hands.
Turning my original question around, how many other religions at that time were based on (assumed to be) real people?
We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don't have maybe what they're supposed to have. They get rid of some of the people who have been there for 25 years and they work great and then you throw them out and they're replaced by criminals.
Turning my original question around, how many other religions at that time were based on (assumed to be) real people?
I don't know. There were tons of religions...if they were all in some sense considered separate religions. Many to most contained many similar elements, it appears. Many to most also had their own touches of uniqueness. Romulus was thought to have been a real person at some point. Osirus was. Innana was....Asceplius, Baal...many seemed to be like Jesus...not really some man who lived, but a unique Son of God who lived and conquered death.
Were there any religions around that had not in some sense thought of their worshipped peoples and beginners not having lived some time some where? I don't know.
Wanted to add: Moses is often considered a character lacking historicity as well. But in the first century Jews, it appears, thought Moses too was a real character. The same with Abraham. Adam....And the like. So it's not just all these pagan religions that clearly had influence on Christianity, but also the one religion that Christianity sprang from also had characters who were at its beginning and may not have lived, but were thought to have lived.
“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
Turning my original question around, how many other religions at that time were based on (assumed to be) real people?
I don't know. There were tons of religions...if they were all in some sense considered separate religions. Many to most contained many similar elements, it appears. Many to most also had their own touches of uniqueness. Romulus was thought to have been a real person at some point. Osirus was. Innana was....Asceplius, Baal...many seemed to be like Jesus...not really some man who lived, but a unique Son of God who lived and conquered death.
Osiris was never believed to have been a human. Nor, as far as I am aware, were Inanna or Baal.
Turning my original question around, how many other religions at that time were based on (assumed to be) real people?
From what I recall, Everett Ferguson's "Backgrounds of Early Christianity" names a few messianic figures from the same time period (both pre-and-post Jesus). I don't know that their following (and doctrinal development/claims) would be enough for the classification of a religion though. The chances are slim that it isn't boxed up somewhere, but I'll see if I can find it when I get home tonight.
I don't know. There were tons of religions...if they were all in some sense considered separate religions. Many to most contained many similar elements, it appears. Many to most also had their own touches of uniqueness. Romulus was thought to have been a real person at some point. Osirus was. Innana was....Asceplius, Baal...many seemed to be like Jesus...not really some man who lived, but a unique Son of God who lived and conquered death.
Osiris was never believed to have been a human. Nor, as far as I am aware, were Inanna or Baal.
I'd think the most likely of these 3 Baal was never said to be a real person. Some have speculated that both Osiris and Inanna were at one time real people, some even think Osiris was an early Pharoah, of sorts. Most, no doubt, suggest, to keep it simple, none of these three were human. Anyway...thanks.
“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos
My view as to why Jesus became divine is because Caesar, Augustus, Claudius, Vespasian, and Titus did.
"He disturbs the laws of his country, he forces himself upon women, and he puts men to death without trial.” ~Otanes on the monarch, Herodotus Histories 3.80.
Osiris was never believed to have been a human. Nor, as far as I am aware, were Inanna or Baal.
I'd think the most likely of these 3 Baal was never said to be a real person. Some have speculated that both Osiris and Inanna were at one time real people, some even think Osiris was an early Pharoah, of sorts. Most, no doubt, suggest, to keep it simple, none of these three were human. Anyway...thanks.
I am just reading one of my early Christmas presents, from Dan McClellan's intriguing book "YHWH's Divine Images, A Cognitive Approach," describing what it is that makes a deity a Deity. It has precious little to do with being a historical person first or not. It doesn't mean it is not an option, but it is not a necessary option in order for the reality of the Deity to be for any group who has and worships Deity. McClellan used to post here a few years back, and has really written a great book here.
