08-26-2011, 05:14 AM
Since the reason Mary and Joe were on the road when Jesus was born was a census, surely there are records of his birth -- though I'll guarantee it doesn't say "God" in the father section. And there are other third party accounts around the place that indicate JC's existence as a preacher, though I'm prepared to bet that the turning water into wine trick was just wishful thinking on the part of some jakie who was telling the story to his mates later.
As for being the Son of God, I really don't consider it that important -- it was 2000 years ago, people were not enormously good at scientific explanations for things and deities tended to come into it a lot more than necessary, often at the convenience of priests/rabbis. So yes, the man himself existed and many of the events actually occurred -- though it does seem odd that people today try to scientifically prove/disprove miracles as recorded in those times, when we know full well the effect of Chinese whispers. One of the apostles may well have been a fishmonger with his cart at the ready, right next to his baker mate.
At the time of his life, Jesus wasn't used to control any populace -- he wasn't particularly well-received and neither were his disciples, for a good couple of hundred years. By the time the Romans got properly involved and codified things, in their very selective way, the whole mythology had become Romanised so that he could be officially claimed (Romulus and Remus were born of a virgin too, after all). At the end of the day, people get very hung up on whether he was in fact the third leaf of the holy clover, but seem to ignore the fact that whether he was or wasn't, he had some really quite nice things to say and it can't hurt to apply his lifestyle advice to our own times.
(Anyone want to start with the moneylenders?
)
As for being the Son of God, I really don't consider it that important -- it was 2000 years ago, people were not enormously good at scientific explanations for things and deities tended to come into it a lot more than necessary, often at the convenience of priests/rabbis. So yes, the man himself existed and many of the events actually occurred -- though it does seem odd that people today try to scientifically prove/disprove miracles as recorded in those times, when we know full well the effect of Chinese whispers. One of the apostles may well have been a fishmonger with his cart at the ready, right next to his baker mate.
At the time of his life, Jesus wasn't used to control any populace -- he wasn't particularly well-received and neither were his disciples, for a good couple of hundred years. By the time the Romans got properly involved and codified things, in their very selective way, the whole mythology had become Romanised so that he could be officially claimed (Romulus and Remus were born of a virgin too, after all). At the end of the day, people get very hung up on whether he was in fact the third leaf of the holy clover, but seem to ignore the fact that whether he was or wasn't, he had some really quite nice things to say and it can't hurt to apply his lifestyle advice to our own times.
(Anyone want to start with the moneylenders?
)
It could be worse