Bro Igzy,
Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
Your post #189 rings like a statement of faith. Seems you are saying what's closer to your heart than to your mind. And you say some far-reaching things. Like:
"Bible is fiction? People have been trying to find falsehoods in the Bible for centuries. None have been identified. None."
You seem very intelligent, but maybe not widely read. Just read "
The Five Gospels," by Robert Funk, a conclusion of over 100 Bible scholars, that by consensus identify what Jesus really said, and didn't say, in the gospels. The gospel of John gets just one saying in red.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
So let's talk about evidence, not proof. Name a fictional character whose wisdom, stature and words approach those of Jesus.
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Fictional is not the same for everyone. That's why we have Jesus believers and
Jesus mythicists.
Here's an example of differences of opinions of what, or who, is fictional:
BEFORE HE WAS BORN, his mother had a visitor from heaven who told her that her son would not be a mere mortal but in fact would be divine. His birth was accompanied by unusual divine signs in the heavens. As an adult he left his home to engage on an itinerant preaching ministry. He went from village to town, telling all who would listen that they should not be concerned about their earthly lives and their material goods; they should live for what was spiritual and eternal. He gathered a number of followers around him who became convinced that he was no ordinary human, but that he was the Son of God. And he did miracles to confirm them in their beliefs: he could heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead. At the end of his life he aroused opposition among the ruling authorities of Rome and was put on trial. But they could not kill his soul. He ascended to heaven and continues to live there till this day. To prove that he lived on after leaving this earthly orb, he appeared again to at least one of his doubting followers, who became convinced that in fact he remains with us even now. Later, some of his followers wrote books about him, and we can still read about him today. But very few of you will have ever seen these books. And I imagine most of you do not even know who this great miracle-working Son of God was. I have been referring to a man named Apollonius, who came from the town of Tyana. He was a pagan— that is, a polytheistic worshiper of the many Roman gods— and a renowned philosopher of his day. His followers thought he was immortal. We have a book written about him by his later devotee Philostratus. Philostratus’s book was written in eight volumes in the early third century, possibly around 220 or 230 CE. He had done considerable research for his book, and his stories, he tells us, were largely based on the accounts recorded by an eyewitness and companion of Apollonius himself. Apollonius lived some years after a similar miracle-working Son of God in a different remote part of the empire, Jesus of Nazareth. Later followers of these two divine men saw them as being in competition with one another. This competition was part of a bigger struggle at the time between paganism— the forms of religion supported by the vast majority of everyone who lived in antiquity, who embraced a variety of polytheistic religions— and Christianity, a newcomer on the religious scene, which insisted that there was only one God and that Jesus was his Son. Christian followers of Jesus who knew about Apollonius maintained that he was a charlatan and a fraud; in response, the pagan followers of Apollonius asserted that Jesus was the charlatan and fraud. Both groups could point to the authoritative written accounts of their leader’s life to score their debating points.
Ehrman, Bart D. (2014-03-25). How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (p. 13). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.