borndead1 wrote:Where does this claim come from? Link, please.
All the Josephus nonsense has been known to basically be a forgery since the mid 1800s. The only people who still hold onto that stuff are Christians desperate to point to some kind of 'proof' of Jesus' existence.
And again, none of this was written during the time that Jesus allegedly lived. Josephus himself was 2 yrs old when Jesus allegedly died (or he was born 2 yrs after, I can't remember which it was).
I'm with you on this branch of the conversation. The Romans were very good record keepers and have a very, very long list of people they executed over the years... unfortunately, Jesus's name wasn't on it.
There's no actual proof that he existed. That's where the faith comes in. For some people, they need faith, because they feel they cannot be a good, moral person without some omnipresent being looking over their shoulder.
I ask this, if a person cannot be moral without fear of eternal fire and brimstone, is that person even worth saving?
Also, the part that I get stuck on personally, the part that prevents me from being a believer... we can see the same amount of space in all directions... that means the universe is of a far greater size than all that we can even see. If the being referred to as god has dominion over all that there is, even that which we can't see, then what makes you think he gives a flying **** about us?
Further, if his dominion is the entire universe, then we are clearly not made in his image, because if the universe looks like other structures in the universe, if we did, we would all be floating spirals or discs.
Also, if the being truly does exist, and the words of the bible are true... then why can't we have sex on women's periods? If he truly cared about that, he wouldn't have invented towels... proof.
Even further, if everyone up in heaven is as stuffy as the believers say you should be... screw that, rather hang out with the rockstars and hookers in hell if that's the only 2 choices you get. Seriously though, heaven sounds boring. Rather go to Valhalla, that place sounds more fun, and in my opinion, is just as likely to exist.
Oh, and Dan's post was the biggest Carlin quote I ever seen :D