There was no Jesus

I am just not interested enough to make this argument to annoying believers, but if anyone wants a run-down, this seems pretty thorough.

There was no Jesus

Fuck that.

Quote :

How could a cult leader draw crowds, inspire devotion and die by crucifixion, yet leave no mark in contemporary records?

• Hundreds of messianic cults thrived between 1200BC and 800AD, according to the "Silk Roads" book I'm reading
  
• Each inspired hoards of believers, in a time when uncertainty ruled the land
  
• TENS of THOUSANDS of common criminals were crucified.  It was the go-to method of execution when an inexpensive and gruesome lesson to the public was needed.  It was the lynching of its day
  

I say "fuck that" because this Jesus person supposedly performed miracles.  Yet there isn't a single contemporaneous record anywhere that anybody did anything miraculous... and wouldn't that have "made the news" if it really happened?  The stories told about Jesus -- virgin birth, healing the sick, making food, walking on water, talking to animals, rising from the dead -- all these stories were told about prophets long before Jesus's time. Most prominent were Zoraster and Inanna.

Sometime between 400AD and 800AD the church scholars got together and crafted the myths of Jesus, and decided to write them down and/or collect existing writings into one book.  All of the magical properties of several hundred years of various personality cults were all rolled into one carpenter, who may or may not have existed. May or may not have had a following.  If he did, it was less than twenty people.  Christianity is a sculpted religion, no less than Scientology or Christian Science, crafted by priests who wanted to sell the public some magic that they didn't have to deliver on.  Charge dues, make them into an army, conquer competing religions and destroy the evidence of them.  Use the conquered wealth to attack more "heathens."

It's funny.  I never once in my life thought that this whole religion schtick was anything but a grotesque con, and I'm constantly appalled that more people don't see that.  I mean, hello?  It's pretty obvious.

These days, rather than arguing religion with anyone, I just say "I don't believe in magic."  That usually shuts them up.

Was Jesus, born in Palestine of Palestinian parents, ummmmmmm, "Nordic like Thor"?