Was Jesus the son of God?

[Artois]

   The resurrection of Jesus is proof of his divine ability.  However, less well known, is that 12 centuries before Christ was born Chrshna the Hindu saviour rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.  A mere 5 centuries before Christ, Buddha lay dead in India, before the voice of the lord summoned Buddha to also rise and ascend to the heavens.  Even our dear Osiris, at the same time, was yet another risen saviour who rose from the grave.

   The resurrection of a God is fundamental to many religions, all of which the ancient hebrews were familiar with, and from these they 'borrowed' many ideas.  These ancient cultures, from India to Babylon were filled with virgin-born sons of God who were the saviours of mankind.  These saviours while they lived, preached and performed miracles, and once they died they rose again and ascended to heaven.

   In Bethlehem as late as 386A.D. St Jerome reported that the people still mourned the (Syrian God) Adonis in the cave where the infant jesus is claimed to have first cried (born).  Adonis, another resurrected God sharing the same locations as Jesus.

   The uniqueness of Jesus is not there.  His story is one of pagan tales, but told under another name.  Much like the Pagan winter festival became Christmas.

   It is my conclusion, from the revelation that there are at least 16 worldwide documented crucified saviours, that one is no better or worse than the other, but Jesus as a copy of the earlier tales is the least likely to be true.

[PuppyChow]

Ohai Zeitgeist. If that's what your referencing, conspiracy theories are usually very funny. Because they just aren't true.

Also, there are many key differences you're missing. So Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and maybe some pagan gods were too. Yay. Greece developed a way of writing. China developed a way of writing. Was Greece a copy of China?

[Artois]

What is ohai zeitgeist?

I was researching something before I fell upon a source of curious information.

I found this quite revelatory.  Discoveriing our saviour was cruxified and then rose again to heaven at least 10,000 years before Christ, is certainly news to me.  Discovering this event has happened at least 16 times, and it is starting to get a little creepy... why doesn't the bible mention the other 15 times God visited?

[Scaredgirl]

Greece developed a way of writing. China developed a way of writing. Was Greece a copy of China?

That's a weak argument because writing in China and Greece was very different, and we are not talking about development of religion as a concept, we are talking about very specific events that happen to be identical.

The fact is that this mythical creature called Jesus has appeared in dozens different religions with a different name. Important details like virgin birth, resurrection, 12 apostrophes (?) were almost always the same. In a way there has been many "prototypes" of Jesus in the past.

The most interesting part of the movie Zeitgeist was when they talked about how none of the historians who lived in the time of Jesus, wrote a single word about him. Not a single word. They talked about everything else that was happening at the time, but somehow they all ignored the guy who was born from a virgin mother, walked on water, healed the sick and resurrected. If I was a historian at the time, I probably would have mentioned something.

And that is not a conspiracy theory. These are facts that anyone can confirm simply by going to the library and studying ancient religions.

[Artois]

A prime example is Osiris, who was worshipped for over 6,000 years as a saviour who rose from the dead.  Now I think most people probably no longer believe in Osiris or his divine power of resurrection, yet his story is remarkably similar to that of christ (who has only been worshipped for a mere 2,000 years).  Is it possible that the worshipping of Christ will also die out?

[BluePriest]

no. There are many other requirement than just "rising from the dead" that are unique to Jesus. There were tons of prophecies that had to be fulfilled for him to be considered "the savior"
http://www.cynet.com/jesus/prophecy/ntquoted.htm (http://www.cynet.com/jesus/prophecy/ntquoted.htm)
Rising from the dead is 1 thing, if you find someone else who fulfilled all those prophecy and then you will have more of a story.

Greece developed a way of writing. China developed a way of writing. Was Greece a copy of China?

The most interesting part of the movie Zeitgeist was when they talked about how none of the historians who lived in the time of Jesus, wrote a single word about him. Not a single word. They talked about everything else that was happening at the time, but somehow they all ignored the guy who was born from a virgin mother, walked on water, healed the sick and resurrected. If I was a historian at the time, I probably would have mentioned something.

http://www.gotquestions.org/did-jesus-exist.html (http://www.gotquestions.org/did-jesus-exist.html)
The first-century Roman Tacitus, who is considered one of the more accurate historians of the ancient world, mentioned superstitious “Christians” (from Christus, which is Latin for Christ), who suffered under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius. Suetonius, chief secretary to Emperor Hadrian, wrote that there was a man named Chrestus (or Christ) who lived during the first century (Annals 15.44).

Flavius Josephus is the most famous Jewish historian. In his Antiquities he refers to James, “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ.” There is a controversial verse (18:3) that says, “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats....He was [the] Christ...he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.” One version reads, “At this time there was a wise man named Jesus. His conduct was good and [he] was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who became his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive; accordingly he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.”

Julius Africanus quotes the historian Thallus in a discussion of the darkness which followed the crucifixion of Christ (Extant Writings, 18).

Pliny the Younger, in Letters 10:96, recorded early Christian worship practices including the fact that Christians worshiped Jesus as God and were very ethical, and he includes a reference to the love feast and Lord’s Supper.

The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 43a) confirms Jesus' crucifixion on the eve of Passover and the accusations against Christ of practicing sorcery and encouraging Jewish apostasy.

Lucian of Samosata was a second-century Greek writer who admits that Jesus was worshiped by Christians, introduced new teachings, and was crucified for them. He said that Jesus' teachings included the brotherhood of believers, the importance of conversion, and the importance of denying other gods. Christians lived according to Jesus’ laws, believed themselves to be immortal, and were characterized by contempt for death, voluntary self-devotion, and renunciation of material goods.

Mara Bar-Serapion confirms that Jesus was thought to be a wise and virtuous man, was considered by many to be the king of Israel, was put to death by the Jews, and lived on in the teachings of His followers.

Then we have all the Gnostic writings (The Gospel of Truth, The Apocryphon of John, The Gospel of Thomas, The Treatise on Resurrection, etc.) that all mention Jesus.

In fact, we can almost reconstruct the gospel just from early non-Christian sources: Jesus was called the Christ (Josephus), did “magic,” led Israel into new teachings, and was hanged on Passover for them (Babylonian Talmud) in Judea (Tacitus), but claimed to be God and would return (Eliezar), which his followers believed, worshipping Him as God (Pliny the Younger).

[Artois]

So the only proof required is to fullfill the prophecies of the bible... prophesies that with a little research can in general be shown to have been 'borrowed' from co-existing religions of the time.

Do you doubt that Osiris was the saviour and rose from the dead?  I'm sure he fullfilled all the prophecies of the Egyptians... unless you know otherwise?  (Yes, I've got Osiris on the brain).

Further, isn't it slightly possible that Christ's story was altered after his death to fullfill those same prophecies?  I'm also under the impression that those same prophecies differ depending on which gospel is read... but correct me if I'm wrong.

[PuppyChow]

Know what's funny? Osiris really doesn't have all that much in common with Jesus anyway. Zeitgeist claims so, but when you look at Zeitgeists references, there are really no Egyptian mythologists. (Actually, there may have been some fiction writer that had a minor in egyptian mythology. Maybe.)

Here's an interesting article on the matter of Osiris/Jesus:
http://www.pleaseconvinceme.com/index/Is_Jesus_Simply_a_Retelling_of_the_Osiris_Myth

[BluePriest]

So the only proof required is to fullfill the prophecies of the bible... prophesies that with a little research can in general be shown to have been 'borrowed' from co-existing religions of the time.

Do you doubt that Osiris was the saviour and rose from the dead?  I'm sure he fullfilled all the prophecies of the Egyptians... unless you know otherwise?  (Yes, I've got Osiris on the brain).

Further, isn't it slightly possible that Christ's story was altered after his death to fullfill those same prophecies?  I'm also under the impression that those same prophecies differ depending on which gospel is read... but correct me if I'm wrong.

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So what are the reference for all of those prophecies being borrowed?
 
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So what are the prophecies of the Egyptians?

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And yes its possible for it to have been altered, its also possible that youre a monkey that knows how to type, and someone is telling you what to say, but thats why its called FAITH and not FACT

[airframe]

Most of the stuff in bible is blatantly made up to convince supersticious people and trick them to convert.

 Other stuff are just translation errors made ages ago.
Jesus was born of a virgin? The word used to decribe in hebrew was 'almah' which was translated to virgin. That translation doesn't even make sense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almah (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almah)

Things like this are probably more obvious when looking at some other translations of bible.

Agricola also explains how he had to create many new words and hoped they would be liked and put into use (which they have, although some of them, particularly of animals never seen in Finland fared less well after encounter with the real animal; such as jalopeura or "noble deer" for lion and kamelikurki or "camel crane" for ostrich).

Agricola was first to tranlate the bible into finnish. He had create new words for things that finnish had no word for.

[Artois]

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And yes its possible for it to have been altered, its also possible that youre a monkey that knows how to type, and someone is telling you what to say, but thats why its called FAITH and not FACT

NOT Fact.  Interesting.   Do you base any other important decisions in your life on NOT fact?

[BluePriest]

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And yes its possible for it to have been altered, its also possible that youre a monkey that knows how to type, and someone is telling you what to say, but thats why its called FAITH and not FACT

NOT Fact.  Interesting.   Do you base any other important decisions in your life on NOT fact?

I didnt mean it wasnt fact, all I said was that the important thing is faith. If God wanted us to go off a fact, then he would make us all believe, but he leaves it all to choice. There is plenty of evidence in the world,  the world was designed so that no one has any reason NOT to believe, but instead, we grasp at straws and try to find a way to prove everything.

And im waiting. You ignored my other 2 statements, sacrificing giving yourself any credibility to instead try to make me look bad, which epically failed.

Situations I base my life on that are not fact.

1)I leave my car door unlocked quite occasionally, and its NOT a fact that someone will not break into my car.
2)I dont have a bomb shelter, even though its not a fact that plenty of countries could bomb the US, and it be right near my house.
3)I dont have another car aside from the 1 I own, even though its not a fact that it wont be stolen, break down beyond repair, or a meteor crash into it.
4)I only have liability insurance on my car, even though its not a fact that I will get into an accident and it be my fault.
5)I dont have my will written up, even though its not a fact a little meteor will crash down on me and go right through my skull.

I bet you have a ton of things in your life that you rely on FAITH and NOT FACT.

You also have FAITH that the bible is not true, and you CAN NOT prove that it IS NOT a fact. So you are basing the complete opposite on Faith as well. Looks like we are in the same boat here.