Exactly Zero (None; Not Any) Qualified Scholars Think Jesus Christ Existed.

In some random (non-religious) Facebook group,
a random fundamentalist Christian 
decided to promote her God-Awful religion. 

She specifically claimed that Jesus Christ (that specific Jesus) existed.

She went even further than that.
However, this blog is only about that one single point of contention. 

In reply, I mentioned that he (the "Jesus" she claimed existed) did not exist. 

In reply, an avid supporter of her abusive religion 
came to her rescue. 

He said: 
"If you want to be taken seriously, please note the the existence of an historical Jesus isn't in question among ...".

Now, I'm not even going to bother quoting the rest of it. Because that first part is what actually addresses the issue. 
---
So, now, here I am; 
explaining to another rando-LocoMotive4Christ 
where he's gone off the rails.
--

I never mentioned Muggle-Jesus.
I was only responding to a claim about Magic-Jesus.

Magic-Jesus is the only Jesus she mentioned.
Aka "Jesus Christ".
She actually specified that she meant that "Jesus". 

He is fiction.
That's all I said about it. 

Meanwhile, literally EVERY qualified scholar agrees with me about that. As it happens, I too think "there was a guy".

But that's like saying the same thing about Santa Clause or Dracula.

Although, with Wonder Woman, "I think there was some ladies".
That character's biographical data was copied from (and was inspired by) the two women whom the writer was in a three-way polyamorous relationship with.

And yet, nobody ever says "she existed in real life" whenever someone mentions Wonder Woman.

Nobody ever says "He existed in real life" whenever someone mentions Dracula or Santa Clause either.

Granted, they might say "he existed", if you mention Saint Nicholas.
However, people would not say "he existed" if you only invoked that name as a way to say Santa Clause; like musing "I wonder how many flying reindeer live with old St nick; at his magical toy shop at the North Pole?".

It's a much more ethically responsible use of language to say something more carefully nuanced like "The Jesus of Christian mythos never existed. However, that literary character probably drew at least a few details from some actually-existing person's life.".

With that being the case, if we must give a "yes" or "no" to the question "Did the Jesus of Christian Bible stories exist?"
The appropriate answer is "no".

Instead, if someone asked "Did any of the earliest known story tellers draw from rumors they heard about a real person's life?",
the most reasonable answer is:

"They probably assumed as such."

We can also fairly add:

"Today, most Christian-believing scholars may be appealing to their own personal religious interests, to say so."

We can also fairly add:

"Qualified scholars who are NOT Christians ...
may rely (a lot) on a modern Bandwagon Fallacy;
possibly to avoid professional consequences from departing too fast /too soon from consensus.".
 
As it happens, and to be fair, there was a brief window of opportunity for Richard Carrier to 
have his work taken seriously.
That was starting to happen. But his insecure and reactionary behaviors burned those early bridges; stranding him on Mythicist island. 

So if there is (and there just might be) a future where Mythicism is taken seriously by a signficant sampling of scholars, that trend has been delayed.

And yet, we could also fairly add:

"Scholars actually DO have good reason to think some few elements of that fictional character's life drew from a real person's life.".

I would agree.
In fact,
I can't think of a single character in ALL of fiction 
who's writer(s) didn't draw (at least a little)
from real life people. 

Meanwhile, some very few and very basic character-details in the earliest lost versions of those stories ...
probably survived. But that would mean those details survived the decades-long Telephone Game that it took for those rumors to finally reach whoever wrote down the legends they heard. [Although, now that I hear myself say that out loud, it does feel like quite a stretch.
But I'm going to stick to that anyways, because:
 reasons.
Reasons I won't get into here.]

I really do think so.
But that is a far cry from any reasonable and informed person being able to point to THAT specific collection of stories, where an Iron Age Comic Book tells the tales of The Fantastic Adventures Of Super-Jew!" and say "Yea. That guy existed in real life".

He didn't.

Instead, "some guy" did.

And we have no way to know if the real guy would even be able to recognize himself
after: decades of a chaotic, unsupervised Telephone Game, in a cultural SOUP of superstitious cult primitives,
repeating and evolving religious tropes,
and who were DESPERATE for a fabled messiah to show up; to violently destroy everyone they hated.
It gets even worse after all the 'poetic license' Fan-Fiction writers probably took to create some later "Jesus" with.
They had their own religious, political, and professional agendas to serve through their writing.
If we're willingly to arbitrarily assume they got the name right,
then we can say "A different Jesus existed.
And some few of the details from his real life made it into the legends.".

But it is recklessly irresponsible 
to enable a criminal grift. 
And that's exactly what we're doing 
if we notice that grift taking place 
and then say "Oh yea. Absolutely. Your storybook Jesus existed in real life". 



He didn't.

And you know he didn't.

Now,
ya'll can keep on Love-Bombing (grooming)


as Flying Monkeys
who prey upon the most VULNERABLE members of any society  
on behalf of a Narcissist-Cult.

But the REASON Christianity is hemorrhaging members at an unprecedented pace in developed societies 
 is obvious.

People are finally educating and growing past it. 

Boomers can't save it. 
Later generations can't either, unless they change the very essence of it into something else;
something less ... obviously-wrong.
But for now, they can't. Because:
Very ironically,
Boomers don't play that.


So while your global rabble of begrudgingly networked, clown-shoe Christian-mafias scramble desperately for a way to survive, ...

Everyone else is tired of your bullshit. 

Now, if you want to point out that I (also) am being aggressive and disrespectful, 

I agree.

You're right.

But I have reason to be. Because showing bullies respect only encourages more bad behavior.

And besides, ...
I am not here to play the roll of AMBASSADOR for a GOD. 
So I don't have to worry about stumbling anyone AWAY from a GOD and INTO a HELL.

Clearly, either none of you really believe in all that crap,
OR 
some of you DO believe in it ... and are such psychopaths that you don't actually mind pushing people into the "everlasting fire". 

So for as long as your cult keeps bringing your destructive culture war to "the world",
the world will keep fighting back.
 
And we'll keep doing that on a massive scale 
with an ever-growing mountain of verified facts,
logical reasoning,
and compassion-driven ethics.

The more we bring safety and empowered function to the masses, the faster we force Christianity to grow up, and the faster everyone else will outgrow it entirely. 

Meanwhile, a more aggressive defense is often necessary in public spaces and in government. 
 
Granted, that's never pretty. But what choice do we have? 

Your insane colonizing cult is so extreme that you've even claimed all the GALAXIES as part of your god's domain;
and as your inheritance. 

Although, none of us are really worried about that. 
 Your cult will be gone long before our species learns how to fly that far. 



Outspoken critics are NOT the aggressors. 
We are the very very late RESPONSE 
that religious colonizers were always due. 

Your worlds-destroying, minds-enslaving, HIVE-MIND is always trying to claim everything that you find useful; 
as your own.
 
Every continent, every government, every holiday, every concept, every life, and every non-consenting child you can invasively
brain-rape4Jesus. 

 

You can all go Manifest your Destiny
right the fuck off a cliff. 

But if you want more explanation, 
check in with Uncle Bobby. 
He'll explain it to you.