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So the 'sacrifice' was that he was (allegedly) beaten, whipped, stabbed and nailed to a cross. All this took place (allegedly) over a period of a few hours on one day. Now let me tell you about an old neighbour of mine. He was in a Japanese prison camp in Burma for three years. He was beaten, stabbed, whipped, had bamboo spikes forced under his nails, he had other nails pulled out from both his hands and feet, his arms and legs were deformed from being broken during continuous beatings, he was given a small piece of bread and putrid water every day (if he was lucky) all the time he was in the camp.... and whilst suffering from all this torture, he was forced to carry stones from one pile to another and then back again. And this didn't happen for a few hours on one day, it was continuous for three years. THAT is suffering.
Your Jesus had it easy...if in fact he even had it at all.
Do you have verifiable evidence that it did?
2 of the first 4 books of the NT were written by Eye witnessess to Jesus's entire ministry. One book is pretty much a dictation of another Apostle, and one book is based on 1000's of eye witness accounts. The books were written and circulated within the lifetime of many other eye witnessess to be scrutinized. The writers had everything to lose by lying. THe events surrounding Jesus's Ministry is the most highly documented event of it's day. There is nothing evil or nafarious about them.
If you look around you all you see is people denying Jesus ever suffered. He was beaten, whipped, nailed to a cross, stabbed, and left for dead. Then years later people deny it ever happened. Jesus is shown no pity, no compassion. People pass judgement on God, and crap all over him and all that he has ever loved, more than anybody that has ever lived. They treat him like he is the "God of abuse", and made to look like he's the evil one. That is the world today.
For me, Jesus has always been about guilt and fear. Why? What did I ever do to him? He's god, how can I hurt god?
The christian religion, as the article so aptly states, is for many a source of deep pain. It is not "good news", the burden is not "light".
For me, Jesus has always been about guilt and fear. Why? What did I ever do to him? He's god, how can I hurt god?
The christian religion, as the article so aptly states, is for many a source of deep pain. It is not "good news", the burden is not "light".
THe wisdom of Buddha was such that he knew that to help someone going through a death-to-life experience(spiritual death or otherwise), it took compassion, and guidance, hence the Tebetan Book Of THe Dead. Christians absorb the deity of Christ at his death, and they have him as a source of compassion and guidance through the very same in-betweens as the Buddha. The New Testemaent is God's TBOTD, and Jesus is the deliverance of God's Buddha-like compassion for mankind.
2 of the first 4 books of the NT were written by Eye witnessess to Jesus's entire ministry.
Nah! Luke was not a follower of Jesus, he was a follower of Paul. Because some spurious stories about your man-god were circulating, Luke interviewed people who claimed to have known your man-god. So the Gospel of Luke is nothing more than second hand stories from people who claimed to have know this Jesus.
Matthew makes no direct claim in his gospel to being an eyewitness and heavily plagiarised Mark...which an "eye-witness" wouldn't need to do.
Mark wrote down what Peter had told him about who Jesus was, what he did, where he went and what happened. Mark's gospel is therefore Peter's account, written down by Mark.
The Gospel of John was written c100-110 CE. Far to long after the events to have been written by an eye-witness.
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One book is pretty much a dictation of another Apostle, and one book is based on 1000's of eye witness accounts.
Then they are heresay accounts
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The books were written and circulated within the lifetime of many other eye witnessess to be scrutinized.
When viewed in the full perspective of all evidence, the Gospels of Matthew and John were written decades after the fact, most likely around 70-85 AD, if not later. And unfortunately for you, you will find most Christian scholars will agree with these dates. Paul is estimated to have died around 65 AD, and throughout all his letters you will notice he never quotes from any of the Gospels, which is very unusual given that he often quoted from the Old Testament. The names of Matthew and John, as well as with other gospels, were applied to the writings to help lend them an air of authenticity in the second century by Ireneaus.
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THe events surrounding Jesus's Ministry is the most highly documented event of it's day.
No they were not. In fact, the only documentation of Jesus can be found in the Bible and one or two other religious works. Perhaps you can tell us where the man god's ministry is documented...and please, not Josephus, Pliny, Suetonius, Thallus et al.
Nightflight wants to make God out to be abusive. OK. John the Baptist was jailed and beheaded for teaching and doing his thing, and Jesus knew the trouble he was getting into to speak the truth about himself and God. God knows what it's like to suffer. ANd a lot of what Nightfall says in that article are examples of God getting angry and hating rightiously, for the sake of us. And when he does, it gets twisted by people like Nightfall that show no mercy or compassion for him.
What about the terrorist Yahweh of the Old Testament? You know killing babies, allowing his followers to rape women, stopping the sun so his followers can murder more people, drowning the whole of humanity in a horrible flood, allowing "the devil" to terrorize Job for no good reason, etc.
THe wisdom of Buddha was such that he knew that to help someone going through a death-to-life experience(spiritual death or otherwise), it took compassion, and guidance, hence the Tebetan Book Of THe Dead. Christians absorb the deity of Christ at his death, and they have him as a source of compassion and guidance through the very same in-betweens as the Buddha. The New Testemaent is God's TBOTD, and Jesus is the deliverance of God's Buddha-like compassion for mankind.
There are other reasons for Jesus...
Buddha is not like Jesus at all:
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
Seriously, could you ever imagine Jesus saying that? Hell no. His message can be boiled down to: I'm man, but I'm also god, don't ask questions or doubt because then I'll send you to hell.
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