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Tracing those myths is not really easy. I think it has been tried and I remember seeing some books on the subject though their titles escape me now. The problem is that some of these myths were told, and retold for so long that many of them are like so systematically plagarised as to go back as far as verbal tradition and for obvious reasons the origins of verbal traditions are difficult to trace.
Suffice to say however that aside from internal contradiction and lack of credibility... the content of the biblical myths about Jesus are not original in any sense and appear to be retelling of old stories centered around a new central character.
I take on board that the gospel - writers appear to have got material from many sources; Luke and John from Q (the draft of fishes and perhaps the tale of Jesus eating a bit of cooked fish) Matthew and his raiding of the OT for screenplay and perhaos the myth of Mithras' birth on which to base his nativity story (Luke went to the history books).
The question really is whether there is any historical basis at all or whether it is all based on fantasy. I am tending to credit a very minor jewish revolutionary figure, but it is possible that it was the idea of the crucified jewish rebel which formed the basis. but that leave questions to be answered. why Pilate? Why Galilee? How come Paul collecting for the AD 45 famine? I think there are indications that point to c 30 AD.
Oh I am sure if we could trace those stories back to when they were first created there would have been some truth to them. Likely some of them go back so far before Christ that they are from moral tradition however and are untraceable. History is peppered with preachers and martyrs and people with delusions of divinity. I have little doubt that at some point someone did claim to be the lamb of god, someone else did claim to die for the sins of man kind, someone was martyred for a cause between two thieves and so on and so forth.
The existence of such things however would in no way lend credence to the Bible, to the idea Jesus was the one who did all those things, or that there is a god and Jesus was it's off spring or had magical powers to achieve feats without the aid of technology.
Which leaves me back where I started this conversation... unable to see any reason to treat the bible as anything other than a context based work of bronze aged moral fiction.
It will be of no help to you . . . but my reasons are based on my encounters with this love and acceptance in deep meditation. It is unmistakable. The beliefs I attach to it are based on a variety of factors scientific and spiritual ("spiritual fossil record) . . . but the loving and accepting attribute is experiential.
My response would be somewhat similar. I actually met Jesus in an intense dream (instead of meditation). While I certainly don't profess to know all the details, there is a certain knowing that there is a loving God.
I wanted to hang on desperately to a belief in a loving God who cared for us and had a plan for us.
Perhaps you should just let go.
I don't believe in a God that has a plan for us any more than I believe in the cooked up religions -- though there is a lot of other usable stuff in ancient wisdom literature, including the Old and New Testament.
I struggled with believing in God from the age of eight ('64) until 2009. I read the World Religions, went to churches, and nothing ran true -- yet there was a Presence that I perceived spiritually that would not allow me to explain it away with rationale.
One day in 2009 I was walking my dog through a field trying to work it out one last time. I stacked up all the arguments against God, and just threw down the pronouncement that if God didn't do something to make itself known to me I was FINISHED and would NOT believe EVER.
I stood there in the field, crying because there was nothing but the breeze blowing though the grasses, and bird songs in the air. Convinced that all my years of searching and study had been for nothing, I went back to the RV spent and dejected. My lassitude held fast through the evening and I went to bed lower than ever.
That night I woke from an uneasy sleep, feeling a sense of elation and joy that I had never experienced before, as if I was being lifted up. When I woke, I sensed the words -- not hearing, but not a thought, either: "After all there is AM I. I AM with you."
I knew in that moment that God is, and life is in God. God is not some old guy in some remote plane of existence, but the Life Force in which all life exists. There truly is no where that God is not.
That is not to say that we do not suffer all that there is to suffer in life. God does not protect us from harm. God doesn't actually care whether we believe or not. God just provides and shares the force of life with us all, equally.
I've never stopped believing since, and it doesn't really matter to me what others believe. I just know. Nothing else matters.
It's posts like these that make me accept that the Mystical experience is a real one. If it ever happened to me, I'd probably be like you - I wouldn't anymore call myself an atheist even though I would have no more time for personal gods and organized religion than I do now.
Since it hasn't happened to me, I can look at the matter without (if I can put it this way) the personal conviction which imparts Faith of the kind that simply will not consider for a moment the argument 'perhaps it's all in the mind' (by which I mean just in the mind) and would probably consider the suggestion a bit insulting.
That said, I can be pretty accommodating about someone who just feels 'God' as a oneness with the universe and takes that as representing actual reality.
If only dreams, whether had while sleeping normally or when dozing off during meditation, were a valid source of evidence for anything. Alas they are not.
That night I woke from an uneasy sleep, feeling a sense of elation and joy that I had never experienced before, as if I was being lifted up. When I woke, I sensed the words -- not hearing, but not a thought, either: "After all there is AM I. I AM with you."
I knew in that moment that God is, and life is in God. God is not some old guy in some remote plane of existence, but the Life Force in which all life exists. There truly is no where that God is not.
Tried that many times and all I got was *crickets* Odd that some get this and others don't. Now if every single being in life had such an experience well, we would all be dancing and whistling to the same tune. The fact that is does not happen suggests that it is either self indoctrination or this god is picky.
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That is not to say that we do not suffer all that there is to suffer in life. God does not protect us from harm. God doesn't actually care whether we believe or not. God just provides and shares the force of life with us all, equally.
What you are saying that there is no evidence for this god but your belief is personal and I can respect that.
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I've never stopped believing since, and it doesn't really matter to me what others believe. I just know. Nothing else matters.
Good for you, but for us that rationalise everything, evidence is held to higher levels of scrutiny and scepticism.
If only dreams, whether had while sleeping normally or when dozing off during meditation, were a valid source of evidence for anything. Alas they are not.
Don't be so quick there - I had a dream about a zombie apocalypse last night. Those who believe in mystical experiences better stock up on food an shotgun ammo. The rest of us can be happy that dreams and visions are just some weird side effect of how the brain works when we're not conscious.
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