If The Truth Be Known

[Geezer]

Religion is based on “faith” expressed as “beliefs”. “What do you believe?’ may be the most common question asked by fellow believers to one another. The concept of faith is based on something.  In most cases I think that “something” is the bible. A believer’s faith is based on their perception that the bible is literally, historically, and factually true.  This belief that the bible is the verbally inspired, inerrant, infallible literal “words” of God is the lynchpin, IMO, supporting the faith of most, if not all, believers.

 

It is the job of the religious historian to validate the historical accuracy of the bible. Presently there exist more than three hundred years of scholarly study and research that endeavors to provide bona fide evidence that will answer the most important question facing believers who are seeking validation that the bible true. Historians can say with a high degree of probability the answer is no the bible isn’t true in any literal, historic, or factual sense.

 

Additionally, the historical research so far has been unable to uncover any evidence whatsoever that a man named Jesus of Nazareth ever existed in the flesh. The result of this scholarly research isn’t a secret and the information is taught in many schools of religion, but this historical evidence is unknown to the vast majority of believers. Why?  The answer is obvious, Church leaders do not want their adherents to be aware of this evidence and the fact the bible is literally nothing more than a collection of ancient myths, legends, and folklore often written in the form of allegory, metaphor, and narrative parable.

 

Few believers are aware the authors of the bible are unknown except for six or seven of Paul’s epistles. Most are unaware that the bible stories only existed in oral from for untold decades before anyone began to write them down. Few believers are aware there are no eyewitnesses to any of the events recorded in the bible. Even fewer believers are aware that numerous Pagan dying rising god men stories that had many “Jesus Story” similarities existed for hundreds of years before Jesus came on the scene. Dying suffering rising god men stories were certainly not unique to the ancient cultures that created Jesus.

 

It is doubtful that many believers are aware that Christianity was created primarily for political reasons by the Roman Emperor Constantine and that the newly created Catholic Church was structured like the Roman Empire. I think it is unlikely many present day believers are aware there were hundreds of gospels in existence when the council of Nicene met to formulate an orthodox faith and establish centralized authority. I doubt many believers are aware the present day four gospels were not voted on by the council and canonized but simply evolved and were eventually accepted by the masses as cannon decades later.

 

Not many present day believers are aware that Christianity found itself in a fierce fight for survival with the Gnostics that were more widely accepted as was their gospels. Christianity only survived because the Roman Empire adopted it as their official state religion. The Gnostics were jailed, murdered, and tortured by the Christians, with the help of the Romans, and their gospels and sacred writings were destroyed. The true Christian history is much different from the sanitized version believers are taught in their churches. What would happen if the truth ever got out and become widely known?

 

 

[Guest r3alchild]

Its out there, but the fanatics cock block as much of it as possible.

[florduh]

People who believe any improbable thing without evidence are hardly seeking factual truth. There is no evidence for, and often evidence clearly against all forms of supernatural belief, but that matters little. God invented cognitive dissonance for a reason. Pick your poison and stick to it no matter what. Once someone believes what the preacher told them, that the Bible is the literal and inspired Word of God, there's little to no chance they'll ever entertain the facts brought forth by historians, archaeologists, biologists, etc. Even when they can no longer ignore reality, they often switch gears and then claim the Bible is Truth expressed through mythology and therefore still valid.

[ExCBooster]

I think the hilarious part is that if we DID uncover direct independent evidence that Jesus existed... say a tomb with a body in it as an archaeological site... it would deep-six any chance of Christianity's main point (resurrection and all) being correct. Heh heh.