First he has to exist!

Many people may believe to justify their own prejudices and anti-social behaviors, but that is not what Jesus (assuming he actually existed), actually taught.

Personally, I think it very likely that Jesus was a fictional character in a popular story, which was them plagiarized by many others. When Cervantes wrote "Don Quixote", it was popular and there were many imitators who plagiarized the characters. All the "gospels" or stories of jesus were written about 200 years after he supposedly lived. There were at least 40-60 "gospels" or stories of Jesus ,making the rounds, all of htem different and often contradicting each other, and most incoporated familiar religious themes and stories from other religions of the time period. I think it started with one story and like with Cervantes, the popularity of the story spawned many imitators. It is very likely that the original story was an early version of the current book of Mark (accordign to biblical scholars), where a miracle worker (not an uncommon thing of the time, only now we'd call them "faith healers" ) came to believe he was the messiah and ended up being crucified. No mircles, no virgin birth, no resurrection. That was all added in later versions and by imitators of the original story.

It appears many posters on here need to read a few of the New Testaments...it is not cool, nor does it do us atheists & agnostics any good, to trash someone, even a mythical someone, without knowledge...and while you are at it, learn some history so you can see the context of the ideas

I never understood why people(even some atheists)think that Jesus was such a moral paradigm, when he is actually the standard for abusers and despots. "Love me or else" "You're nothing without me" "You can't love anyone more than you love me...even your family" "Let me do your thinking for you"

Jesus, even if he ever lived, was not the man today's Christians describe him to be. Today's Jesus is created in the image of the preacher speaking.

True! Very true! Jesus would not love our constitution haha

Okay.

I agree! christian hell is a nasty concept. christianity is deceptive. it offers positive things, but at a price... and puts its own subtle spin on morality in the process

Yup! Jesus, even though he didn't exist according to Roman or any other factual records, was a bigoted piece of shit.

[xkcd.com]