The arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem, and the crowd mobbing against him would be a fairly important event. I'm not arguing about the accuracy of the details, just that there was probably a person, probably seen as a messaiah, in Jerusalem, who got the scorn of the crowd and got executed. I choose to call this person "Jesus". Apart from just being a very *natural* start to a religion, it's the type of event that *would* be recorded by the Romans, so it's believable that if records from some 70 years later mentioned the event, it's probably because the person in question had believable evidence of the event.

To make it clear - what we have is a roman written record, from around 100 a.c. talking about the political events (execution of the individual, by Pilate, after commotion, without going into the religious stuff.)

You'll find that the academic consensus among middle-east historian does conclude in the existence of a historical Jesus. There are individuals that argue it, but the vast majority, also among non-christians, comes to that conclusion.

 Otherwise, I think we're ultimately just arguing over semantics here, how we define what is a fact, - either definition has its purpose, so let's just keep it at that.

It becomes increasingly difficult to believe in anything "supernatural" the better educated you are, especially if you're conditioned in formal logic.

Religious people often tend not to care about justifying their beliefs, which is why it's called faith. That means they are disinterested in the veracity of their ideas and you can simply ignore them. They prefer fantasy to reality by virtue of the nature of their predisposition to faith.

There is a reason philosophy is dominated by atheists these days.

I have tons of religious friends and acquaintances and it would be a chore reviewing each and every one of their insane ideas about this topic. Nevertheless I do find it fascinating how one can be a software developer AND a Christian and would love to poke and prod in such a brain.

Yes I believe. Catholic and Joyous!

Not going to get involved in this discussion further as I know this isn’t the best venue to debate, have discourse, or even teach.

However I will add that faith and logic do go hand in hand. The issue is that many dont have the background or understanding that it is true when you add the study of Theology and a sprinkle of Philosophy to the equation. I find it disappointing that the Arts have taken a backseat to Science in this generation. They need and should complement each other to have a better understanding of life, existance, and meaning.

Either way, Peace!

He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent.

Alara317 said:

This is glorious.

When I hear this, I immediately assume that the next words out of the person's mouth are complete bullshit. I question whatever stuff they said before making that statement as well.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-this-moment-i-am-euphoric

Aha, you mean Lucifer.

The guy's just as fake and imaginary as God. Though his portrayal in horror movies and video games is entertaining.

Yes, I do.