scott-atkinson said:
Did Jesus Christ exist, and if so was he the son of God or just a well educated man and that over the centuries chinese whispers have portrayed him to be the son of God.
I wouldn't argue whether he did or did not exist, as there's no physical evidence either way. You can't say the Gospels are proof because they are just written accounts from about 60CE to 150CE and based on hearsay and invention but their very existence weighs in favour of their being someone of this name.
As for his position as Son of God, I find that notion ridiculous, given that I don't believe in God and find religion to be a waste of time. What he was, most likely, was a deluded individual. No more different than your modern loon who thinks they are on a mission for God, whether it be David Berkowitz or Peter Sutcliffe. Not to say that Jesus killed, it was against his supposed nature, so perhaps more of a Jim Jones or David Koresh style character, infecting the minds of those around him with his own delusions.
There's not much of his life in the Bible. He gets born, disappears for a number of years, and returns spouting inanities and supposedly performing miracles. Holger Kersten, in
Jesus Lived In India, makes the claim that in these interim years Jesus, er, lived in India. His philosophies, for example, are more in line with those of Hindu teaching (and were indeed taught by Hindus hundreds of years before) than the eye-for-an-eye Jewish lessons. Kersten goes on to make the claim that Jesus, after surviving the crucifixion, departed again for India with his mother.
Jesus crops up in Islam as the prophet
Issa, the precursor to Mohammad. Certain Islamic factions believe that after surviving the crucifixion he changed his name to
Yuz Asaf. In Srinigar, Kashmir there's the tomb of Yuz Asaf shared with another minor messenger. The interesting things to note here are that while the minor messenger is buried north to south in the Muslim fashion, Yuz Asaf is buried east-west as per Jewish tradition. There's also a stone with feet carved into it, a pair of dots highlighting the wounds of possible crucifixion. Who's to say? The remains in that tomb may just be the proof of the historical Jesus.
I wouldn't tend to believe the Gospels at their word as they are the slanted views of infected minds told and retold across a series of languages. The supposed wisdom of Jesus can be elaborated by them spouting their opinion or interpretation on his oblique phrasings. Sometimes these additions can undermind or twist the connotation of what Jesus may have said or meant. The apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, for example, is a basis collection of sayings attributed to Jesus. There's no storytelling within. The interesting thing is that a number of these sayings tie in with the main Gospels although they aren't elaborated and interpreted in the way Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John did. They stand more like a list of sayings. The fact that many are ambigious about what they mean is probably why the text is apocryphal.
