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Do you believe Jesus existed?

Apparently you can't do polls on here.... but

Do any of you think that Jesus actually existed? What do category do you fall into?

A. Believed he existed, claims are false

B. Believed he existed, claims are exaggerated

C. Don't believe he existed

D. Believe he existed, claims are true (sorry had to leave the idiot category open)

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Matt VDB on April 23, 2010 at 11:11am

Pardon me?

Care to show me some of these many amazing paintings with "fireballs with people inside them"?

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Permalink Reply by Andrew James Aumann on April 23, 2010 at 9:10pm

http://www.bibleufo.com/anapaint1.htm

This is just a website. My art history course professor had many more examples - and that was over 12 years ago. I'm sure more examples have been found since.

These kinds of things have shown up in cave paintings too.

Anyways, make of it what you will - I don't claim to know the truth, I only ask you to figure it out for yourself and never accept anyone's version of history on faith alone.

Good luck.

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Permalink Reply by nick altman on April 23, 2010 at 11:43pm

Consider for a moment what people imagined comets and meteor showers to look like up close before science told us what they were. Consider the many shapes and objects people saw in the stars.

Consider the idea many people held pertaining to the divinity of the sky, the realm of the Gods to some, the realm of heaven to the painters of most of those paintings.

All I see are religious objects, talismans, superstitious renditions of comets. To think it is all evidence of UFOs is contrived I'd say faced with easier explanations, but this of course is not going to make sense to you or the great truth you feel to be on the verge of uncovering or glimpsing. You really don't have much of a place among a forum of skeptics other than a shared opposing view to organized religion, but you're still trapped in the reasoning of the religious mind with the certainties you feel so strongly about. I don't mean to keep singling out your comments here, but it's really out of place and distracting from the topic.

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Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on April 24, 2010 at 5:17pm

I'm with Nick on this one. People, particularly ancient people with a lot less scientific explanation for 'stuff' than we have today, tend to see a conscious will in anything and everything. The sun and moon; deities. The stars; deities. A meteor; deities.

Or turn it around; "The spirit of god descends upon him/her/them/the event." How might one depict that? As a bright light source with a face descending down upon whatever.

Of course, I'm mostly saying this just to see if Matt VDB will take the pro-ufo-jesus side just so he doesn't have to agree with me.

(Sorry Matt - couldn't resist).

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Permalink Reply by Matt VDB on April 24, 2010 at 5:36pm

Hehe. I agree completely.

... oh god i just agreed with Nick. I think i need to go lie down

;)

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Permalink Reply by nick altman on April 25, 2010 at 4:18am

Hey now! Why would agreeing with me strain you in any way, sir? The only thing I said in here was I thought it plausible Jesus could have never existed to give rise to what we know, and wished to see the evidence for it.

You then provided ample evidence to support a contrary view, and I proclaimed you had changed my mind in that I am open to the possibility the figure is based on an actual man, so what's with the need to lie down and the taking of the Tetragrammaton in vain, eh !?!?!?!

I mean, I thought I was a rational dude. *tear drop*

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Permalink Reply by Matt VDB on April 25, 2010 at 5:41am

Oh my, my post above proves to me again that I shouldn't be posting at 1 AM. The joke was that agreeing with Jo Jerome would strain me, since we're engaged in several debates (always against each other) on topics of history. That's why he jokingly implied that I would surely pick the pro-UFO side here (again to disagree with him). My reply was that I wouldn't and so I probably needed to lie down.
Yet for some reason (too little sleep) I wrote Nick instead of Jo Jerome...

Wow, that joke really did bomb, didn't it?

My apologies to you, sir. Dry your tears ;)

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Permalink Reply by nick altman on April 25, 2010 at 6:13am

Yipeeeeee! I can rest easy *wink wink*
Carry on then, good sir.

Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on April 29, 2010 at 7:10pm

That's why he jokingly implied that I would surely pick the pro-UFO side here (again to disagree with him).

"Jo" sounds like a male variant to you?

Then I can put to rest any slightly paranoid wondering if part of the issue is my being female.

Permalink Reply by Rosemary LYNDALL WEMM on April 29, 2010 at 11:56pm

Does this mean you have been de-frocked instead of de-gened?

Sorry. Couldn't resist. And it's only 10 pm here. What I will be doing at 1 am is anyone's guess.

Permalink Reply by Matt VDB on April 30, 2010 at 2:00am

Woops.

Yes, as a matter of fact, where I'm from Jo is a male name (as well as a female one). Apologies.

Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on May 8, 2010 at 1:44pm

Woops.

Yes, as a matter of fact, where I'm from Jo is a male name (as well as a female one). Apologies.

No worries. Didn't realize you're in Belgium. If it's any consolation, my online nick is taken from my would-be male name. Had I been a boy, Mom and Dad's chosen name was "Joseph Jerome."

I just took the female version 'Jo' (at least, here in the states), and use 'Jerome' as if it's a last name (to honor way-cool uncle Jerry).

Meanwhile, ran into the same snag myself years ago with an online friend in the UK named 'Dani.' Here, that's almost always a female name. Glad I erred on the side of caution and avoided gender-specific pronouns before discovering UK-Dani is male.

;-)