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What about Jesus?

I have been wondering recently what Jesus was really up to. Did he know that there was no god or was he just insane. Was he an 'enlightened' human being trying to do away with religion in favour of a more just way of life, using religious metaphor to illustrate his points and being misunderstood? Did he exist? Are the stories about him merely a collection of stories about many different religious teachers at the time? Why did this story gain so much power and what are we to make of this influential character in history? Should we still read and quote his sayings? Should we live some of the good values he taught? Was he a victim of religion? What do you think?

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Permalink Reply by Christine Vyrnon on July 9, 2009 at 10:58pm

Recently read "The Gospel of Thomas." ... which partially suggests heaven (and hell) are right here, right now, all times, all places. Also I've long been on a kick of theorizing to what extent Jesus may or may not have been a yogi.... either exposed through travel or a watered down version of yogic life based on what was available to him 2000 years ago.

I don't buy into the yogi theory altogether by any means, because much of what is associated as his sayings/life just happens to have a yogic tinge to it by nature of his focus on spiritual enlightenment... but it is something I've noticed more and more as I study yoga myself.

I think his main message was lost, in that he seemed to teach that we all are our own christs.

Permalink Reply by John Grow on July 18, 2009 at 7:18pm

Jesus might have existed historically, or was based on an historic figure now lost to us in the layers of myth. There is no objective, non-biblical source that describes Jesus other than the aforementioned Josephus, and that passage is long accepted to be a later addition not by Josephus.

As a spiritual and moral guide, Jesus would be somewhat acceptable, though you'd have to cherry-pick through a lot of junk to get to anything of value, but only if no other source was available. Lao Tzu or Buddha have a lot less junk to wade through to get ideas of value.

As an aside, look for the movie The Man From Earth. Almost entirely dialogue, it brings up interesting points germane to this discussion.