Do you believe in JESUS?

I myself am a christian as well... I've been raised this way and really never thought the other way...
a while ago faith was a reall issue for me... I even doubted the whole matter for a short while....
But then I thought about it... prayed about it... read about it and asked people about it.... and frankly.. I still believe.
Especially praying, and not those prayers where you go and say your standard things before you go and do your standard things, but really deep intensive 'conversations' with God...
It really helped me a lot at that time and I realised I really cannot live without my faith...
My girlfriend is not a christian and I don't know if she'll ever become that... I sure hope so though...
But because she's not a christian I was able to compair better the reasons for believing and the reasons not to.... I found the reasons to believe to be more meaningfull, to me at least, than the reasons not to...

As for the historical questions about Jesus... well like has been said before there is more evidence of Jesus living than there is of Julius Ceasar... so I believe I'll be in my right to say that yes.... Jesus walked the earth...
Now I myself choose to believe that he really was and is the son of God and God himself.... but if you choose not to.. then I will not be the one pointing a finger at you..
I say choose wisely if you're in doubt... and I hope you will make the right decision.

 

You might want to keep that definition of "major religions" to yourself around Hindus and Buddists. Being the peace-loving souls they are, I doubt they'd hurt you, but I'd hate to think what your next rebirth would bring you back as.

 

the usual punishment is something like a jackass, but thats only my opinion.

 

Pilate was the ONLY governor in the history of the Roman empire who was suspended for being too cruel and violent (even for the Roman way of governing that had no problem with genocide). I seriously doubt that he could (or had to be) pushed into crucifying someone. The whole "being forced", symbolic washing hands and claiming innocent seriously contradicts all historical evidences about Pilate's personality.
P.S. Even the Roman church devounced the claim that Jews were giulty of killing Jesus. You might want to check it out.

 

Again, if anyone knows of any objective historical evidence (no, the Gospel of Mathew doesn't count) of the existence of Jesus, I really wish they'd tell me about it.

Julius Ceasar, on the other hand, is an extremely well-documented historical figure whose existence is in about as much doubt as Ronald Reagan's. Who are these people who claim there's more evidence supporting the existence of Jesus?

 

God is only for those looking for answers, but can't find them immediately, it's a good thing for those who really need the support, but unfortunately some people don't understand that, and make it out to be more of a cult, religion should be there for you, not there to force you.

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, what if god was one of usssssssssssssssss
*sings badly*


Personally, I feel that any omnipotent, all-caring god would be so destroyed by what we do to each other that He wouldn't be able to stick around watching.
Besides, if there's a God, then who's His God? If you're the supreme master of everything for all time, hell, if you're God, then what's the point of existing at all any more? You're omnipotent, so you can do anything; and you're immortal, so it would get really old after a few millenia. There's not even anyone to share it with. As the adage goes, "it's lonely at the top"; but then again, Humans have no "top", just different areas of power. For any one entity to have complete and total control over and mastery of absolutely everything forever is for that one entity to go to insane with apathy and loneliness. Who do you talk to when you're God?
Hence, if there is a single deity watching over us, I cannot believe that He is the master of the universe, and thus not truly a God at all.

Cheesy though it may be, I think Terry Pratchett's got a real point when he says that we make things true by believing in them. God may or may not be watching us, but the belief in Him has caused some of the greatest triumphs and some of the greatest travesties in human history.

 

Buddhism doesn't really count as a major religion. Popular for a while among all those new age freaks, but that fad passed pretty quickly. Hinduism is major, yes, but it's also pretty much limited to India. There are very few Hindus outside of the sub-continent. What I meant by three major religions was the religions with the most spread.

 

Buddhism might not count as a major religion, but more because it's not a religion than because it's not major.

 

Well, God seems to have some very inspiring and earth-shattering conversations with CharlesBHoff, allegedly.

 

A long time before Richard Gere started khamic shouting or whatever, there were vast numbers of Buddists in the world. There still will be when the showbizz dabblers have lost interest entirely.

Take a look at these Stats drawn from the Encyclopedia Britannica. Note that these stats originated in a Western, Christian source so may have certain biases.

When determining "major" pay particular attention to the numbers of Buddists versus Jews. Perhaps we should be asking ourselves if something is only major when it gets coverage in our own field of vision, or whether its possible that several hundred thousand people quietly acting on their beliefs a few thousand miles away is significant.

As for Buddism not being a religion, if I understand correctly, they believe (depending on sect) that a perfectly enlightened guy lived about 500 years before Jesus and that the spirit is forever re-incarnated in new flesh until each of us achieves a similar perfection of enlightenment. They have practices, both formal and informal, pray/meditation and sets of strictures/dogma, etc. In what way is not a religion? Maybe because they are not promoting themselves through TV evangalism or terrorism?

Hinduism is also a major religion. You can say that it originated in India and still has vastly more concentration of followers there, but then, Judaism originated in Israel and has more followers there, but you counted that as major. Hindus exist in our society quietly. They are not aggressive or loud about promoting their festivals, etc, but that does not mean their beliefs are any less valid.

 

What I was getting at was that Hindus are nowhere near widespread as Jews. I also thought that Islam, Christianity and Judaism were traditionally held as the three major religions.

 

I think in the Western world they probably are, but that's down to ethno-centricism rather than the actual importance of the religions. Don't forget that the 3 religions you mention are all in the Judo-Christian family.

To be honest, I'm really not all that sure that Hinduism or Buddism are any less widespread than Judaism. I think it's possibly that followers of those two religions are just less extrovert with their belief systems.

 

*does a bit of searchin'...*

Unfortunately, the most recent info I can find is only from August 1998, but I doubt the ratings and numbers have changed that much in 4 1/2 years...

Religion.... Members
Christianity == 1.9 billion
Islam == 1.1 billion
Hinduism == 781 million
Buddhism == 324 million
Sikhism == 19 million
Judaism == 14 million
Baha'ism == 6.1 million
Confucianism == 5.3 million
Jainism == 4.9 million
Shintoism == 2.8 million

Getting back to the original question, yes, I do believe someone named Jesus as described in The Christian Bible lived and did stuff, possibly even the things mentioned in the Bible. I also believe in the Buddha and in Confucius. 'Course, as I've mentioned in another thread, I'm a pseudo-neo-Pagan, and describing my beliefs would take some time (mostly b/c I've not worked them all out myself -- one of my core beliefs I will share is that spirtuality is/should be an intensely personal thing).

 

As a historian, I can firmly say that, aside from the bible, there is NO record of Jesus. (Nor of the 400 years as slaves in Egypt BTW.)

As a humanist, I do believe in Jesus as one of the greatest teachers of mankind.

As a Jew, I cannot believe that the Messiah ever walked on this vale of tears. A post messinaic world should have less evil than I see every day in the news. I will continue to wait for the Messiah. I will not hold my breath. I don't expect to ever see one.