Buffalo Roam said:
30 years MW, and you still haven't convinced yourself, there is no Jesus? I must say in reading your post it really sound like your are trying to convince your self of your thesis that Jesus didn't exist, If I didn't beleave in something it wouldn't take me 30 years to convince my self.
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M*W: I've been convinced that Jesus didn't exist, and it didn't take me 30 years!
I gave the guy more than a fair chance. I read about him, I believed in him, I taught many, many others about him, I visited just about all the shrines in Europe, including The Vatican, and I had no doubt that Jesus was the savior, and that he had died for me. I listened to experts in the field, I studied Christianity in college (Baptist University), I wrote articles for a Christian newsletter, I converted to Catholicism and raised my children as Christians.
But the story just never added up. There was confusion over Jesus' conception and the facts surrounding his birth. There were time differences concerning the Magi's visit. Then there was this whole scam about Paul being an apostle, someone who had never even met Jesus! Yet, Paul wrote down words that were supposed to have been quoted by Jesus! That just didn't make any sense.
Then, I became aware of Jesus' Egyptian connection. Was he really there from the time he was 12 to 30 years old? Was he really a Rabbi? Rabbi's are required to be a married men! How could this be? Something's not right with this picture.
Then I learned of the monotheism connection with Jesus. The first monotheistic god was the sun, or at least that's what the ancients believed. The sun had the power to create life as well as destroy it. The sun ruled the day, and it was good. The moon ruled the night, and it was evil (or so the ancients thought).
The resurrection was the hardest to comprehend. How could a man die and be dead for three days and then come alive again? Maybe it was that he didn't die in the first place, maybe he was just unconscious, or maybe it was just the retelling of the ancient myths of Osiris, Mithras, and Zeus, and 22 other dying demigod saviors of myth. If Jesus wasn't the only savior, which I had been taught to believe, then he was no more a savior than Buddha or Krishna or the Sun.
As I stated before, the more I read, the more I became convinced that Jesus couldn't possibly have existed. He was just as historical as all the previous dying demigod saviors of myth.
I also couldn't imagine a creator God that would make things confusing for us. If there was a God, then we should all know it without a doubt. But this "all-knowing," "all-powerful," "ever-present" God had to sacrifice his "only" son for our sake. It just didn't make sense.
And then there was the issue of heaven and hell. Nobody ever came back from one of those places and confirmed them for us. Therefore, they don't exist.
Churches everywhere wanted to save your soul, but more than that, they wanted your money.
So, no, it didn't take me 30 years to convince myself that Jesus might still exist. There's no way, and his whole "existence" I learned is based on astro-theology, the first religion of mankind. All other religion developed out of astrology, not that I claim it to be a "true" religion, but it's really not. It's just the first religion, it's the only religion!
In summary, atheism is not acquired overnight. It is a process that can sometimes take years to realize. It comes from educating oneself, not the lack of knowledge. When knowledge is gained, fear is released. I have no fear of any repercussions from a God that you believe is real. To me that God is an impossibility.
Once an atheist has gained this knowledge, there is no turning back. It's called 'enlightenment.' Strangely, that's also a reference to the power of the 'sun,' the first, and only, God.
