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Sorry for jumping in.

Jesus in fact may not have even existed as the man portrayed in the Bible. The accounts of his life are written years after his death and each account of his life is different(and you can read each one in the Bible Matthew Mark Luke and John). Each book gives a different account of the Life and death of Jesus. If the Bible is divinely inspired why would God give each author of each Gospel a widely differing account of jesus' life. I mean no two are the same in fact for all the accounts to be true Jesus would in fact be four different people especially as the accounts of his birth differ. If you don't believe me read that Book.

Let's take my father as an example--a retired Navy captain, now a beloved high school teacher and occassionally gives Christian seminars.

Suppose a group of people decided to write memoirs of him--his wife, me, one of his high school students, one of the officers from his military days, and one attendee of his seminars. Would you not say that our memiors would be very unique?

Moreover, people do not "remember" things about another person in chronological order, and nor do they remember the same things. The synoptic gospels--Matthew, Mark, and Luke--are actually very remarkably similar, although they are still unique in their own ways. Matthew decided to emphasize the religious qualities of Jesus. Mark's gospel is pretty action-filled. In the first part of Luke, it mentions many, many gospels that have been written about Jesus. How sad that history lost such valuable documents! Only the Gospel of Thomas has been found (which is simply a collection of Jesus's sayings), and fragments of a few others.

You are wrong in your information. There are very early originals from the first century by Paul, who was in commune with Peter and the original Apostles, and there is Joseph Flavius. Churches just don't raise around a Person so quickly.

This makes little sense but I think he is saying that no jury would say jesus didn't die on the cross because of the evidence. What evidence we are always told about all this evidence of jesus' life I haven't seen it. Is this evidence the bible? Where is the Roman writ authorizing jesus' death? Were is his tax records? Were are the contemporary Roman accounts of his life? If he was so important trust me the Romans would have wrote volumes on him ... history is silent.

There are many political references in the New Testament, all of which collaborate with historical accounts of what we know about Pilate, Caesar, Herod, etc. Joseph Flavius. The Gospel of Thomas, Secret Mark, Peter. If Jesus didn't exist, there certainly was a huge cult formed over a nonexistant man and his resurrection very soon after his death.

I'm going to skip the rest of your arguments about Nazis, Karl Marx, and so on--you must realize, after all, taken to their logical conclusion--everything we know could possibly be a lie. No amount of evidence in the world will convince you, nor anyone else, after all--which is why I rarely engage in those kinds of debates. A decision must be made to believe--called "faith".

For what it's worth, I am a firm believer in evolution and in the separation of the supernatural from science. To me, the anger that Christians hold over evolution is pure silliness, and only pushes otherwise open-minded people away from Christianity. what's even more silly is that for most Christians almost everything they know about evolution, they know from 10th grade biology and/or read in other Christian publications, and they can't name a peer reviewed journal.

This wasn't an attempt to convert you or anything, but to make a few arguments. Best wishes to you. NX

"Suppose a group of people decided to write memoirs of him--his wife, me, one of his high school students, one of the officers from his military days, and one attendee of his seminars. Would you not say that our memiors would be very unique? "

As Christians claim that the Bible is the inspired word of God then I would expect all the accounts to be the same. I mean do you expect God to inspire the writing of your Father's memoirs. :) Of course not but if it is God's Word don't you think God would have a little better continuity department? Some angel wasn't doing his editing job very well in the first couple centuries after Christ.

"There are very early originals from the first century by Paul, who was in commune with Peter and the original Apostles, and there is Joseph Flavius. Churches just don't raise around a Person so quickly"

Paul is a christian writer and Joseph Flavius gives jesus about two lines of text to jesus and it says . Jesus is a Holy man and does many wonderous things. Thats it hell Flavius writes alot more about John the Baptist even some of the apostles are mentioned but not in conjunction with jesus.

"There are many political references in the New Testament, all of which collaborate with historical accounts of what we know about Pilate, Caesar, Herod, etc. Joseph Flavius. The Gospel of Thomas, Secret Mark, Peter. If Jesus didn't exist, there certainly was a huge cult formed over a nonexistant man and his resurrection very soon after his death."

Well there are many political references on "Gilligan's Island" and thousands of people wrote the Company that produced the show asking them why they didn't rescue the castaways, does this mean that the show is true or that people are basically stupid.