The “Christ Myth” myth is one of those issues much like urban legends that keeps rearing its ugly head time and time again.
Every generation, or so, someone claims—with much media and pop-cultural fanfare—that there is no such thing as a historical Jesus but that the Christ myth was invented and borrowed from previous myths. Within such claims similarities between Jesus and other personages are asserted. These are then discredited only to be popularized again in a few years.
Who knows why cyber debates/discussions end when they do and it is a good course of action to not, necessarily, declare yourself the winner simply because someone is no longer responding. Here is the text of a short debate/discussion between this myself and a cyber opponent (who will be referred to as “DG”) which developed after they posted a supposed saying of the Buddha in a favorable light:
Ken Ammi: Of course, how do we know that any such person as the Buddha ever lived? [this is something which virtually no one asks of anyone except for Jesus]
DG: The same way we know JC [Jesus Christ] lived… faith. Lol
Ken Ammi: Not so my friend. I have chronicled 237 texts that reference Jesus from a pre-70 AD to 280 AD.
Buddhist scripture, including records of the Buddha’s life, were not put into writing until about 400 years after his death: Historical Jesus – Two Centuries Worth of Citations
DG: You have just as many stories and sacred text about Santa Clause. There implies the faith thing. i.e. “take my word for it”.
Ken Ammi: First both are by “faith” (whatever that is).
Then one is known from [at least] 237 texts within two centuries and the other 0 texts within four. Then they are both by “faith.” A reasonable conclusion is that one is known historically and the other is not.
There is no historical or sacred text backing Santa—except the history that traces the myth back to a real man who was known for his Christian charity. [subsequently, I wrote Can you disprove Santa Clause? Atheism and “Santa Syndrome”]
DG: No, Santa dates back to the ancient gods. Which pre-date Jesus and the hebrew religion.
DG: Dang my bad…. Jesus dates back to those same gods as well, lol. Horus, Mythras etc.
Ken Ammi: Oh no, you have fallen for that talking point??? Those supposed likenesses have been discredited every time they are brought up.
Look at the actual history and actual scholarship and you will see that there are not likenesses between Jesus and Horus, Mythras, etc.
DG: Power coming from the stem of his garment? Casting out demons into swine… there waaaaayyyyy more.
Ken Ammi: When did Horus and Mythra live? How do you know? What did they do? How do you know? What did they say? How do you know? What is the time of birth to the time of the first historical record of them? Who wrote the record? How many manuscripts are there? From when do the manuscripts date? How do the manuscripts compare?
Just to ask a few questions off of the top of my head. [these sort of questions are virtually not asked of anyone except for Jesus]
End of debate/discussion.
Marcus, of the blog What Had Happen’ Was……, has just posted another in a long list of his considerations of such issues. His new post is:
Is There A Connection Between Jesus and Inanna?
And here is one upon which we corroborated:
Buddha and Jesus
For more on Jesus in general see:
TrueFreethinker – Jesus
Jesus and the Story of Osiris and Horus (William Lane Craig) drcraigvideos – YouTube