[MERIT]

Not to just repeat what others have already said, but most Atheists DO believe that he was an actual person, but they disagree with his divinity.

Theistic views of him differ. Christians consider him the Messiah, and part of the Holy Trinity. Jews view him as one of numerous prophets sent by God, as do Muslims.

ProggyMan

I know this was a while ago but as an observant Jew we most certainly do not believe he was any kind of prophet.

Gregor XIII

I think most people would also consider parts of the bible to somewhat work as a historical narrative. A few of the letters are as closely related to the fact, that they seem to work as some kind of proof. Plus, some of the stories in Mark, Matthew and Luke seems deeply embarassing for the church that followed afterwards, so it's hard to see who would have an interest in inventing them. John, however, is probably pure make-believe.

Of course, you can believe in whatever you like. But if you want to claim that you believe in reason or anything, then it would make most sense to assume that someone named Yeshua, who was crucified by the romans in Jerusalem around year 30 probably existed. There really isn't any reason to doubt it. But of course, nothing is truly known about the past.

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Agnes Varda's Le Bonheur + thoughts on women in Akhmatova and Mizuguchi: The Centrifugue

Howard the Duck

i don't think Atheists refute his existence much

the most hardline people I've encountered against his divinity were Muslims and Jews

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Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.

Dirty

Man fuck if I know, I have no research to back up my thoughts but I pretty much believe there was a really smart and revolutionary type of guy named Jesus in a time where science was very minimal and people believed in crazier shit and this guy became immortalized and over time mythical.

It's like when you catch a small fish, and over a decade eventually your story turns into you catching hammerhead shark with your bare hands. So yeah I think a guy named Jesus existed who was real smart and whatever, I don't believe anything about him and his magical powers, it goes against my belief of logic.

Dotoar

He may have existed, albeit his alleged abilities are vastly overrated.

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Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

Whether the man Jesus existed or not is possible. However, I believe that the myth of Jesus was constructed off of many other figures, and collaged together from many people to make a political point.

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Al Pacino = God

The Virgin

for purposes of argument, i'll say no.

Guybrush

I don't believe that Jesus existed. I accept the strong possibility that there was such a person, but I'm too sceptical to put any real faith in it. The amount of confirmation bias there is in Jesus studies makes most "results" into that kind of research highly questionable and I haven't heard of any definite proof that shows he ever existed .. not that I've looked.

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Something Completely Different

Neapolitan

"It is a habit of mankind ... to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not fancy." - Thucydides

I think this is true about Jesus Christ too, those who deny or denounce Him claim they use "sovereign reason" to do so. "Fancy" in this instance means "to believe without being absolutely sure or certain." I truly feel both people who believe and don't believe both do so without being absolutely sure or certain. Some atheist argue against the Historicity of Jesus Christ because there isn't sufficient evidence to their liking (and also use a type confirmation bias to get their point across), and similarly most Christians understand there isn't that definitive physical evidence that would satisfy the most ardent skeptic to prove His existence once and for all.

Since archaeologist use things dug up from the dirt like weapons, jewelry, clothing, bones and other other artifacts to confirm a person existence from the past so I guess the Jesus deniers uses that lack of evidence (that Jesus Christ had no archaeological artifact attribute to Him) as basis for their argument against the historicity of Jesus. While the person who believes Jesus lived uses Confirmation bias ["Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true."] The Jesus denier does the opposite they use the lack of information to confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether their particular stance is true or not. I guess you can say they use "negative confirmation bias."

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