It's easy to say that you don't believe what you don't see, and then talk about ancient history like you know what happened. We CAN believe what other people have seen.
No, we can't believe because eye-testimony is not considered as the best evidence rather it is considered as a bad evidence. In 71 percent cases, the innocents have been found in jails by these liar eye-testimonies.
This includes Jesus raised from the dead.
Jesus raised from the dead through a supernatural agency so you must give a proof how a being can be raised from the dead thru this supernatural agency. The believer who claims about someone’s existence or inclusion must give a proof to prove his assertion as true. First, you need to prove 'a God exists'.
People who saw Him alive after His death were willing to die for their testimony that they knew He rose from the dead.
If they really had will to die why his two disciples including John would live for 70 more years ? According to historians, Jesus died on 30 CE but his favorite disciple John died on 100 CE. By the way Jesus reappeared just one day after his death.
A creed that historians trace to only a few years after His death says over 500 people saw Him.
Acts 1.15 states he was seen by only 120 people after his death.
vs
1 Cor 15.6 states he was seen by more than 500 people after his death.
Since two contradictory statements can never be true there is no reason to think how many people saw him. Moses, Hercules, Romulus and many other pagan gods were resurrected after their deaths and were seen by many people, yet all three characters are fictional. Romulus was born on the same date (not year), place, type as Jesus did. Even though, his whole life- born to death was exactly same to Jesus. Romulus predates Jesus by 774 years. This article is credible with one of the best historical encyclopedia i.e. ancient.eu-
People die for lies, but lies they're told.
People lie for selling their myths. Today, the Bible is the best-selling book of this world. Don’t you know how much money temples/churches/mosques earn nowadays ?
The Jews wanted someone to be their messiah before Christianity and they wanted to win over demonic forces (not Romans) thru him. This is why a messiah was already predicted by them in books of Daniels and Zac (read old testament and P4Q11- dead sea scrolls). Other messiah was wished by Josephus (a Jewish historian). So messiah word was already famous enough before the birth of Jesus. The name Jesus was taken from Jesus Ben Ananias. What I want to say is, someone who may perform miracles, will be called messiah- it was already decided by needy Jews.
The eyewitnesses who were killed for belief in Jesus in the first century knew whether He really rose or not; they had seen it! So they weren't deceived, nor were they lying-if they were, they would have renounced their faith to escape death.
Many disciples of Jesus had schizophrenia, catharsis, seizures and mental eclipses. So whatever the miracles and heavenly Jesus, they saw, cannot be said trustworthy. This is a psychological report on their known behaviours-
Paul says over five hundred ‘brethern and Acts’ events on the day of the Pentecost. Five hundred = pentakosiois (English to Greek) and Pentecost= pentêkostês (Eng to Greek)- notice how two terms were approx same. Paul originally described a pentecostal experience so it was forged (because gospels do not confirm this 500+ people description). The Bible is written and edited by anonymous writers from time to time.
Either the Luke or Paul was right or both were wrong about Jesus’ ascension because 500+ people’s description cannot be found in gospels. Paul relied on Greek Septuagint because he did not know Hebrew. Paul said in Gal 2:6 epistle writers nothing added into his message and messages of James, peter were written after Gal 2:6 so it is reasonable to say James and Peter never met with Jesus. Paul also said he know jesus thru only revelation and scriptures but he never met with earthly Jesus. Personal disciples of Jesus aka Jeruslam Pillars came from Paul but Paul says nothing about Peter, John or anyone else traveling around with Jesus. Paul says super-apostles were preached of a different Jesus (see Corinthians 11:5 and 12:11), therefore he was not inferior to them.
None of the gospel writer met with earthly Jesus. Mark and Luke did not meet with Jesus. Luke says in LK 1:1-2 that his story has been handed down to his generation. Mark never lived in Palestine because his gospel has thousands of geographical errors. Matthew copied 90 percent (607 out of 661) verses of Mark with some corrections. If Matthew really saw Jesus, he might not copy from a guy who never met with Jesus (in other words he copied from a second-hand source). Luke also copied 50 percent of Mark’s gospels and he copied Matthew's too. Regarding John, we have found a physical evidence of john Rylands Papyrus which is dated early to mid 2nd century. This date is some years after the death of John. So, John did not write his own gospel.
This is a list of all religions. Every 5 out of 6 religious messengers never existed physically. To say Jesus existed is same as to say IPU (invisible pink unicorn) or alien or flying spaghetti monster or dinkan or Ned Ludd existed. All of them have thousands of followers and a book.
