Because of the nature of history, many noble and marvellous people are not known to us today. Some that are, were not necessarily the best of their kind. The burnings of the Alexandrian library were vicious acts that have deprived us of so much wisdom.
I believe that most of the "gospel" history of Jesus was invented by rather poor writers. Matthew, in particular, was guilty of the most obvious dishonesty. There is too much silence in history to grant much veracity of the scriptures (example, Josepus hated Herod and took every opportunity of condemning him for one thing after another. Yet Josephus knows nothing of Herod's infanticide for all children under 2 years old). The gospel writers know nothing about it. The parents knew nothing about it. Can you imagine the grieving, the anger, the appeals and submissions to Rome that ought to have occurred? Yet, only Matthew knew about the murder of a whole nation of innocents. Those were days of agony and despair for a Nation whose only hope was supernatural intervention. A nation being subjugated, abused, and trampled. Many Messiahs appeared. Many were crucified or killed by other means. There were many sects, many beliefs. History tells us that the Christian sect won out. It had to be somebody. The gospel writers did not know Jesus, and their writing is full of contradictions--even after hundreds of years of church corrections (take the justification for the trinty as an example, that was taken out of John, then put back in). Jesus appears as a composite that represents beliefs from a lot of historical sources. There were a lot of people named Jesus. Did one of them stand taller than the rest? Perhaps.
I remember Herbert Spencer writing some excellent stuff about religion and science both having validity and needing to respect one another. I'll try to find something on the web. |
