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July 20th, 2013
10:00 PM ET
Reza Aslan: Why I write about JesusOpinion by Reza Aslan, special to CNN (CNN) - When I was 15 years old, I found Jesus. I spent the summer of my sophomore year at an evangelical youth camp in Northern California, a place of timbered fields and boundless blue skies, where, given enough time and stillness and soft-spoken encouragement, one could not help but hear the voice of God. Amid the man-made lakes and majestic pines my friends and I sang songs, played games and swapped secrets, rollicking in our freedom from the pressures of home and school. In the evenings, we gathered in a fire-lit assembly hall at the center of the camp. It was there that I heard a remarkable story that would change my life forever.
Through his words and miraculous deeds, he challenged the Jews who thought they were the chosen of God, and in return he was nailed to a cross. Though Jesus could have saved himself from that gruesome death, he freely chose to die. Indeed, his death was the point of it all, for his sacrifice freed us all from the burden of our sins. But the story did not end there, because three days later, he rose again, exalted and divine, so that now, all who believe in him and accept him into their hearts will also never die, but have eternal life. For a kid raised in a motley family of lukewarm Muslims and exuberant atheists, this was truly the greatest story ever told. Never before had I felt so intimately the pull of God. In Iran, the place of my birth, I was Muslim in much the way I was Persian. My religion and my ethnicity were mutual and linked. Like most people born into a religious tradition, my faith was as familiar to me as my skin, and just as disregardable. After the Iranian revolution forced my family to flee our home, religion in general, and Islam in particular, became taboo in our household. Islam was shorthand for everything we had lost to the mullahs who now ruled Iran. My mother still prayed when no one was looking, and you could still find a stray Quran or two hidden in a closet or a drawer somewhere. But, for the most part, our lives were scrubbed of all trace of God. That was just fine with me. After all, in the America of the 1980s, being Muslim was like being from Mars. My faith was a bruise, the most obvious symbol of my otherness; it needed to be concealed. Jesus, on the other hand, was America. He was the central figure in America’s national drama. Accepting him into my heart was as close as I could get to feeling truly American. I do not mean to say that mine was a conversion of convenience. On the contrary, I burned with absolute devotion to my newfound faith. I was presented with a Jesus who was less “Lord and Savior” than he was a best friend, someone with whom I could have a deep and personal relationship. As a teenager trying to make sense of an indeterminate world I had only just become aware of, this was an invitation I could not refuse. The moment I returned home from camp, I began eagerly to share the good news of Jesus Christ with my friends and family, my neighbors and classmates, with people I’d just met and with strangers on the street: those who heard it gladly, and those who threw it back in my face. Yet something unexpected happened in my quest to save the souls of the world. The more I probed the Bible to arm myself against the doubts of unbelievers, the more distance I discovered between the Jesus of the Gospels and the Jesus of history – between Jesus the Christ and Jesus of Nazareth. In college, where I began my formal study of the history of religions, that initial discomfort soon ballooned into full-blown doubts. The bedrock of evangelical Christianity, at least as it was taught to me, is the unconditional belief that every word of the Bible is God-breathed and true, literal and inerrant. The sudden realization that this belief is patently and irrefutably false, that the Bible is replete with the most blatant and obvious errors and contradictions — just as one would expect from a document written by hundreds of different hands across thousands of years — left me confused and spiritually unmoored. And so, like many people in my situation, I angrily discarded my faith as if it were a costly forgery I had been duped into buying. I began to rethink the faith and culture of my forefathers, finding in them a deeper, more intimate familiarity than I ever had as a child, the kind that comes from reconnecting with an old friend after many years apart. Meanwhile, I continued my academic work in religious studies, delving back into the Bible not as an unquestioning believer but as an inquisitive scholar. No longer chained to the assumption that the stories I read were literally true, I became aware of a more meaningful truth in the text. Ironically, the more I learned about the life of the historical Jesus, the turbulent world in which he lived, and the brutality of the Roman occupation that he defied, the more I was drawn to him. The Jewish peasant and revolutionary who challenged the rule of the most powerful empire the world had ever known became so much more real to me than the detached, unearthly being I had been introduced to in church. Today, I can confidently say that two decades of rigorous academic research into the origins of Christianity has made me a more genuinely committed disciple of Jesus of Nazareth than I ever was of Jesus Christ. I have modeled my life not after the celestial spirit whom many Christians believe sacrificed himself for our sins, but rather after the illiterate, marginal Jew who gave his life fighting an unwinnable battle against the religious and political powers of his day on behalf of the poor and the dispossessed – those his society deemed unworthy of saving. I wrote my newest book, "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" in order to spread the good news of the Jesus of history with the same fervor that I once applied to spreading the story of the Christ. Because I am convinced that one can be a devoted follower of Jesus without being a Christian, just as I know that one can be a Christian without being a follower of Jesus. Reza Aslan is a bestselling author and a scholar of religion. This article was adapted from his newest book, "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth." The views expressed in this column are Aslan's alone. |
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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"The Jewish peasant and revolutionary who challenged the rule of the most powerful empire the world had ever known"
Where is there any story of Jesus "defying" Rome??
I believe we have the answer from Rome's own representative, Pontius Pilate: "I find no fault in this man."
um...yeah...you DO know the jews of that time were under ROMAN control...and the ROMANS crucified him because he was causing disturbance in the Jewish leadership and community that were loyal to Rome...he refused to acknowledge Ceasar (which I think was Nero at that time) as supreme (although he didn't have a problem with taxation and peaceful civil obedience in general)...He would NOT acknowledge Ceasar as greater than God...in fact the whole new testament is based under Roman rule
"The Jewish peasant and revolutionary who challenged the rule of the most powerful empire the world had ever known"
This makes me question this entire post. What evidence is there that Jesus "defied: Rome? certainly not the bible.
Render unto Caesar, sounds more like a collaborator to me.
The entire economy of Jerusalem was centered and dependent on the Jewish temple. Fees for everything. The Roman currecy had rto be changed to Jewish currency for ritual reasons. Jebus caused a ruckus in the temple with a few of the (essential to the system) money-changers. All he threatened, (if he even existed) was the economy of the temple, and the city. He was a common trouble maker / hippy-dippy type. Trouble makers in the Pax Romana were summarily executed without a trial or further ado. No muss. No fuss. Thousands were crucified without a blink of Rome's or the Jewish leaders eyes. (AND NO JEW ever, .... not ever ....., had a trial on Passover weekend). Galilean peasants also never had trials in front of Roman aristocrats.
Which is why you should read his book. I suspect the answers may be contained in it.
There are many, MANY early Christian writings that didn't make it into the Bible. Perhaps you should look into what they said, and why they weren't included.
In other words, search a little bit, just as this author is doing.
Sorry, what are we all arguing about again?
people are arguing? I thought it was just a discussion. cant we just discuss God ? without someone labeling it an argument?
The energy crisis and whether it's smart to ship all that air in the potato chip bags or the water in the vegetable cans all over God's creation.
Argument ? I thought this was just a different kind of entertainment. After all , sacred cows make the best hamburger.
Good Evening or morning or just plain hello' Its Christian again, but this time I have a question for the descendants of Ishmael, Abramham is your ancestor, and Abramham followed God, to Abramham , Yahveh is God, my question to you is not in any way meant to be disrespectful, there is only one God on this I Believe we agree. However, I am curious to know why until up to the 6th century you Believed in Yahveh as God, why did you guys start believing in another gospel. I don't know if you have ever read the Holy Bible or not. Just wondering. is all.
Look at the freaks promoting their bible as their "truth" ... ask yourself what other religion's holy book have you yourself read.
Idiot.
"My book is the authority and yours is not."
" there is only one God on this I Believe we agree."
Not so ! Christians have the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, plus thousands of angels that help them. Then there is satan, and thousands of demons that help him. Then there are saints. Not sure where they fit in, but since they perform miracles, they are above us regular folks. Then beyond Christianity, there are thousands of other gods that millions of people worshiped for much longer than jesus worshipers. Who is to say which ones are real ? Maybe all, maybe none.
False in so many ways.
1. Abraham was a myth. Archaeology has proven he was impossible. Hebrew chose for themselves the Sumerian god-of-the-armies, (Yahweh), the 40th son in Babylonian myth system, of El Elyon.
2. Up until the 6th Century Arabs worshiped the moon-god Sin, whom the creators of Islam turned in to Allah, (Al-Ilah was the crescent phase of the moon-god).
They are both just as insane as the other. Islam is not "Abrahamic". War god. Moon god. Meh.
An absolutely fascinating perspective.
Either the bible is really a compendium of human created stories, or god is screwing with us. I am not talking about the errors and contradictions in the bible. I'm talking about how easily god could have dropped a few facts that were unknown and not understood at the time of the bible.
The bible could have proclaimed the earth as round, as going around the sun. It could have claimed the solar system as a tiny element of a galaxy that is a tine part of the universe with many galaxies. The bible could have mentioned that god created microorganisms, that our bodies have more of them in us than cells replicated from our parents.
Any one of these, or countless other pieces of info not known to the contemporaries of the bible authors would mean we would have to question a human source of the bibles. But alas, bibles contain only the faulty knowledge of people of that time. I'd say that's strong evidence that the bibles are not divinely revealed, but human creations.
Go look up Scientific Facts from the Bible on Youtube. There is a verse that states, things that are seen are made of things unseen. Which covers atoms, and etc.
Those biblical passages are not facts, they could be taken infinite ways.
um boston person yes it is facts. you are deceived big time. sad for you. I cant help you out any more. You are not a part of the heavenly calling.. you are an unbeliever. so so so sad for you.
Christian,
I read them.
What is sad, is the degree to which people will twist bible patches to satisfy their needs. Face it, the bible has no mention of scientific knowledge unknown at the time. If god created life, it leaves out the most numerous and important form, microorganisms. We can't live without them.
Rom 1:14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.
Boston, the bible does contain information unknown to men at that time. A few passages are; Isaiah 40:22 (indicates that Earth is round, Job 26:7 (Indicates that Earth is floating in space, Hebrews 11:3 (describes Atoms). There is a lot more that you have not found. Let me know if you would like to learn more about it!
The earth suspended in space was well known at that time. The earth as a circle is a metaphor, how do I know? A circle is 2 dimensional.
what a perspective. the Holy Bible is Inspired by God. God never Messes with Anyone. the small g you use in god is satan. Big G is God. Yahveh. And He certainly does NOT mess with you. You deny Him. He will reciprocate. You are so deceived its not funny. Either you choose "G" or "g" . when you choose not "G" you automatically are choosing "g' .
Even the evil spirits know who GOD is. So sad sad sad for you.
Which God are you referring to, Zeus?
The god of this wurld.
lol??,
I'm pretty sure you don't think capitalization matters.
you may not know this, but the people who wrote about zeus sacrificed their lives, too, when threatened by their leaders. can't use that argument to justify xtianity exclusively.
and, for some reason, the zealots who followed zeus were never controversial, never scrutinized like the disciples were. millions of people spared the hatred the jews encountered.
even santa claus generated no such jealousy among the power brokers vying for power.
As a Christian, yea that's right believing in Jesus is the meaning of Christianity, it gets on my nerves when people start quoting scripture to people who don't believe in Jesus/God/Bible. It wouldn't matter if God put any of the scientific proof in the Bible because we'd find a way to not believe it anyway. All that matters in Christianity is that one believes and knows in their hearts that Jesus and God exist.
Myopic..If there was evidence we would be interested but there is not.. nothing shows up in the bible that was not known at the time. No Polar bears, penguins, tube worms, arctic foxes, A Duck bill Platypus would have been a good one to include that critter would not have been known for sure at that time..at least by the folks in the middle east. See how easy it would have been for god to assist in his own existence.
Evolved one day you will know...
The womb and thick darkness is pretty awe inspiring. Chills every time.
Reza, you really need to re-think this. Jesus knew why he was there. The last week of his life was a major set of events, where just by saying what he knew, he could have ruled them all and ended it.
But he didn't.
That last week everyone was praising him due to raising Lazarus and other miracles, Judas was about to betray him and he knew it and could have stopped it. Jesus could have told the high priests, Herod, or Pilate, or all his followers to defend him, or angels, or God... Jesus could have changed it from being beaten to near death and put on a cross, spit on and slapped, laughed at, stripped naked multiple times in public, crown of thorns, his clothes gambled for and given away... he could have had it all and chose to get the worst they could give someone... so others could be saved from their sins.
He could have had it all, at any time. Would you want ropes with rocks, metal and glass hitting you until you're nearly dead?... for someone else?
He knew. He knew and he still went through it. He sweat blood knowing what was coming up.
Do you understand why he hates this page?
No. Why does he hate this page?
@Talk to the hand,
Have Jesus drop in here a add a few lines.
It's highly doubtful that the mod. will delete his posts, especially if he properly verifies his ident'ity.
No, but I'm sure you can text him and find out for us. You guys are BFFs, right, never a day goes by without you schmoozing?
Sheeple that are writing short stories...please...no one has time to read nor care. If they do, they are just like you, mindless sheep waiting for a shepard to tell you what you need to do. Free yourself, and live life.
I have a couple of lamb shanks in the freezer, now you just reminded me.
It's good to know the love of God. Sorry you missed out. But, it's not too late.
The Author never did "know Jesus" . He sounds like he has gone back to being some type of "Muslim" or "reconnected". There are many people with much more "learning" .... & more "inquisitive scholars" etc. – who would point out that the author has simply switched religions from what he "thought" was Christianity – to some form of "humanism". He hasn't discovered any "religious truths" ...he has simply rejected the Lord of Glory. If he had an iota of real knowledge and wisdom he would have realized that the Lord/Christianity – is not a respector of persons and you don't come to Him or abide with Him because you consider yourself more "scholarly" or "smarter" than all the "gullible rubes" 🙂 .
Jesus is either who he claimed to be – the only way to the father – or he's a liar or a lunatic. You can't have this convenient compromise in the middle.
Or, he personally never claimed to be a demigod, or anyone's personal salvation. He surely doesn't in the earliest gospels. Maybe all that literal son of God stuff was just what evolved once the gentiles took over the faith?
Jesus made a stir in Israel at that time because many Jews themselves , at that time , considered that the time for the Messiah....or the Son of Man – was near. It's not a new concept among Orthodox Jews ...they still wait for the Messiah ...although some are starting to say that the Messiah is Israel itself ...which is a relatively new concept. You should look into the recent fuss in NYC or Rabbi Schneerson and that large congregats claims that the Messiah will be a man who will die.
Yowza, yet another appearance of C. S. Lewis's bogus trilemma. It sure is getting a workout today, despite the fact that it's been thoroly debunked several times on the previous pages.
Besides, suppose we decided to say "Yeah, liar sounds about right!" Or "Lunatic? Well, that implies that he did crazy, violent things like tipping over tables in the temple. Maybe just deluded."
What's WRONG with arriving at those conclusions? After all, Lewis presented them as viable options, and they sure make way more sense than Door #3.
How do you know that rejecting the "Lord of Glory" isn't actually a religious truth? It's your opinion against his, right?
Wrong 🙂 the "Lord of Glory" either is or is not – just like your hand is either there or not there. Now you have chosen to limit knowledge to that which you can understand. The Lord has no such limitation and He is not interested in your professed reasoning ability ...He's simply not impressed. He can reveal Himself – if He so chooses and that revelation has not come to you. That "revelation" is many times ...what scripturally is called "faith". It is a gift of God ...that is the "essense of things hoped for" [ ask yourself how hope can have essense 🙂 – which sounds very much like a physical property and the "evidence" of things NOT seen [ how can that be – again suggesting an almost physical property to faith. Faith is NOT something you "gin up" – biblical illiterates assume that. Faith is given – it proceeds from God to His Own and it makes Non-Christians very unhappy because they want to put it in a test tube and that is simply not possible or applicable.
Faith is that "sureness" from God that surpasses your consternation with Christians – it does NOT depend upon your "smarts" 🙂 ...or your mind games of smoke and mirror. .. it is about the Truth ...not a display of either your lack of power in discerning the secrets of the universe and creation or some interesting mental game you prefer to play.
Jeff, why do you push the truth away? You should actually read the Bible and the history of it. The book was in fact written by multiple men over thousands of years. It isn't the literal word of God, anymore than the Koran or the Book of Mormon are.
I know the Bible like the back of my hand ...while that is important and just ...that alone will not get you anywhere. I know it's history and I know the Lord's promise concerning it. You should stop looking at men and your own estimations of your reasoning power and simply open yourself up to the Lord. The Word of God is quite clear about that. If the Lord can create an infinite number of worlds from nothing – than preserving His Word is probably not to hard for Him :).
Jeff, why do you push the truth away? You should actually read the Bible and the history of it. The book was in fact written by multiple men over thousands of years. It isn't the literal word of God, anymore than the Koran or the Book of Mormon are.
I "think" you should "read" his book. "You" might get a "better" perspective of what "he's" trying to "say". This might be "useful" for your "criticism" to be "credible".
Jeff I agree. But it doesn't matter what Reza writes, it's just his opinion which may be interesting to some.
Hello Reza,
Thanks for the Article. Your article has just strengthened my faith in Jesus. Jesus "The Christ" as described in the Bible especially the New Testament, and The Old testament. "The only begotten of the Father", "The Word made flesh" "Emanuel" ..God with us...As he said himself in John 5:39 " Search the scriptures.... they testify of me" I read your article intently with an open mind, not knowing where it would lead. Not knowing anything about you, your book, beliefs or anything. But then you made a very powerful statement of the reliability of the bible, or I should say the Unreliability of the bible which was "....the Bible is replete with the most blatant and obvious errors and contradictions.." I expected that you would point out three or four examples of those "most blatant errors" But at least ONE! in order to give your statement and article some bit of credibility. TELL US ONE EXAMPLE !. OF THESE BLATANT ERROS ! You should have a lot to choose from since you said the Bible is, in your words "Replete" with them. Give us an example of what was said and your proof that it was an error. Failure to do this is literary Malpractice ! Your statement could not stand up in a court of law ! You have cited NO EXAMPLES of your Blatant claim ! NOT ONE ! Put a few examples before the Jury of your readers and make your case.. until then you article is like a subject with no predicate, a trip with no destination, An answer with no question..
and not to Knit Pick,...Why do you have that image on the top of the article ? Is that supposed to be a representative of the Jesus of Nazareth??? you should Know better !!
As someone posted about inconsistencies earlier "Get C. Dennis McKinsey's book "Biblical Errancy", where you'll find thousands."
that's right. and even though those "errors" found in scripture have been debunked countless times by adam clarke, matthew henry, francis collins, c.s. lewis, to name a few, my fellow atheists and i reject all the gospel nonsense entirely from the start. the n.t. is silly rot. there are no errors in it because it is an error. christ never lived, period. there are no gods, period. no evidence suggesting gods exists. all fairy tales.
@Kelvin Lashley,
The article explains how Aslan came to his conclusions and wrote the book. The details you claim Aslan did not provide are in the book, which you haven't read. Why not read the book before passing judgement? "You should know better !!"
"Why do you have that image on the top of the article ? Is that supposed to be a representative of the Jesus of Nazareth??? you should Know better !!"
What is that supposed to mean – there are no photos or pictures of Jesus; you do not know what Jesus looked like any more than I do. Most representations are Renaissance Italian versions not Middle Eastern as you'd expect.
A couple, off the top of my head. Bats are not a kind of bird. Rabbits do not chew their cuds, The mustard seed is definitely not the smallest of them all. The value of pi is not exactly 3. The world is not flat, and it doesn't have 4 corners, nor is there a mountain tall enuf from which you can see all 4. (Think about it: If there were, you'd be able to see the top of the mountain from wherever YOU are.)
One of my very faves is Matthew 1:23, 25.
There are also the 2 contradictory accounts of the sequence of creating living creatures in Genesis 1:25-26 and Genesis 2:18-19.
And we could go on and on and on and on and on. So yeah, we can quote AT LEAST ONE example of where the Bible blew it. That's exactly what you'd expect if it had been written by a succession of ignorant, arrogant, self-important, blood-thirsty nomadic shepherds of the Bronze Age and not even CLOSE to what you'd expect from the all-knowing lord and creator of the Universe.
Those are stumbling blocks. You'll know that once you take the time to figure out where you made all your errors at, or which books told you mistakes the authors made and didn't correct. Either or, just don't expect atheists to correct their errors.
So this is the irrefutable word of your god, and the authors didn't correct their mistakes? LOL.
You remind me of Richard Gere in "Chicago" tap, tap, tapping away while he sells his bullshit story.
The day of Jebus' death. It's not the same in all the gospels. Neither is the time. Did Jebus give a speech at his trial, or was he silent ? Depends on which gospel you read. Jarius' daughter. Dead, or alive ? Depends. What did they find at the tomb ? Depends. Who got there first ? Depends. Why did only Matthew talk about all the other zombies who rose also ? Why was NOT ONE, ever reported.? Why did not one non-believer ever see anything of the risen Jebus ? Why did not one Jewish historian ever report the trial, or the crucifixion ? Why, if they went to all the trouble to kill him, did they not try to find him if he "rose". Why in Acts do the Jews not know what Peter is even talking about when he says they "killed" him ? Why was no Roman ever told to go find him ?
Because the whole thing is complete fiction.
Speaking of "following Jesus", get a modern-day take on it by pasting the following into your search engine:
No I'm Not Talking About Twitter I Literally Want You To Follow Me
Another in the plethora of armchair philosphers who arbitrarilty cherry-pick existing records to suit a personal agenda – ignore this "canon" gospel here, accept that Gnostic gospel or Greek manuscript there, mix thoroughy, simmer, and voila! A new vision of the historical Jesus.
The truth is that no one knows anything about the "real" Jesus. The lore, whether "canon" or not, is all second-hand hearsay and therefore worthless.
"Second-hand" is being unbelievably generous.
@RichardSRussell,
Good point. I shouldn't have used a colloquialism there. In fact, no one even knows how far the current canon and non-canon lore is removed from the knowledge of Jesus in his lifetime. It's just plain hearsay, reported by people who lived nowhere near him, never new him, and lived at least three generations after he did.
Now that you've pointed this out, I think "gossip" might be an even better word than "hearsay".
I'm writing a history of my family three generations back. Even with Ancestry.com, I am having a hell of a time!
CNN article showing the evilution of law,
Hearsay evidence proves crucial in Drew Peterson's conviction
Do you mean circumstantial evidence in the Scott Peterson case? That is true. Hearsay evidence, not so much.
Monarchies are a political phase we are mostly out of. They proved to be unstable and led to corruption which didn't compete well with other political systems in general. The monarchistic issues with power concentration extend beyond political systems. Many religions are monarchies. They concentrate power into few. Corruption ensues. Religions will need to find a way to fix this in the long run since they will be competing with many other alternatives in the future.
Following the true Jesus is difficult, not just because he is a controversial figure but because he is God and to follow him includes surrendering to him as the living Jesus, the resurrected Jesus. Jesus challenged those who would follow that they must "take up their cross daily and follow me."(Lk9:23) I understand the temptation to bring Jesus down to a "more human" level. I think at its roots is a desire to be in control our own lives and not accept the possibility of a God who we must recognize and worship. The author gives himself away by the claim that Jesus was illiterate; what evidence does he have other than speculation that stands up against simple straight-forward Biblical evidence (Lk4:16)? I believe the "real Jesus" he describes is only the author's imagined Jesus, removed of any divine power so the author then can feel no real responsibility to give up anything to follow Christ; or at least he wants to pick and choose what he wants to believe. If Jesus was dead, that would be a proper response. If Jesus is resurrected and alive as the historic evidence supports, then we need to rely on Christ to reveal himself to us and believe, trust, and follow him when he does.
What a nutcase.
@Answer,
What a brilliant, qualified psychologist. Why not offer to help? After all, that's what the professional psychologists like yourself always do – try to help. It's the Christian thing to do, right, doctor?
Screw them.
@Answer,
Spoken like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog! Where'd you get your psyhcology degree, doctor? The American Kennel Club?
You sure do bark like you DID actually acquired yours from there.
so when jesus returns, will they announce it on the news? i mean he has been appearing on tortillas and such for a while now.
Better question: How could anyone know for certain that it was Jesus and not some advanced alien seeking to take advantage of a particularly popular superst ition as part of his invasion plan?
@Harry,
An "advanced alien" would not have gotten himself killed that way. Of course, the entire crucifixion/resurrection scenario could have been staged, and the "advanced alien" could simply have been "beamed aboard" after 40 days.
It's easier and more consistent with human nature to believe that what we know and believe about Jesus is the result of three generations of he-said-she-said gossip. No "advanced aliens" need apply – we can do it all ourselves.
Joe
I'm saying some advanced alien could pretend to be the returning Christ, but if you watch Ancient Aliens then, sure, the original Jesus could have been an alien. Why not?
Why wouldn't an alien allow himself to be killed if it was all part of his plan? That's the idea, right. The plan requires a sacrifice. If the alien needed to die for his plan to work, he wouldn't be the first non human to lay down his life for the larger plan.
There is no evidence that the mythical character "Jesus" "rose" from the grave. There is also no evidence at all for any of the thousands of gods people have believed in.
Let me get this straight: The Reza guy first betrayed the religion of his family to joing the Evangelicals, later he found out that it's difficult to be gay and Christian at the same time. So he decided to go back to Islam. Now he is confident and demonic enough to blaspheme the God of the Christians during the supposedly "Holy" Ramadan.
Reza Aslan is not Muslim.
Blasphemy is a victimless crime.
At least he challenged the nonsense that his parents fed him; unfortunately he doesn't appear ready to do the only logical thing – reject religion
Santa,
dunno, maybe he will get there someday - he's only 41... plus, he's married to a "committed Christian" woman.
This guy has a Muslim perspective of Jesus, a very wrong one.
@Rod,
You have a Christian perspective of Jesus, a very wrong one.
Christ as a man makes a lot more sense then as a son of God. Most people get God and Christ mixed up, they are two different ways of thinking, God was vengeful and Jealous and Christ was kind and forgiving. which would you prefer to be or believe in. You can't have it both ways, that is why there is so much confusion in the Christian world today, they don't know what to follow, Christ or God.
If it's a matter of choosing what god to believe in based on your preference of one personality over another, then you really aren't interested in the the reality of your god, right? Any of the thousands of gods could be the real one, if one actually exists. If that's true, then you don't get a say in which god is real.
If you believe God if the creator, that pretty well narrows it down to one.
Which one?
I think you are intelligent and kind hearted. I'm LDS the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints I had a near death experience which is too sacred to comment here but I will tell you that I do believe that Jesus is my savior has atoned for my sins. I believe God lives that we do live forever and that there is a plan of salvation .I think people that want to deny God and good and evil are very limited in their thinking and they haven't developed their spiritual Aspect of their soul. I'm using Siri sorry about the punctuation :)for those of you who want to criticize my writing style my IQs 145 so I think anything above 120 I could write the way I want LOL Side note I hate texting I'm so happy that Siri is here!
Why do you mention your alleged IQ? Presumably it is to support your belief. How does the LDS or any religion make any sense when you look at it logically – the creation myths are disproven and the Smith story is beyond belief especially as he was recent enough that his history as a fraud is well known
I love when people say the bible is full of inconsistencies then fail to name even one.
Ignoring the fact that the creation myth is disproven, the sequence makes no sense.
The gospels that are in the NT have differing stories about the alleged resurrection.
Get C. Dennis McKinsey's book "Biblical Errancy", where you'll find thousands.
@ Sue
Wow, you really are lazy. Usually you can just scroll down a few posts and find plenty of examples. If those don't satisfy, you might have to go a page back. I hope you don't break a fingernail because of all the work involved.
Typical Christian sloth.
Sue,
If you mean Mr. Aslan, his entire new book is not printed in the article... sorry.
@Sue – I have a list of about 200 of these scriptures that positively contradict each other. I'd be happy to share them with you, if you really want me to post them. Let me know if you want them.