When I was an evangelical christian I believed the bible was the word of God, that it was factually true and it was our duty to follow its teaching and the creed of my church. Thus Jesus lived, was born of the Virgin Mary, crucified, dead and buried, rose again and now sits at the right hand of God the heavenly Father from where he will come to judge the quick and the dead. I believed also in the Holy Spirit.
It is indicative of how far my deconstruction has come that now I believe none of the above as statements of fact to be taken literally. Instead I understand the creed as symbolism and likewise much of the bible.
It is my opinion that the bible is a purely human construct and is to be interpreted in that light. It is entirely possible that a Jesus type person existed. However, we have no significant proof of that outside the bible and in particular the synoptic gospels.
The synoptic gospels were composed years after the supposed death of Jesus. Academic research points to source material that has been lost. Doubtless stories, tales and myths about Jesus were handed down and may well have been included in the three gospels. We need also to acknowledge that the authors each had their own agenda and target audience.
In an important sense the historical basis for the synoptic gospels does not matter. What does matter is the messages they convey to us now, how we understand those messages and how we act upon them. It really doesn't matter that we may consider Jesus not to be divine, nor that he possibly did not exist in the manner described to us in the bible.
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