Is Christianity a Myth

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Charbrah

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I used to think that Christianity could not be a myth–that in no way could a group of people create such an intricate and elaborate story about a messiah. Now I am of the persuasion that a group of people, learned in Jewish scripture, could have fabricated a messiah out of events which reflected Old Testament prophecies about the messiah. I understand the Christ fulfills the prophecies and the promises very well, perhaps even perfectly; however, much of Christian belief has developed over the centuries, and even the four Gospel writers had time for theological reflection after Jesus’ death–time for them to add to the myth that Jesus was the Messiah, and perhaps convince themselves of something that was false: the Resurrection. Uncertainty is my heaviest cross to bear, I want to be certain in my faith–and as Thomas doubted, I doubt.
 
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Charbrah:
Uncertainty is my heaviest cross to bear, I want to be certain in my faith–and as Thomas doubted, I doubt.
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Sure, your scenario is a possibility.

Such is the life of a doubter. Lots of possibilities are credible. Which one to choose to believe?

Paraphrasing Julien Green, most of us don’t mind bearing a cross, we just wish it weren’t the particular one that we are given.

Sincerely,
a natural born doubter
 
If you are christian then obviosly it’s not a myth because you believe that christ exsisted…it’s all a matter of persepctive.
 
This is purely my opinion, but it seems as though you may be going through a “dark night of the soul”. Rest assured that God will use this time to draw you closer to both Him and His Son. Pray, pray hard that He will guide you to both truth and understanding. If you approach Him with an open heart, He will not let you stray.

Good Luck and God Bless!
 
I do not think that belief is a choice, I can say I choose to believe in Christ–if the evidence is lacking, I will not really believe, as much as I try to believe. If I could will to believe, and that would be the end of my doubting, I would, right now, unless God appears to me or some miracle happens, I might never have a strong belief in Christ. I love the Church, I love to hope for eternal life in paradise, in heaven with God–right now, all I have is hope and knowledge about the Church’s teachings. I will continue to pray, even if no God is listening, until my death. I just wish that Jesus would save me from the misery of uncertainty–however, if God wills that I am miserable over uncertainty, I accept His will.
 
re: faith as choice

That’s a tough one. Having been an atheist for decades, I understand the sentiment that faith is not a choice. Been there, done that.

Here’s something to ponder that suggests that maybe we have some role to play in ‘choosing’ to believe… it may or may not speak to you …

According to St. Thomas, “Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace.”
 
i have been where you are at and it’s funny you bring up the resurrection because that is the event that i always come back to (as it has also been the event that many have come to either accept or reject Christ based upon). there are two books i would recommend but i will also explain a little of what they talk about in this post. the books are More Than a Carpenter and Who Moved the Stone. both of these books (although the former only takes a couple of chapters) deal with the resurrection and how the entirety of Christianity hangs on this event.

just some of the idea put forth in these books are: there was a man named Jesus of Nazareth and was crucified by the romans, the event of the resurrection is recorded in non-Christian history (such as the writings of josephus), there were more than 500 people who claimed to see the risen Jesus, 11 of the 12 (including matthias who replaced judas) went to their deaths because they wouldn’t recant that Jesus has raised from the dead (i.e. who would die for what they knew was a lie?), and finally, no one could produce the body of Jesus. these are some of the things that keep coming up in my mind when i doubt and the answers to them keep bringing me back to Jesus being the promised messiah and that i need to put my faith in Him. it’s funny also how many people have set out to disprove Christianity and when they get to the resurrection they end up converting because the evidence is so overwhelming.
 
I will look at those books–also, part of the burden of uncertainty that I experience is caused by origin of life study, and scientific knowledge. Science seems to be able to explain biological life without recourse to God. If Christ were not God, I would still want to believe that a God exists, who loves me and has a purpose for me. I hope that Christ is God–and the hope that I have may be a product of the holy Spirit actin within me. At time in my life, I have really wanted to evangelize, or talk about Jesus, and I have been handcuffed by my uncertainty; this humbles me, I then I think that God wants to humble me, so that I live for His glory, and not anyone else’s. I am trying to live the Resurrection, and trust in Jesus, and I do all that I can to follow the Church.
 
Peace be with you, Charbrah.
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Charbrah:
I used to think that Christianity could not be a myth–that in no way could a group of people create such an intricate and elaborate story about a messiah. Now I am of the persuasion that a group of people, learned in Jewish scripture, could have fabricated a messiah out of events which reflected Old Testament prophecies about the messiah. I understand the Christ fulfills the prophecies and the promises very well, perhaps even perfectly; however, much of Christian belief has developed over the centuries, and even the four Gospel writers had time for theological reflection after Jesus’ death–time for them to add to the myth that Jesus was the Messiah, and perhaps convince themselves of something that was false: the Resurrection.
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Don’t forget St. Paul, a Jew who was persecuting Chrisatians until he met the Lord.

Don’t forget St. Stephen, a Jew who was stoned to death because he believed jesus was Lord.

Don’t forget the Apostles who were killed for their belief in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter, who asked to be crucified upside down, as he did not feel worth to die the exact same eway as his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Uncertainty is my heaviest cross to bear, I want to be certain in my faith–and as Thomas doubted, I doubt.
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It’s normal.

Now read about the Early Church Fathers, and that they chose death instead of denial of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And there are martyrs closer to our time also, who chose martyrdom over forsaking the Lord.

And what happened in Fatima? Did thousands see the sun dance in the sky? Or were thousands lying?
They were soaking wet from the rain, then they were all completely dry without sunburn.
 
When became Catholic/Christian, I entered knowing that Christianity would be either one of two things:
  1. The one, true religion. Jesus really was who He said He was. It’s quite clear that Christianity is based on absolute truths and rejects relativism.
  2. A fraud. Not just a myth, but a downright fraud. If Jesus was a real person, as virtually all secular historians believe, then Jesus must have been either a liar or insane to equate Himself with God. If Jesus was a fabrication, then the Apostles are very despicable men for lying so much to achieve their own ends, whatever that may be.
The problem with #2 is that I don’t see what those ends could possibly be. There’s nothing out there to suggest they made any money or political influence. Instead, they were persecuted and martyred, and were happy about it!
 
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bengal_fan:
i have been where you are at and it’s funny you bring up the resurrection because that is the event that i always come back to (as it has also been the event that many have come to either accept or reject Christ based upon). there are two books i would recommend but i will also explain a little of what they talk about in this post. the books are More Than a Carpenter and Who Moved the Stone. both of these books (although the former only takes a couple of chapters) deal with the resurrection and how the entirety of Christianity hangs on this event.

just some of the idea put forth in these books are: there was a man named Jesus of Nazareth and was crucified by the romans, the event of the resurrection is recorded in non-Christian history (such as the writings of josephus), there were more than 500 people who claimed to see the risen Jesus, 11 of the 12 (including matthias who replaced judas) went to their deaths because they wouldn’t recant that Jesus has raised from the dead (i.e. who would die for what they knew was a lie?), and finally, no one could produce the body of Jesus. these are some of the things that keep coming up in my mind when i doubt and the answers to them keep bringing me back to Jesus being the promised messiah and that i need to put my faith in Him. it’s funny also how many people have set out to disprove Christianity and when they get to the resurrection they end up converting because the evidence is so overwhelming.
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Also read “The Case for Christ”.
 
One point I would like to make (from The Case for Christ and other sources) is that no non-Christians (Jews that did not convert) every tried to make the case that Christ did not perform any of his miracles - they simply said it was the work of the evil one, not of God. If noone tried to dispute the miracles then they happened - otherwise they would have been disputed over and over again. Thus, if the miracles happened, the Gospel writers were being accurate in dictating events, which also just happened to fufill multiple OT prophecies.

Another suggestion - plant yourself in front of the Eucharist - visit Jesus in adoration. This is the most help you can give yourself.
 
I have reseached the popular miracles and apparitions, and I cannot explain them–part of me is skeptical because I do not trust what anyone tells me, and another part of me is truly amazed and excited about the miracles. I would want that my faith would be strong without such miracles and apparitions, and I allow for the possibility that God performs miracles and Our Lady appears to people for doubtors as I am. I do not think I will ever be able to fully reject Christianity because of the miracles and apparitions–I want to fully accept Christ and follow His call to me. I listen all the time, and I do not know whether or not the Spirit is directing me, I suppose I need to trust, persevere in faith and good works as the apostles and martyrs did, and continue to try to follow–I think it will always be the biggest challenge in life, and the only reward I foresee is after my death, which is supposedly eternal; right here, right now is all that I seem to have, I can only live right now, I want to experience God’s love and life right now. I need to trust that God is living within me and that His grace is within me.
 
Scientific study should never be allowed to shake one’s faith. God does not have to be a scientific necessity for God to be real. Remember, there have always been plausible explainations of reality that had no recourse to our view of God, whether they be religious or secular. The fact that something can be explained in another way hasn’t shaken your faith before, I would assume, otherwise you might have converted to Hinduism or some other completely different faith that has no room for our vision of God.

Just try and keep that in mind whenever you come across an “alternate explaination”.
 
That is true, God does not have to be a scientific necessity to be real; however, I was born and raised a theist, and now I think that all of life might be able to be explained by science, therefore, God is not needed to explain life, and then I think, well, if God is not needed for life, then maybe there is no God. I think all believers want to believe in God because we want to feel like this life is not the end, that we have an eternal purpose, and we want to think that God is always with us, loving us, providing for us…I want to believe those things too–science makes it harder because God does not have to exist for life to exist, maybe.
 
How did you deal with, say, Buddhist ideology that did not require God in order to explain the world? Science is no different in that regard, after all; our idea of God has never been necessary to explain the world, otherwise there would be no other religions.

Science is actually a better fit with Christianity than any other belief simply because it doesn’t make value judgements about matters of faith. One can believe 100% in science and 100% in the Church, but one can’t believe at all in Hinduism and still believe 100% in the Church.
 
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Charbrah:
That is true, God does not have to be a scientific necessity to be real; however, I was born and raised a theist, and now I think that all of life might be able to be explained by science, therefore, God is not needed to explain life, and then I think, well, if God is not needed for life, then maybe there is no God. I think all believers want to believe in God because we want to feel like this life is not the end, that we have an eternal purpose, and we want to think that God is always with us, loving us, providing for us…I want to believe those things too–science makes it harder because God does not have to exist for life to exist, maybe.
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It’s a moot point. God IS a scientific necessity. So perhaps you have more than you thought you had! 😃

For me, life is too complex to be explained by random action. But let’s put that aside for a moment and go more basic.

Here’s my thinking. The thing that life exists on, this planet, is not eternal (do you think so?). So where did it come from? Is the universe eternal? The 2nd law of Thermodynamics seems to indicate that the stars will someday no longer shine. If so, then there must have been a start. Who started it? If there is no intelligent cause, then there must have been a first cause.

In an eternal universe there cannot be a first cause without a non-linear (linear-think dominoes) choice being made.

So it must be an intelligent entity.
 
The first cause argument for God’s existence used to appeal to me, and it still does, if God exists; however, the big-bang provides an adequate scientific explanation that seems suffice that the universe and all that is in it was contained in an infinitly dense point of space, the point exploded, and the universe has been expanding ever since. Maybe God caused the point to explode, maybe it exploded randomly. I have heard that matter at the sub-atomic level pops in and out of existence–and I know a little bit about matter and anti-matter. A theory is that the big bang just so happened to contain more a slight amount more matter than anti-matter, and the matter overrided the anti-matter, and the rest is history. The Church teaches that God created the universe and everything in it from nothing–impossible for my finite mind to fathom.
 
I remember wondering the same thing some time ago about the Kennedy assassination. Couldn’t a group of people have planned everything to make it look like a lone nut?

Realize of course that *my *theory required absolute competence on the part of all conspirators to attend to every single detail in Dallas, Texas on or near November 22, 1963; and my theory required me to believe that every single witness was successfully persuaded to remain quiet until death.

I soon realized that the lone nut theory was far more reasonable based on multiple, converging lines of evidence, and that my theory was the fairy tale.

So you see, you have it backward; what you fear might have happened is actually the highly implausible myth. The moral of the story is that Christianity, though requiring intellectual assent, i.e. faith, is an eminently reasonable belief.

I hope my anecdote wasn’t disrespectfully crass, but it really does apply.
 
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Charbrah:
The first cause argument for God’s existence used to appeal to me, and it still does, if God exists; however, the big-bang provides an adequate scientific explanation that seems suffice that the universe and all that is in it was contained in an infinitly dense point of space, the point exploded, and the universe has been expanding ever since. Maybe God caused the point to explode, maybe it exploded randomly. I have heard that matter at the sub-atomic level pops in and out of existence–and I know a little bit about matter and anti-matter. A theory is that the big bang just so happened to contain more a slight amount more matter than anti-matter, and the matter overrided the anti-matter, and the rest is history. The Church teaches that God created the universe and everything in it from nothing–impossible for my finite mind to fathom.
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“Randomly” doesn’t mean anything here. What you are supposing is that either an infinite amount of time passes and then due to nothing, the universe exploded from a highly-packed potential, OR that there is no TIME and again for no cause, the universe exploded.

If you heard a loud noise next to your ear and you asked “what was that?” and I answered “Oh nothing caused that. That noise happened by itself.” You’d think I was crazy. EVERYTHING that begins to exist has a cause.

If God does exist then we have our cause. He’s eternal and he chose to create/cause the big bang. If he does not, we need to supposed another entity so akin to God that it doesn’t matter.

I can recommend “Not a Chance” by R.C. Sproul for a refutation of the idea that things randomly happen or happen by chance.
 
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