TheBlaze Books Give You More!

CommentsDisplaying John Kieffer's 10 most recent comments.

• Exclusive: Atheist Activist Answers Your Questions About Jesus Christ & the ‘Completely Unreliable’ New Testament

  June 27, 2012 at 5:04pm

  In reply to Qoheleth.

  There is not one shred of contemporaneous non-biblical evidence to support the historicity of the Jesus character. ZERO, ZILCH. That’s pretty amazing given that there were scribes, historians and other writers in the area.

  The best theory to explain the emergence of Christianity is that Paul, the earliest New Testament author (not Mark) was writing about the long dead Essene Teacher of Righteousness who had lived several generations prior to Paul, and who was being ritually remembered by the Essenes — an apocalyptic, messianic Jewish sect who called themselves the Church of God, Saints, the Elect, the Poor (identical to Paul’s identification of his own movement). Much of the theories have been enabled by the discovery, translation and publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which have only been available widely to scholars for only about twenty years.

  The Jesus character is myth based loosely on an Essene leader who lived and died generations prior to the earliest New Testament works authored by Paul. Christianity is nothing more than an evolved, legend/fable filled formulation of the apocalyptic Essene movement which was well underway a century or more prior to Paul’s earliest writings.

• Exclusive: Atheist Activist Answers Your Questions About Jesus Christ & the ‘Completely Unreliable’ New Testament

  June 27, 2012 at 4:42pm

  In reply to Qoheleth.

  We are both atheists. Just like you, I have no belief in Osiris, Vishnu, Xenu, Isis, Mercury, Shiva, Mithra, Horus and all the other thousands of gods invented by human imagination. I just lack belief in just one more god than you do.

• Exclusive: Atheist Activist Answers Your Questions About Jesus Christ & the ‘Completely Unreliable’ New Testament

  June 27, 2012 at 4:22pm

  In reply to DanMan2012.

  DanMan2012 wrote: “I look to the first evangelist, Pilot who through no fault of his own announced to the world that Jesus was the King of the Jews. And guess what? Archaeologists have found proof of Pilot’s existence. Go figure.”

  ROTFLMAO … “Pilot” … are you referring to “Pilate” as in “Pontius Pilate” maybe?

  And I did “go figure,” in fact years’ worth of figuring, which included a Masters in Religious Studies that encompassed several research projects about the origins of Christianity and the Jesus character.

  Here’s my conclusion Mr. DanMan: The person who put the Jesus character at the time of Pontius Pilate (who, btw, is a historical person — unlike the Jesus character) was Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who, in the late 1st century and early 2nd, asserted, without providing any evidence, that the Jesus character was a contemporary of Paul. Ignatius was instrumental in shifting the perception of Paul’s heavenly Jesus character (which all indications he was referring to the long dead Teacher of Righteousness of the Essene sect) to an earthly one (asserted later in the Gospels) who lived when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea (26-36 CE), simply because Ignatius knew that Paul had been alive then.

  Christianity is nothing more than an evolved, legend/fable filled formulation (thanks to Ignatius) of the apocalyptic Teacher of Righteousness/Essene movement which was well underway a century or more prior to the advent of Paul’

• Exclusive: Atheist Activist Answers Your Questions About Jesus Christ & the ‘Completely Unreliable’ New Testament

  June 26, 2012 at 5:40pm

  In reply to black9897.

  Asking a preacher if the Jesus character is real is like asking a conman if his Ponzi scam is legitimate.

• Exclusive: Atheist Activist Answers Your Questions About Jesus Christ & the ‘Completely Unreliable’ New Testament

  June 26, 2012 at 5:35pm

  In reply to nos1123.

  If some personal experience is the basis for your belief and it is real for you, go for it as long as you don’t fly planes into buildings or promote another Holocaust because your bible identifies Jews as children of the devil (John 8:44).

  But, conceding your experience as real for you, one has to accept as well that the beliefs of others’ experiences are just as real for those individuals also: Scientologists who experienced personal remembrances of past life events, or Tibetan Buddhists who have made intimate personal contact with cosmic Bodhisatvas, or shamans, who have experienced near death events, who now communicate with dead ancestors or even the man in the looney ward who swears a man named Fred is communicating to him through light bulbs.

  All of those are powerfully real to those who have experienced these events but are all equally unprovable empirically and not efficacious whatsoever when applied to real world.

• Exclusive: Atheist Activist Answers Your Questions About Jesus Christ & the ‘Completely Unreliable’ New Testament

  June 26, 2012 at 5:18pm

  In reply to davecorkery.

  The character never existed. Depicting the Jesus character as Peter Pan is just as “accurate” as any other depiction.

• Exclusive: Atheist Activist Answers Your Questions About Jesus Christ & the ‘Completely Unreliable’ New Testament

  June 26, 2012 at 5:15pm

  In reply to desertdink.

  Mr. Stiefel is NOT the one who believes in any personally interested mind-monitoring, thought-influencing invisible alien (aka the “God,” Jesus, Satan characters). But you do.

  Seems to me that such belief by any other name would qualify Christians for some very strong psychiatric medicine. My question is what’s really the difference between claims of any unsubstantiated invisible alien entity whether called God, Xenu or Peter Pan?

• Exclusive: Atheist Activist Answers Your Questions About Jesus Christ & the ‘Completely Unreliable’ New Testament

  June 26, 2012 at 5:08pm

  In reply to GERATMO.

  LOL, no need to for me to comment further.

• Exclusive: Atheist Activist Answers Your Questions About Jesus Christ & the ‘Completely Unreliable’ New Testament

  June 26, 2012 at 5:07pm

  In reply to jaxum4.

  Veiled threats of hell work well on children and fools.

• Exclusive: Atheist Activist Answers Your Questions About Jesus Christ & the ‘Completely Unreliable’ New Testament

  June 26, 2012 at 5:03pm

  The Jesus character is myth based loosely on an Essene leader who lived and died generations prior to the earliest New Testament works authored by Paul.

  The culprit who embellished the myth and contextualized the Jesus character in history is Ignatius of Antioch, who, in the late 1st century and early 2nd, asserted, without providing any evidence, that the character was a contemporary of Paul. Ignatius was instrumental in shifting the perception of Paul’s heavenly Jesus (the long dead Teacher of Righteousness) to the earthly one (asserted later in the Gospels) who lived when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea (26-36 CE), simply because Ignatius knew that Paul had been alive then.

  Given that there is not one shred of contemporaneous non-biblical evidence to support the historicity of the Jesus character, the best theory to explain the advent of Christianity is that Paul, the earliest New Testament author, was writing about the long dead Essene Teacher of Righteousness who had lived several generations prior to Paul, and who was being ritually remembered by the Essenes — an apocalyptic, messianic Jewish sect who called themselves the Church of God, Saints, the Elect, the Poor (identical to Paul’s identification of his own movement).

  These new theories about the formulation of the Jesus character have been enabled by the discovery, translation and publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which have only been available widely to scholars for only about twenty years.