Jesus the Christ is Probaby the Result of Creative Writing.

As this is a very long debate, I'll respond directly to the points my opponent claims I have not realized. However, I believe that if you read my argument carefully and perhaps check the links, most if not all of his points have been answered. To clarify: 1) Jesus was by no means presumably able to write. The majority of people then were illiterate: they did not know how to write or read. As my opponent pointed out in his first statement, Jesus could write for two reasons: "The reason I assert this is that he worked as a carpenter, requiring proficiency in measuring and some rudimentary math, as well as design. Also, he reads from scrolls in the temple, indicating he could read. This just causes one to ask the question, "Why didn't Jesus WRITE anything?" Did God send a son who could read and not write?" First of all, carpenters in that time period were not required to write. In fact, almost no one knew how to write, as it was a scribe's job, not the worker's. Second, Muslims at least, believe that God put down a son who could not read or write: Muhammed. Third, my opponent mentioned Jesus reading scrolls, yet failed to give a reliable source, or any source for that matter. Here is what a quick Google search produced: Luke 4:16 "And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. *********** John 8:8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground." This implies that Jesus read. However, Luke and John are parts of the NEW Testament, the one that my opponent considers creative writing, therefore, the point is not valid. He is calling from the same text that he is trying to discredit. 2. Excuse me? "At least one of Jesus Apostles could almost certainly write, but did not." At least one could, but did not. Well, if you have twelve men and only one can write (I believe you assumed it was the tax collector, Matthew: well, he did write something, Book 1--the Gospel of Matthew http://www.ccel.org... Of course, it isn't 100% positive that Matthew wrote the Gospel of Matthew but he definitely contributed to it and most likely authored it. Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke and The Book of Acts. http://www.carm.org... okay, at least two could write and they did write. 3. What themes of Middle Eastern mythology? Why could they not be true for both? Gods=celestial signs. Check for most religions. Plausibility of Hell. Check for almost all religions. Easily angered Gods (are you referring to God or Jesus? God's anger plays no part in the factuality of Jesus' story. Whether God was or wasn't, does not make Jesus' story more believable. Yes, most religions have a messiah. Are you suggesting that they all saw others doing it and wanted one for themselves? Why is it so hard to believe in multiple prophets? Okay, there is a lot of talk about Jesus rising from the dead, but it never actually states that. He has not come back; all we know is that his body dissapeared. That doesn't mean he has risen and is among us. Oh really? Dionysus, God of wine? please don't tell me you made the connection between Dionysus' indulgence and Jesus changing water into wine. Then, still on that note, there are two more points. 1) All your sources were from Wikipedia. Even if it were a reliable site, you shouldn't use one source of information for everything, even if it is an 'encyclopedia'. Would you do that on a research paper? 2) Much of this can be related to the fact that there most likely have been more than one 'messenger from God' and the stories of that time were similar because people were experiencing the same circumstances. 4. I'll make this one short and sweet: Practically none of Jesus' life is mentioned in the OT. http://www.juliantrubin.com... 5. Fine. However, most documents of that age are mistranslated in parts. That does not make them creative writing. Someone made a mistake or didn't fully comprehend an idea and you want to call it fiction? 6. historically impossible..like the fact that we could have evolved from apes a few years ago, right? okay, I realize that I didn't go into depth here, but I see plenty of room for a new round. DENIED.