Xref: utzoo soc.singles:12745 alt.flame:1228
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!hoptoad!amdahl!cit-vax!elroy!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!jade!ig!uwmcsd1!uwvax!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!mmm!ems!srcsip!lai
From: lai@srcsip.UUCP (Henry Lai)
Newsgroups: soc.singles,alt.flame
Subject: Re: Christmas parties
Summary: The myth of Jesus, Biblical "facts"
Message-ID: <719@altura.srcsip.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jan 88 18:26:59 GMT
References: <8712231623.AA24882@decwrl.dec.com> <1340@vaxwaller.UUCP> <14173@oddjob.UChicago.EDU> <207@sp7040.UUCP>
Reply-To: srcsip!lai (Henry Lai)
Organization: Honeywell Systems & Research Center, Camden, MN
Lines: 41
Posted: Fri Jan  8 12:26:59 1988

In article <207@sp7040.UUCP> dale@sp7040.UUCP (Dale Clark) writes:
>
>Take the example of Christna [sic?] beliefs.  Here was a demi-god born 1200
>years before the Christian Jesus of a virgin mother who performed miracles
>and was eventually put to death on a cross.  Sound familiar?  There have been
>16 different sons-of-God, most of them males born of virgins.

I read about something like that in a book called "Deceptions and
myths of the Bible".  It also gives the similarities between 
Genesis and some other creation myths, plus the pagan origins
of some of the Biblical heroes.  

On the other hand, there have been writings that "proved" beyond
a grain of doubt(so it's claimed) that a Jesus-type figure lived
in that era.  The problem is there're so many self proclaimed
messiahs we don't know which one's existence we're proving.

I don't have a problem with Biblical "facts".  Instead of saying
every word in the Bible IS truth, I would like to say it
REPRESENTS some truth.  Zarathustra never lived, but you may
buy his philosophy anyway.  Who cares whether there's a man
called Job, as long as you understand what the story's trying
to say.  This interpretation looks at the Bible as A WAY
rather than THE WAY to "salvation"(or whatever you want to
call it).  Undoubtedly there'll be people saying the Bible is
divinely inspired, hence every word IS truth.  Just read    
Revelations.  The same people will say that John was inspired
by God to write that piece, yet we can see none of it is "facts".
It's full of symbolism.  God never said He can't inspire people
to write parables, such as stories about Moses, Samson and in
the extreme case, Jesus Christ.

That's what I see the Bible as, a collection of stories just
like some Buddhist text meant to convey some ideas of the
writers.  Whether it's divine or not, it comes to faith.

-- 
{philabs,meccts,umn-cs,mmm}!srcsip!lai     UUCP address ONLY
Henry K. Lai                               (612)-782-7574
Honeywell Systems & Research Center
Minneapolis, MN 55418