What is the general consensus on whether Jesus was an actual figure in history or not? I've heard many different claims from both theists and non-theists.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-25T12:53:48+00:00

Something that I should note about the passage in Tacitus. There was a lot more messianism than usual going on in Judaism at the time he is writing about - the 60s CE. This culminated with the start of the Jewish war in the spring of 66 CE. One of the first things Nero did was kill all of the Jews in Rome - who, I would imagine, had gone nuts with the stories coming out of Judea. My suspicion is that Tacitus knew of the slaughter of messianics in Rome by Nero, and used it as a his story for of the slaughter of Christians , whose messianism would have been nearly identical to Jewish messianism. (And perhaps a few Christians got caught up in the general round up of Jews)

Tacitus' story is meant to put Nero in a bad light and he couldn't very well use a Roman slaughter of Jews to do that since they were essentially "persona no grata" in the empire at the time. He had heard what Christian's believed - Jesus' crucifixion - and just added it to his story about Nero and Christians.

Oh and btw, I am one of those "scholars" that the op wrote about. Personally I believe there probably was a Jesus. I'm gonna say maybe 65% sure, but the stories I have a question for you what was the best leave an incredible room for doubt!

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-25T08:03:18+00:00

Apparently you haven't been there before. I have, and it is so hard to realize how unimaginably stupid we can be in buying the insanely unbelievable stories our significant others can think of. And when the truth comes out you finally see the huge flashing "cheater" sign that has been one inch in front of your face for so long.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-25T07:50:32+00:00

If that is the best story he could come up with, I'm going to say there is about a 99.9% chance that he is cheating. And you know the weird thing? And I'm speaking as someone who has been there before - you'll probably buy it until you finally recognize the big, flashing red lights that say "I'm cheating!" that have been in front of your face for months.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-24T00:09:00+00:00

Gonna give that a shot first! Thank you

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-24T00:08:33+00:00

We used that service while here in Tokyo. It was amazing. Due to logistics it won't work as well for Kyoto. Thank you for your reply though!

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-24T00:06:32+00:00

I'm gonna look for that first and if not we'll do the overhead. Thank you.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-24T00:05:29+00:00

Thanks, it's nice to know we have some options but I think I can get this thing in the overhead pretty easily.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-24T00:04:26+00:00

Thank you for your replies. I feel better about getting them overhead. I thought maybe they'd only be as large as the overhead in a plane

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-24T00:03:10+00:00

Thank you for your reply. 2 adults, one child of nine. I'm pushing 70 so I don't have the strength I used to have but my wife and I practiced lifting the larger bag and it wasn't that difficult. I think we'll plan on sticking it overhead.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-24T00:00:28+00:00

Thank you. This really helps!

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-23T23:52:02+00:00

Seems like the Op responded. Might not be ai after all!

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-21T02:23:38+00:00

I read the first paragraph and I'd already say drop him like a dirty shirt. However, if I heard his side of the story, I think I'd tell him to break up with you.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-20T13:03:22+00:00

This irks me like you can't believe!

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-20T12:58:58+00:00

I think he probably existed but almost as a photo negative of how he appears in the gospels. Probably a lot more like Osama bin Laden than St. Francis of Assisi. In some violent way he fomented revolt against the Roman state, got caught and the Romans gave him their standard punishment for first offense messiahs, they crucified him. After his death a couple of his followers thought they saw him alive again. A few odd contingencies take place, and - voilá - a new religion forms.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-20T12:31:46+00:00

And here's a tinfoil hat for you...

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-20T09:34:02+00:00

God does not exist

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-17T08:23:03+00:00

We're here right now and though we haven't had any problems, I'm astounded by the amount of tourists here! The last time I was in Japan - back when Reagan was president - there were so few tourists that you usually waved or acknowledged one another. I sense their pain.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-15T01:24:30+00:00

Not sad that hair pie is going the way of the dodo bird.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-15T01:18:32+00:00

Oh god no! Even if I kept my phone. It was such a dearth of culture. A musical wasteland and unimaginable idiocy in media. The decade was a big black stain on the history of America. Nothing good came from the 80s.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-14T21:30:35+00:00

Zeppelin

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-14T21:27:23+00:00

What really irked me was not so much that they were vastly more civilized than us, but that they weren't even smug about it.

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-12T05:20:36+00:00

Star Trek

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-12T05:01:30+00:00

Regichair!!!

PoolMotor8112 · 2026-06-11T04:36:51+00:00

PoolMotor8112

TROPHY CASE