PERHAPS THIS POST SHOULD BE IN THE NEW THREAD, BUT I PRESUME READERS WILL READ IT HERE. SO HERE GOES:
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Interestingly, one of the adds which appears, now and then, on this site, and many others, is one for a DVD entitled THE GOD WHO WASN'T THERE--"The God Who Wasn't There is a 2005 independent documentary written and directed by Brian Flemming. The documentary questions the existence of Jesus and examines evidence that supports the Jesus myth argument against the existence of an historical Jesus."
(Wikipedia).

Long Before this we have the work of David Strauss--
http://www.westarinstitute.org/Periodicals/4R_Articles/Strauss/strauss.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Strauss#The_Leben_Jesu.
Others wrote before him.
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Thirty years later there was Joseph Ernest Renan. He wrote his book on the life of Jesus:

"Widely regarded as one of the most important and revolutionary books of the nineteenth century, Renan's Vie de Jesus (1863; The Life of Jesus) was the first biography of Jesus that accepted his historical existence while rejecting the Christian belief that he was the son of God. Because it argued that “miracles are things which never happen, and, therefore, things which Jesus never did,” the book elicited a firestorm of criticism from church officials throughout Europe and America. It was denounced as blasphemous and, because of its popular appeal, was seen as a work that threatened to undermine the faith of Christians."
http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/vie-de-jesus-joseph-ernest-renan
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My opinion? I have been asked many times: If by means of a magical time machine you were transported back in time and as a result of that experience you became convinced that there was no such a person as the Jesus of history, what would it do to your faith?

My response: My focus is on the nature and meaning of the message, not on who was the messenger. I suspect that what we call the Golden Rule and other great love-based messages is the work of many great people. Perhaps several of them were called Jesus.

Last edited by Revlgking; 10/02/08 08:55 PM.
G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org