<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><font face="Arial" size="2"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></b><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></b><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">On Monday, February 6, 2012 1:17 PM </span></font><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Giovanni Santostasi <gsantostasi@gmail.com> wrote:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" dir="ltr"><font size="2"> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></b></font>> I'm convinced Jesus is a myth. One of the best scholars to have<br>> discussed this in depth is Robert Price, Deconstructing Jesus. See<br></div><span
style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">> also the documentary the God that was not there.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">There's a vast literature aside from Price (and someone else mentioned Bart Ehrman, who I also recommend along with </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> Dennis R. MacDonald</span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">) that calls into question the existence of a single individual who all these tales relate back too -- even if one removes the miraculous context. One could spend decades studying the arguments pro and con, but there's no knockdown argument for his existence as an actual historical figure. Of course, most people back then lived and died without leaving a trace in the historical, literary, religious, or archaeological record. But the
strange thing about Jesus is many of the stories attributed to him seem to have been around before he was supposedly alive.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Dan</span><br> </div> </div> </div></body></html>