The 'truth' about Jesus

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Thanksgiving 2003... a family member was horrified by this article, and suggested that I “suppress that one for all but your nearest and dearest” because it might be read by my employer and result in losing my job for trumped-up reasons. I have more faith in my employer’s fairness than that, but it’s a point worth considering: atheists are often discriminated against. Atheists can’t hold public office in four states. Some people won’t knowingly hire an atheist or rent an apartment to one. President Bush openly said in his campaign that atheists can’t be patriots and shouldn’t be citizens.

This raises two questions: First why in the hell would anyone choose to be an atheist, given the legal second-class status? The answer is that honest people can’t choose what to believe (think about it.) Second, should atheists just stay in the closet? (Plenty of room in there now that gays are coming out.) I hope freedom means more than that.

Easter 2003... I know this essay (which began as a blog entry) won’t win me any kudos from my Christian friends, but I really do feel that religion is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Over countless centuries, religion has promised peace, healing, reconciliation, even prosperity - and delivered none of it. The reason seems obvious to me - the first step to solving any problem is facing it and taking responsibility for it. God, if he’s out there, has clearly demonstrated no interest in solving our problems for us.

Jesus and Truth

"What is truth?" This famous question asked by Pontius Pilate at Jesus' trial is the fundamental quest of epistemology, or the study of knowing. How do we know what is real, what is true?
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The religious answer is that ultimate truth is a gift of faith, that is "...the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen." But this answer fails to satisfy those who do not verify beliefs by circular reasoning - "It is true because it's in the Bible, which I believe is the word of God..." The religious answer depends heavily on a call to authority, in that it does not allow dissent.
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The relativist answer (which often coexists with other perspectives, like a bug in software code) is that there is no "Truth," only truths that are valid within the individual's reality. This mushy, feel-good approach to epistemology is simply intellectual lazyness. "Sure, man, whatever is valid for you is what's real." The relativist answer could benifit greatly from a little more dissent.
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The scientific answer is that, while ultimate Truth may always remain a matter of faith, functional truths can be verified by observation, analysis, and experiment and duplicated by peer review. This model has built-in self-correction (since dissenters are invited to disprove the current 'truth' using the same methods) and has a strong predictive advantage over the other two models.
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Generally, people claim to prefer the scientific model of truth until it presents them with a reality they would rather not face - then they switch unconsciously to the religious or relativistic models. It is natural, after all, to put on a blanket when you are cold. Religion and relativism are 'comfort models' of truth, which is exactly why they both deserve a skeptical reception.
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One intersection where each of these vehicles of truth collide repeatedly is that of the person of Jesus. Many details of his life are known, but the 'knowing' fits into either the religious or relativistic models. This uncomfortable reality comes to the thinker courtesy of the scientific model.
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Under that model, here is what we do know about Jesus of Nazareth:
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It is likely there was such a person. He probably lived in Palestine around the first century, AD. He was a Jewish reformer of common stock, who got himself crucified by irritating the authorities.
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That's about it. We really don't have extra-Biblical verification of his sayings, his 'miracles,' his travels, or really anything else about him. Some of the events recorded in the Bible may be true, but there's no way to know. He is mentioned briefly by a contemporary (to him) Jewish historian named Josephus.
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On this thread hangs a major world religion. Crusades have marched, atrocities committed, cultures destroyed, and a staggering amount of human resource devoted to the promotion of a set of legends about a loud-mouthed first-century Palestinian carpenter.*
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If faith is a gift, it's a quixotic one.

*Note: Jesus seems to have been an admirable person, morally far advanced ahead of his time (with the usual result, and not much has changed since then. Look what happened to Martin Luther King and Ghandi.) But he was a Palestinian carpenter and he really could draw a crowd - little debate exists on these points. The characterization isn’t meant to be offensive, only historical

- GWiman, 9:01 AM