Hi Inanna:

Jesus exists in my imaginations and visions.

Jesus does not exist as the guy next door.

Jesus does exist as the guy next door.

Jesus exists in my heart, mind and soul - He walks with me, motivates me, challenges me

Jesus does not exist in the people who go around causing bodily harm to others.

Jesus existed as a preacher and teacher in the 1st century AD. Jesus exists as a parable about the Divine nature of our existence, of someone who was fully aware and in touch with the Divine within him. As such, he is an example and guide, both through his teachings and his mythology. He is not unique, but is one of many paths to this wisdom.

The probability of Jesus's physical existence is non zero. I think he answer was around 0.52.  The formula is on the thread, "Did Jesus Exist", if you want details.

Does it really matter if Jesus actually existed?  Today we have the "idea" of Jesus.  However one approaches that idea, it doesn't really matter if Jesus existed or didn't.  The idea is what exists, and it's that idea that we react to.

We can't know with any degree of confidence that Jesus the man did exist.  He may have, he may not have.  Our idea of Jesus might stem from a compilation of ideas that existed millenia ago, rather than from the life of one human being.  If Jesus did live, what's left for us is an idea that his life inspired, even if that idea doesn't represent the real truth about the man  called Jesus.

Jesus the man, if he existed, might have been nothing like humans of today believe him to have been.  But that doesn't really matter, since what we have today is an idea of Jesus, offered to us through the eyes of a variety of people who all had their own ideas of who and what Jesus was.  He existed in their minds, and he exists in the minds of people today.  That's all we can say about it.

Jazzman

I agree. We can't deny that the "idea of Jesus" does exist in the minds of believers.

But I'd like to know, from Christians, how much of Jesus remains in their idea of Jesus?

Did Jesus ever exist? Yes, in the same way as all  most of the 'savours' of the past were based on real life people. Characters like Hercules were raised to mythical proportions in time but I believe that his story, like others, were probably based orginally on real people. The same goes with Jesus. I believe that the Church has raised his life out of proportion to who He actually was. Was He a Son of God? I would say yes in that he was a son of man who raised his awareness to that of God (at least a certain level of God awareness). Was He the only begotten Son of God? No, I think think this concept was introduced well after he died and is, in my personal opinion, ridiculous and non-nonsensical.

Does Jesus exist today? If the human Soul is eternal then why wouldn't these elders of the race still be around? Especially now in these dangerous times. I believe that Jesus, as well as the many other saviours of our past, have gone beyond the need to reincarnate in this world and only do so out of love and service. Yes, I believe that Jesus and the great Christ figure that overshadowed Jesus during His life are both very much involved in this world today.

Hi spockis:

The idea and ideal of Jesus—the Christ archetype—this is what the Christian Jesus is to me. Whether or not he existed historically is irrelevant.

But then I'm far from being a conventional Christian.

Im a "Christian Taoist." I love the Tao Te Ching, but whether the wise Lao Tsu, who supposedly composed it, was real historical figure or not is not important to me. Like Jesus and Gautama the Buddha, Lao Tsu embodies the archetype of the sage, the wise and compassionate teacher.

Hi Inanna,

Jesus definitely exists as a character in the gospels. That much is 100% for certain. There is enough historical evidence of his existence for me to believe that the character in the gospels is based on a real person, but it's definitely not conclusive.

Even though we were not there, I think it is safe to say that the more fantastic parts of the gospels were written as fiction, although, again, it's not conclusive. There is also the possibility that Jesus never existed at all but I don't think that is a very sound conclusion.