Evidence for Christ’s Existence Challenge

[StephenMasten]

Tacitus. Roman historian (55-120 A.D.):

Christianity is a pestilent superstition.

[StephenMasten]

Tertullian. Church Father (c. 180-230):

Tertullian's paradox: certum est quia impossibile est. It [the story of Christ] is certain, because it is impossible.

Note: This is the likely origin of the modern phrase, "I believe because it is impossible."

[StephenMasten]

Porphyry. Scholar of Tyre (c. 232-305):

A famous saying of the Teacher [Christ] is this one: "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will have no life in yourselves." [John 6.54] This saying is not only beastly and absurd; it is more absurd than absurdity itself and more beastly than any beast; that a man should savor human flesh or drink the blood of a member of his own family or people--and that by doing this he should obtain eternal life! Tell us: in recommending this sort of practice, do you not reduce human existence to savagery of the most unimaginable sort?

[StephenMasten]

Frederick II. Holy Roman Emperor (1194-1250):

Accused by Pope Gregory IX of having said the world had been deceived by three impostors--Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed.

[StephenMasten]

Leonardo da Vinci. Italian artist (1452-1519):

Take no miracles on trust; always look for causes.

[StephenMasten]

Pietro Pomponazzi. Italian philosopher (1462-1525):

[The statesmen] have set up for the virtuous eternal rewards in another life, and for the vicious, eternal punishments, which frighten greatly. And the greater part of men, if they do good, do it more from fear of eternal punishment than from hope of eternal good, since punishments are better known to us than that eternal god. And since this last device can benefit all men, of whatever degree, the lawgiver regarding the proneness of men to evil, intending the common good, has decreed that the soul is immortal, not caring for truth but only for righteousness, that he may lead men to virtue.

Note: As the most influential philosopher of the Italian Renaissance, Pomponazzi was able to make this statement by using Averroes' "double truth," a common rhetorical strategy at the time that let him justify heresy by contrasting it with orthodox arguments which could be ignored by readers aware of his intentions. Pomponazzi also argued in essays published after his death that the soul is mortal, that angels, demons and miracles are fictitious, that religions are born and die, and that prayers go unanswered.