To be a little disappointed that Jesus is being taught as fact in Y1?

[PoxAlert]

We're atheists, so therefore didn't consider any faith schools for our DD.

We want her to learn about all cultures and religions and be tolerant of them all. We have friends of many faiths and beliefs and just want to be kind and happy.

Of course I expect (and welcome) Christianity to be taught in school, but we just got a copy of this term's curriculum (DD just started Y1) and for a non-faith school it seems a bit much.

Or am I being unrealistic and the school and church will always be linked?

Some of the RE points are:

"To learn who Jesus was" "who were his friends" "what did he do?"

I guess I was expecting a "what do Christians believe?" "why do they celebrate Christmas" etc etc than what seems to be a fact based history lesson....

Either way I'm not going to kick up a fuss with school, it's not a big deal really, she's free to make her own decisions in life. Just surprised me a little.

Walkingdeadfangirl one of the sources I quoted was Bart Ehrman, a historian of the period who CardinalSin also referred to earlier in the thread, and he agrees with you.

We're still waiting for you to provide a credible source that says that the myth theory is mainstream among academics. I'm presuming you haven't done so because you can't.

And as I said, I don't believe you've actually read Bart Ehrman. Just found something about him on some apologetics site. He says he thinks there probably was a Jesus person who may have been used as a basis for the bible, but that's after a detailed picking apart of any claims that there is actually any evidence.

I would expect almost all historians to agree before we could decide one way or the other

They do. You will struggle to find any historians specialising in the area who do not agree that Jesus was a real person who was baptised by John the baptist and crucified by Pontius Pilate. They disagree about other aspects of his life but those are accepted.

The main proponents of the Christ myth theory have no training in ancient history or ancient languages. It is regarded as a fringe theory which receives virtually no support from scholars.

He says he thinks there probably was a Jesus person

From Ehrman's own website:

www.bartdehrman.com/did-jesus-exist/

"In Did Jesus Exist? historian and Bible expert Bart Ehrman confronts these questions, vigorously defends the historicity of Jesus, and provides a compelling portrait of the man from Nazareth. The Jesus you discover here may not be the Jesus you had hoped to meet—but he did exist, whether we like it or not."

And, as I say, you obviously haven't actually read his books!

I have to say, I'm not sure why he feels he has to say that a Jesus definitely existed there (although he makes it clear that it wouldn't be the one that Christians want him to be), maybe that's because he'd get cut off from all research funding in America or something.

I do recommend actually reading his work...

I also recommend a bit of Richard Carrier.

There are others, of course, but it shows that there is no longer the consensus that there once was that the Jesus character actually existed. Historically it wasn't a good idea to suggest, but now that people are less afraid of the church, it is starting to become more accepted. As on here, most Christians will attempt to poo-poo the idea by Argument from Authority, without doing any actual research other than a page of googling.

maybe that's because he'd get cut off from all research funding in America or something.

Who funds his research in America?

They do. You will struggle to find any historians specialising in the area who do not agree that Jesus was a real person

Well looking at the wiki page linked to by MissConductUS, the first reference, William J. Hamblin, seems to be a Mormon apologetic.

The second, Eric M. Meyers is a biblical scholar. The third is Craig L Blomberg an Evangelical Theologian.

The forth, Richard Lane Carrier, is a historian who researched this area and published in a respected academic press his peer reviewed conclusion of the 'evidence'.... "what evidence exists is insufficient to 'prove' that Jesus was real. There is no archeological evidence. There is no evidence of Jesus from during his supposed lifetime (c. 6BC to 33AD). Jesus is said, in the Bible, to have done some truly amazing things - but no-one made a record of any of it! The first historians to include brief mention of Jesus in their writings do so approximately 100 years after Jesus' supposed death. And much of the content in the New Testament regarding Jesus (especially the Gospels) was written decades after his supposed crucifixion. Overall, the lack of historical evidence amounts to something important; and what does exist was written so many years after the possible fact that it amounts to no more than evidence of a belief in Jesus by the early Christians."

So not seeing any credible consensus of the evidence proving Jesus was a real person.

Professor Stavrakopolou of Exeter University (her of The Big Question and other telly) says that he "probably" existed, but is not prepared to say more than that.

They genuinely do discuss it WalkingDead! It would be an odd thing to lie about They hear about religion at home and then come into school parroting what they’ve heard.

I believe you PenguinSaidEverything, just find it hard to understand, it cant be very common, can it?. They must come from very religious families.

We’ve got quite a few (mainly Muslim and Christian) who visit a place of worship regularly so I think they pick it up there. And then there’s things like baptisms and weddings and funerals, so they hear things at those as well.

We are a family of atheists and we talked about religion loads when the children were younger. One has just finished a theology degree and the other is doing philosophy A level. What people believe and why is endlessly interesting.

I noticed that someone said that Christians are not obliged to take genesis literally, but that is incorrect. If you don't accept genesis then thenter whole reason for the sacrifice of Jesus and his redemption of mankind fails, and as I stated earlier, the gospels are anonymous, we have no idea who wrote them.

OP I was similarly unimpressed when DD came home and told me that god created the world and have had trouble convincing her that as far as we know it was the Big Bang that created the universe. I’m happy for all beliefs to be taught but I’m not happy for them to be presented as fact rather than philosophical view points. I think it is interesting learning about other people’s beliefs and where they can’t from but not instead of the proper science.

came from not cant from