If Jesus was born today ....

[gottakeeponmovin]

Not meant to be digging at Christians (I am actually one myself) but I have often wondered around this time. If a woman and her husband claimed to have been visited by God and were having the second coming of Jesus would anyone actually believe them? And if a twenty something man performed miracles would we all believe that was the Son of God or would we think it was an illusionist? What would have to occur to make anyone believe that the child or man was actually Jesus or would the majority of the human race think it was the makings of a cult? Has anyone else actually wondered this? It seems to me that we believe something that, should it happen our life time we maybe would dismiss !

Would we bollocks. I struggle to understand how anyone believes in god anyway.

Anyone claiming to be Son of God (or Daughter of!) would be promptly locked up in a mental institution I imagine...

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/living/2788788/dr-phil-guest-who-thought-she-was-pregnant-with-baby-jesus-returns-to-the-show-and-admits-it-was-just-trapped-wind/amp/

It happens more regularly than you may think

Bet the dps wouldn't settle for less than an xbox, ps5 and a laptop as the 3 gifts...

Water to wine would make me sit up straight and listen!

Have you watched Messiah on Netflix yet?

Totally deals with this - it's BRILLIANT

If you read the bible, Jesus healed people and raised people from the dead. It's not like he went round doing quirky magic tricks or something. I think people would react exactly how they did at the time - some would be in awe and follow him, some would be angry and afraid and suspicious, and others would assume it was an illusion. Maybe with the internet news about Jesus would spread more quickly and he'd have more people from all over the world having the different reactions mentioned above. YABU with this post and quite disrespectful to Christians as there is a (potentially unintentional) sort of mocking feeling towards Christianity in your post, a tone which people feel comfortable to use when discussing Christianity but not any other religions, strangely, but then Mumsnet is very anti-Christian so everyone will probably come along and agree with you in a minute.

I don’t think the reaction to him as an adult would be much different. If there was a person alive right now who could make blind people see and crippled people walk they’d draw a massive crowd. If that person claimed to the son of God some would believe him, some say mad, and some cry heresy. The only real difference is (if he was in the western world) no one would crucify him. He’d probably get beaten to death in some Strict eastern countries.

Not even media would make any difference- some would cry it was faked, some would believe.

If he knocked out the signals to all our mobile fines and other devices only then might we sit up and listen. He might be crucified again though.

mobile phones

Well, the vast majority of people didn't believe at the time, did they? It was layers of "campaigning" , political decisions, power plays, cultural adjustments, weaving a new story into the pre-existing beliefs and cultures to build something that worked better for them and what their societies were trying to achieve... That took place over centuries to develop into the belief systems and rituals we see today.

I mean, our Christmas festival is just a re-badged "pagan" festival, so... None of it is very original.

@TabithaMeow

If you read the bible, Jesus healed people and raised people from the dead. It's not like he went round doing quirky magic tricks or something. I think people would react exactly how they did at the time - some would be in awe and follow him, some would be angry and afraid and suspicious, and others would assume it was an illusion. Maybe with the internet news about Jesus would spread more quickly and he'd have more people from all over the world having the different reactions mentioned above. YABU with this post and quite disrespectful to Christians as there is a (potentially unintentional) sort of mocking feeling towards Christianity in your post, a tone which people feel comfortable to use when discussing Christianity but not any other religions, strangely, but then Mumsnet is very anti-Christian so everyone will probably come along and agree with you in a minute.

Why shouldn't religion be mocked? To many of us, it's stupid and can be harmful.

Also agree with Tabitha. Mumsnet is very hostile to Christians. You wouldn’t ask this of any other religion.

So is Easter actually.

@borntohula

Why shouldn’t religion be mocked? Because I have every right to be religious, as much as you do to be non religious.

People are harmful, not religion itself. There’s plenty of atheists who are just as harmful as any religious person.

I'm not mocking at all. I am a Christian and I go to church every week (well zoom now) I just think it's an interesting question. And yes Jesus did miracles like turning water in to wine but David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear. You could very much ask the same points on other religions - I am just more familiar with mine

Well, it's bollocks of course.

I guess I am really interested in the views of other Christians not people who don't believe anyway. It seems very possible that many Christians who absolutely believe the story of Jesus would presume it to be untrue if it occurred now

If you don't want to be ridiculed, stop being ridiculous.

And yes, I would say that to all religions, not just Christianity.

[quote LibrariesGiveUsPower45321]@borntohula

Why shouldn’t religion be mocked? Because I have every right to be religious, as much as you do to be non religious.

People are harmful, not religion itself. There’s plenty of atheists who are just as harmful as any religious person.[/quote]
Yes it's true that people are harmful but would those people who do dangerous things in the name of religion still do dangerous things if they didn't have such strong beliefs? It's also harmful in other ways, such as being the reason that abortion is illegal in some countries.

Of course you have the right to be religious and other people have the right to think it's all crazy.

@laurie thanks I will watch that

Here’s another question - where is the evidence that these healings and revivals from the dead ever took place?

The trouble is that religion requires and makes a virtue of ‘faith’, believing without asking questions. Look at the resentment and grumbling already shown for questioning anything. It’s not a long step to obeying without question, which is in my view what Christianity was adopted for. Islam is of course a later development of the same religion, thinking, and mode of social control.

If Jesus was born today, like then the establishment would do all they could to silence him.

He’s probably end up on death row in the USA.

Then after He rose from

The dead hangers on would set up an organised religion that went against the love, peace and forgiveness that he actually preached and become judgy and kill people who disagreed with them.

If you strip everything out of Christianity except for the teachings of Jesus, you’re left with a progressive and caring philosophy that teaches love for others, non-judgementalism and sharing resources equally.

Some complete frauds use the religion to preach just the opposite and justify some horrific and evil things.

To American evangelists would Jesus really:

1. Deny you healthcare because you couldn’t pay?

1. Own a gun?

1. Beat small children for misbehaving?

1. Shun people who didn’t conform?

Ask yourself the questions!

Lots of people didn't believe he was the son of god the first time round

It’s an interesting question but as others have said, MN is hostile towards Christians. I’m married to an atheist and all my friends are atheist and we manage to get along without them mocking me or saying I’m stupid deluded. MN is actually quite ignorant in its generalised attitude towards Christians and I’ve never experienced this elsewhere despite most of my working life being a priest in a very secular world!