I don't know why I was surprised by this

[lovelyjubilly]

8yo dd: Alexa, happy Easter!
Alexa: Thanks, hoppy Easter to you.
Dd: Jesus is alive!
Alexa: No. Jesus Christ is not alive.

It made me sad to hear her rebuffed so strongly with no acknowledgment that her belief is valid.

What about the ascension?

This might help? Most religions none that I know of don't believe that he's alive. Your child probably thought that he was actually alive somewhere. Time to explain what him being alive means in terms of your faith.

The Christian belief is that he rose from the dead and did not die again so is in fact alive.
No, he ascended into Heaven. He's dead.

He ascended bodily into heaven according to the scripture I have read.

There is no mention of a body left behind; accounts refer to him being carried into heaven or taken into heaven.

So he isn't on earth with us the living, but in heaven with the dead?

That's about it.
Catholics believe in the divine presence in holy communion.

As to 'in heaven with the dead' - we do not know if those in heaven are dead or in another state of being. We are told in scripture that they are in perfect union with God. Jesus promised to raise the faithful bodily on the last day.

Ahh, I think we disagree on the "not knowing if people in heaven are dead" issue.

There is no indication from scripture about their state of being afaik.

Muslims believe Jesus was taken up into heaven alive and wasn't even killed on the cross beforehand so they would not be happy with Alexa's response either.

But what does the concept of death mean if not "those who were once alive but are no longer"? I'm not sure how one could conceive of death so as to exclude people in heaven.

What makes me so sad is the lack of interest over the 207 Christians murdered today (Easter) in Sri Lanka by terrorists

That may be so where you are, but in my part of the world it is big news and is being mourned by everyone.

Re the Alexa answer - there are about 4,200 religions in the world, of which Christianity is only one. Do we really expect Alexa to agree every belief system ?

Jesus is a historic figure not fiction. That at least atheists can agree on with Christians, or at least anyone who does any research.

I think it's you who needs to do more research. There's no verifiable evidence of Jesus actually existing at all. The Romans kept good records, and many Roman soldiers kept diaries. Yet he doesn't get a mention anywhere. With all the miracles he was pulling off, you'd think someone would have made a note.

People claiming to be god, or in direct conversation with god, or with messages from god, were 2 a penny back then. Many academics think Jesus didn't exist as such, but it an amalgamation of various prophets doing the rounds at the time.

But it's a metaphor surely poor Alexa cant deal with that

Muslims believe Jesus was taken up into heaven alive and wasn't even killed on the cross beforehand so they would not be happy with Alexa's response either.

I'm not sure it's the job of Alexa to give people answers that make people happy. But to give right answers. Be that about Jesus or tomorrow's weather.

It gives facts, to the best of it's knowledge and the facts don't give two hoots for anyone's "beliefs".

There's no verifiable evidence of Jesus actually existing at all.

There is.

Preggosaurus9 I’m pretty sure Alexa would say Muhammad is not alive and no Muslim anywhere would be remotely offended.

So does this mean Elvis is still alive too?

Have you tried asking Alexa who founded the C of E and then the Catholic Church.

There is plenty of evidence that Jesus existed. I am always surprised when people say there is no evidence and suspect they haven't done their own research, just parroting what they have read on an atheist website.

There is plenty of evidence that Jesus existed.

There is none. Absolutely nothing that you can verify and cross reference with other sources. Someone like like the other JC, Julius Caesar, loads of proper evidence, we know where he lived, that he was epileptic, when he invaded Britain, what battled he fought in etc. He gets separate mentions in many sources.

For Jesus, nothing at all. Outside of the bible and Koran, neither of which are verifiable, no evidence at all.

We don't know that Caesar had epilepsy. Posthumously diagnosing historical figures with illnesses is notoriously uncertain, and a weird example to use.

Dismissing the bible as evidence of Christ's existence strikes me as odd and I'd be interested to know what your justification for it is. St Paul was writing within 25 year's of Christ's death. Non-Christian sources referring to Christ also to exist including Josephus, Pliny and Tacitus.

Dismissing the bible as evidence of Christ's existence strikes me as odd and I'd be interested to know what your justification for it is.

The same justification I'd use 2000 years from now to dismiss the Harry Potter books as evidence that Harry Potter actually existed.

Deciphering fact from fiction in historical writings is a well trodden path for historians.

Of course Harry Potter is fictional - that doesn't mean it wouldn't tell historians thousands of years from now a lot about life in 21st century Britain. Nor does it mean that every person mentioned in Harry Potter is fictitious. Lots of the "wizards" mentioned on the chocolate frogs are real historical figures.

"Apart from the Bible and the Koran." Priceless. The new testament writings can be seen as eye witness accounts. The fact that they dont all say exactly the same thing doesn't stop us from seeing the central truth in it.

I was looking at all non Christian evidence. There's a lot given how long ago it was. There is a whole academic field looking at study of Christ as a historic figure and its not just researched by theists.

Ignorant comment upthread saying Roman soldiers should have been writing about Jesus. Overestimates how information was preserved and disseminated that far back in time. Plus im not trying to argue the case for miracles, just state its pretty well established he existed.

Interesting also the PP where Jesus is contrasted with Julius Caesar, an earthly ruler. Of course there is a lot more evidence about Caesar than Jesus. Jesus was of humble birth, and died a criminal. What is surprising is how much evidence exists close to his lifetime about a humble figure. Comparativly other historical evidence of other figures in history is much sparser but no one is so invested in discrediting say Alexander the Great or Plato.

Didn't jesus die and was then brought back from the dead?
Isn't he then undead or living dead?