One ally of atheism is historical ignorance. When I hear attacks on Christianity historical ignorance is the answer to the attack quite often. This comes up in many ways that I will explore separately later on in this blog. Today Ill explore this advertisement that was taken out in New York's Time Square. It depicts a picture of Santa Claus, and a picture of Jesus dying on the cross. It encourages us in a very evangelistic way to keep the merry spirit of Christmas but to dump the "myth: of Jesus dying on a cross.
What I find so surprising about this, is that many atheists I know and interact with online appreciate history. Appreciate evidence, peer reviewed articles and the opinions of the consensus of scholarship. Many atheists I know do appreciate history and would never say anything along the lines of Jesus of Nazareth not existing or that he didn't die on a Roman cross. Especially considering this is one of the most well attested to facts in history.
Even former Christian and now agnostic Bart Ehrman takes these history deniers head on quite often and even compares them to holocaust deniers in this article from the huffington post. "In a society in which people still claim the Holocaust did not happen, and in which there are resounding claims that the American president is, in fact, a Muslim born on foreign soil, is it any surprise to learn that the greatest figure in the history of Western civilisation, the man on whom the most powerful and influential social, political, economic, cultural and religious institution in the world -- the Christian church -- was built, the man worshipped, literally, by billions of people today -- is it any surprise to hear that Jesus never even existed?"
The simple fact is that Jesus did exist and was put to death on a Roman cross. No scholars that I am aware of take the view seriously that Jesus didnt exist and was put to death on a Roman cross. It is simply an Internet circulated idea that no one with any credibility puts their name behind it. As I said in a recent blog post, the only people that put their names behind it are simply not qualified to do so.
What I would like to see happen is for us to keep the merry of Christmas, to acknowledge historical facts such as the life of Jesus of Nazareth and for us to dump these silly historically ignorant attacks. We can have a rational debate with out purposly misleading posters.
I also find it very interesting that Christians are often ridiculed for evangelising. But this is one of the new attitudes in the new atheism. That no only should religion be purged from the public square but also in the private lives of people. I'm amazed to hear the new atheism evangelism, I personally enjoy encountering it because I enjoy engaging with people.
