TTA Podcast 101 - Did Jesus Exist (with Dr. Richard Carrier)
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- Available via BlogTalkRadio: www.thethinking...
iTunes: itunes.apple.c...
Stitcher (search The Thinking Atheist)
Richard Carrier received a PhD in ancient history from Columbia University in 2008. He is author of the books "Sense and Goodness without God," "Proving History" and "Not the Impossible Faith," as well as numerous print and online articles.
In this episode, Carrier lends his expertise as we tackle the question, did the Jesus of the bible exist?
LINKS:
Richard Carrier home page:
richardcarrier....
Article "Did Jesus Exist" by Frank R. Zindler
atheists.org/co...
Bart Ehrman interview: "Did Jesus Exist?"
• Video
Carrier / Ehrman debate thread:
freethoughtblog...
Jesus or Joshua in Hebrew was the most common Jewish male name. Of course Jesus existed. There were thousands of them.
Gooners Rule CLEVER 😎
Made me lol😂😂
Great point. I'm convinced.
And all of them look like Osama bin Laden..
Yes, some variant names would be Yeoshua. Josephus wrote about several different “Jesus’” and describes them as preachers.
"Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool."
Mark Twain
Not Twain, Voltaire
Brilliant. It sounds like Mark Twain or Will Rogers even if it was Voltaire 🙂
Samuel Clemens was a Confederate deserter and coward who changed his name to avoid capture. As a child, I read all his books and thought he was the greatest Author that ever lived. As an adult I found out how the Yankees burned our farms and tried to rape GG Grandmother.
@@TheGuitarReb
How about Voltaire?
"Religion began when the first scoundrel met the first fool."
Voltaire
Siddharth Gautam aka The Buddha definitely existed.
He openly and explicitly asked everyone including his own disciples to be sceptical of everything and everyone.
He also said that every man's path to self-awakening is his own. No scripture or preacher can help.
He also said that he was neither the first nor the last Buddha.
I so like the clarity of Carrier's explanations. Wonderful talk...
His name would not be "Jesus Christ" - it would be Yeshua ben Joseph. And no, the Jesus of the Bible did not exist.
Thank you! ❤🎉
Well-said. except that Joseph wasn't his father. And we have to wonder if Joseph wasn't at the crucifixion, who really was the father of Andrew, Joses, Simon, Jude, and all of Jesus' sisters? Did Mary have lots of "immaculate conceptions", or did she re-marry some guy name Clopas? If so, he'd be "Yeshua/Yehoshua ben Clopas" -- a religiously-confused guy with many dads, not knowing which of them his mom will be married to when she gets to heaven.
Refreshing and excellent! Thanks to Richard Carrier and the Thinking Atheist
I understand completely- I was a believer for over 30 years. It took me that long to finally be honest enough with myself to admit that all the things brainwashed into me as a youth were completely wrong. Your problem is that you are starting with an absolute certainty that what you believe is true. You don't know that and you never did. Until you can look at your beliefs critically and with the humility to admit that they don't make sense, you'll be trapped, like I was.
I went through the same experience until I found out Christianity is not just fraud but evil.
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The nuns at the Catholic school used to say to their Bible questioning students, "you all don't need to read the Bible, we'll tell you what it says."
One of my favorite podcasts Seth! Great information and a great guest! I will be re-listening to this multiple times just to get all the information and book titles!
I very much enjoyed this and would love it if you had more guests like Richard Carrier. There is so much that people don't know about the bible and the facts of all the discrepancies and contradictions etc. as well as the the fact that the authors often are unknown. I'd love to learn more while listening to your show. :-)
Dr.Carrier is AWESOME!
As always.
When I was growing up, my aunt Sandra would *vehemently* insist that Jesus Christ did indeed exist, that the Bible is real, and that we should follow its teachings to the letter, or else. She would not allow debate whether Jesus existed or not. She would refuse to allow someone to ask "how do you know?" "can you prove this?". And she would show you a Bible and suggest you read it.
Kind of shows how fragile her beliefs are when you aren't even allowed to question them whatsoever.
Dr. Carrier is one incredible and intelligent source of history and knowledge!! Great stuff
@53:30 The internet makes you think critically. Once you start thinking critically about one thing it's hard to not do it with everything. Just open up your email account and start reading.
Do you really believe you have a rich Nigerian relative that want to share millions of dollars with you?
Do you really believe beautiful women in your area are just waiting to meet you?
Do you really believe Jesus Christ has returned and needs you to send twenty bucks?
Do you really believe you can get a free laptop by just doing a survey?
Young people don't like being taken advantage of, it makes them feel ashamed of themselves and look stupid/foolish to others. These are two things Christianity holds up as virtuous.
The bible sounds like it'd make a good RPG with multiple endings...
Mikeferdy That is an excellent analysis!!! I love RPGS!!! I was thinking they should make a fighting game like Mortal Combat where your gods, like Zeus would have a lightning Bolt, Thor a Hammer, Yahweh can cause Guilt (a damage over time spell aka DOT) They can all summon their prophets, Huitzilopotchli can have acid rain, There are so many gods I could go through them all and name special abilities but I want to hear other peoples ideas for this game Mortal Gods.....
+Acey Hadrian You can call it Mortal Godbash
Daniel Zhang I like It!! If they made a game like this would guys play it? I would!!
Its way too scatterbrained though. I'd think a good RPG would need a better framework of ideas and story.
HORRIBLE BOOK 📗!!!!
I'm concerned about the vacuum of the human moral mind that is being filled with modern stories with gratuitous violence and the focus on self interest.
This was such a good podcast. Dr. Richard Carrier seems very informed about the subject.
The gospels were written in the '70's!!? FAR OUT MAN!!
@@AwesomeWrench And high on cocaine.
Richard "Intellectual Artillery" Carrier.
+Pyrela ...Dick"circle jerk"Carrier .....is what they call him on campus?
+ajt222...a "university" where they indoctrinate the gullible ? When I was there they were pushing the gillman theory which is now like Nebraska Man = BULLSHIT!
NO he is actually NOT an "Intellectual Artillery" he's a clown OUTSIDE his own Mythicist community, he is FULL of misinformation and full of half truths. He claims anyone who studies history will agree with him BUT I can EASILY debunk him on many issues WITHOUT using Bart Ehrman as a source.
Eat My
Never was a person.
No you can’t. Liar.
You know I have to agree with you on that. It was when I got older and actually read the Bible that I realized how wrong most of what I was taught was. There simply wasn't a single part of either the Old Testament that had any historical truth, and Yahweh, rather than being this loving god, was in actuality one of the nastiest characters in all literature. In addition, this "Good Book" which was suppose to be our source of morality was anything but. The NT offered nothing useful either.
I believe when Christianity finally becomes known as mythology, it will become more interesting to read with all its stories and parables, much like Greek mythology.
This was pretty excellent, I'm glad. I was expecting less details. I'm so looking forward to reading more books about history & historians methods/conclusions.
I've been waiting for this podcast for a long time! So glad it's here!
I think the take-away from this is that there is about as much historical evidence for jesus as there is for hercules.
Good episode. The theologian (now atheist) Robert M. Price has a podcast called "The Human Bible” where he talks about the origins of the Christ myth and other topics. It’s interesting to hear a professional debunk the bible relentlessly “like a bull in a china shop”.
One of Richard's interesting ideas is in one of his books. He more or less said that theology didn't necessarily have to be nonsense. That opens the door to creating your own sensible theology. Not necessarily rational. but some story that makes sense of your particular experience of life.
I'll create one with Batman
@@suleymanbabak1973 I want Robin Hood. Errol, not Kevin.
"The Gospels were written in the '70s" the mental images I have right now are excellent
I went to college in the 70's.
Now THAT is substantial information, deserving of study & perpetuation. Thanks for sharing :)
Dr Ray Hagins has excellent videos on this subject.
I have to listen to your podcasts more often. Until now the length frighten and prevented me from doing so.
The main problem I have with Carrier's hypothesis is that there were certainly enough itinerant hucksters wandering around 1st century Galilee and Judea that it would be unnecessary for the early christians to make one up out of thin air. Why start from page one when you can start from page thirty?
I don't understand your point.
This was a great show. Thanks to you both!
Hey Michael!
Thanks for your support. But as God I need to tell you that you are on your own. I gave you reason and all the tools you need to integrate the universe into your life. Don't let others lead you, trust your own mind, we are one I am God.
Great Podcast Seth and Dr. Carrier!
I just watched his documentary on RUclips. Such a loss... such an amazing player.
As for the rest, we agree there too. : )
NO. DID HORUS EXIST. NO. JESUS WAS CREATED TO CREATE SIN SO SIN COULD BE PAID FOR.
+GIANTSECRETS Jesus paid for our sins, now let's get the money's worth! :-)
1. "Why must everything be seen or proven before certain people will believe." Not everything must be seen or proven, if your friend tells you that he bought a dog you don't have to see it to believe it(although he could lie to you). However if he tells you that he bought a dragon with supernatural powers, you do. That's how healthy rational thinking works. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence to support them.
You would love the book "Antiquity Unveiled". It says that Jesus was based on Apollonius of Tyana.
I was curious about that, also. I *did* notice that he didn't mention archaeological findings that indicate that the site claimed to be Nazareth since the 300s was previously a burial ground, which should have precluded it from having been a village in the time of King Herod and of Pontius Pilate, two more reliably historical figures than "Jesus of Nazareth".
But he raises a good point that maybe there was some *other* Nazareth.
Awesome show and what a great guest!
Richard Carrier has changed my life x
I would really like to know Dr. Carrier's opinion on John M. Allegro's body of work.
Still, I'm gonna quote this "Mark originally ended with the women not telling anyone" into the face of anyone who calls the ressurection historical ("Lots of witnesses are named"...) to my face again...
Great show, Seth! My favorite yet! Wouldn't it be fun to see Ehrman and Carrier debating each other on their different views of the Bible? I would pay to see that!
Ehrman won’t debate Carrier. He knows he can’t win.
It depends upon what the 'design' is supposed to do. If it is a complex problem, it well may take a complex design to solve that problem.
Skip to 7:45. That's when Dr. Carrier appears.
When you say "an historical perspective" you do realize that the only perspective we have is what other people wrote about somebody who may be only a fictional character, although it may be loosely based on a real person. So if the NT writers didn't say it, then there is no way that any of your imaginings of Jesus can be considered remotely "historical".
FINELY! I have scavenged all across the internet for a video about this topic. Thank you TTA. I want to yell now but this will half to do.
this one should really wake you up;The Permian period witnessed the diversification of the early amniotes into the ancestral groups of the mammals, turtles, lepidosaurs and archosaurs. The world at the time was dominated by a single supercontinent known as Pangaea, surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa. The extensive rainforests of the Carboniferous had disappeared, leaving behind vast regions of arid desert within the continental interior.
So glad you guys are around!!?!
Yes. Sorry, I meant to say 30/40 years later. I know Ehrman does think Jesus may have predicted the fall, but I don't go that far. His reasoning is that given the tensions, it probably wasn't that hard of a prediction to make LOL! But yeah, I put Mark in the 70s - still very much within living memory for some. It really comes down to what we view the gospels as - complete literary constructions, or literary constructions that preserve known oral traditions. I think the latter.
"The evidence is the complexity of the universe and of life itself"
Simplicity is the hallmark of design, therefore the admission that the universe is complex, is the admission that it was not intelligently designed.
how is simplicity an hall mark of design?
I've said this since I was a little kid. It makes no sense that if a God brought a son down or took human form it wouldn't be him writing the scriptures. Christians always work around the OT but the NT has major problems too. I can't fathom how this doesn't make sense to people that a Jesus wouldn't have wrote his own words down. It's ridiculous and nobody has a good rebuttal for it. If it's true it'd be a lot easier to say it was infallible when it was coming straight from the source, not multiple men years later
After reading articles on themes such as history and archeology I think now that there was some guys called "Jesus" but the "Jesus" of the bible is a fictional construct made up by mixing some real historical figures (some of them called Jesus) and some fictional ones.
You know, just like Santa.
For example, now it seems that people stopped living around Nazareth some hundred years before year 1. And no settlement was there until about 200 years after year 1. How could Jesus be "of Nazareth?".
The thing about the universe is, it's not sentient. It doesn't care if it makes sense to you, it simply does what it does. PEOPLE care about things. People have sympathy and empathy tempered by intelligence and that is where morality comes from. There is no greater purpose in the universal sense, we're here because life was an inevitable thing in the span of the universe. What matters is what we as individuals, and greater as a species make matter. Try to alleviate suffering, and avoid harm.
Carrier does his homework, then he does your homework. His debates are brutal, he just cleans the floor with whomever he's up against
I understand the context very well. And I see that The Church itself in numerous instances FAILS TO UNDERSTAND the proper meaning of it, which is the strongest evidence (to my mind) that no one associated with that institution had a hand in fabricating it. There are passages which if correctly understood would be an embarrassment to The Church, which they have virtually sidestepped for 2,000 years. Why would they so inconvenience themselves? It makes no sense.
I'm not an atheist but I appreciate Dr. Richard Carrier. I hear his honesty. A search for the truth. I'd like to hear his thought's on how the concept's of Christ came into being. The concepts are huge. Especially his thoughts on fear in the second half of Matt 5. I think within those verses lies the meaning of life. It is coded but clear. Seems many people fight Jesus because of the depth and difficulty of giving in to the concepts. No matter who you believe came up with the ideas
So if I am alone with no conditioning from my environment @ 0 people involved there is no way I need a supernatural savior if I have food shelter etc .....that makes no sense my God would kick your gods ass .
“within those verses lies the meaning of life. It is coded but clear.”
I think you got a knock on the head. Concussions are more dangerous than you think.
All I can say, is if you studied the actual science behind the questions you keep asking, you'll get a much more satisfying answer than "A God for which i have no evidence did it".
Good luck to you as well.
Totally agreed with you dude!
Because the letter J' never existed until
the late 16th century. According to the early alphabets
the letter I' was literally transformed into a J' from a Greek God iesus.
I just saw a commercial for the creationist museum on my RUclips. Lol
"The head is disproportionately small for the body, the face unnaturally narrow and the forehead foreshortened, and ears lost. The front and back images, in particular of the head, do not match up precisely, and the back image is longer than the front. The back of the head is wider than the front of the head. The hair is hanging straight down, as if the man was sitting."
Dr. Richard Carrier presents a slick radio talk show performance. He seems assured in his presentation as if his long study of the subject is at the tip of his fingers and flows effortlessly from his tung. He speaks with a commonsense approach and the presentation is convincing. Except for the lack of specific supporting evidence. He mentions other articles, authors, but not actual historic documents written and read by him in their original language. Although he is a scholar, he speaks too much like a radio talk show host.
Me, I am a scientific thinker and an Existentialist. I do not waste my time on wither there is a God or not. However, I am not fool enough to doubt the existence of the Jewish royal that is Jesus Ben Joseph who has been called the Christ etc.
The Catholic church has done much to hide that wonderful historical story.
I would love it if the world could explore and verify the details of that human’s life and skip all the deity attachment.
I have read over a dozen books on the historicity of Jesus. I have come to the conclusion that there was an historical Jesus, but that the biblical Jesus is fictional.
As a kid being raised Roman Catholic I got in a lot of trouble questioning what the nuns tried to shove down our throat.
I find it humorous when someone makes reference to "God is supposedly all loving" and then questions the existence of Jesus, from whom this concept came.
The reactions in question probably happened quite quickly, chemical reactions tend to. But it took hundreds of millions of years before it happened. That, however may just have been because it took that long to get one condition optimal, like a certain temperature in combination with certain minerals, clay or something. So taking shortcuts to mimic conditions hundreds of millions of years after water, amino acids, other things crashed into Earth with meteorites, comets, is justifiable of course.
You bring up a key point........"oral tradition" in antiquity is assumed by many to be a very accurate information exchange of history when it is not. The ancients were permitted to embellish story telling to serve the situation they were in. Without the use of printing and digital copy technologies their was not accountability to keep the story historically accurate, especially if the purpose of that story was to serve as a vehicle for poselytizing. (converting someone to your faith)
I am an atheist but do not judge religious people as long as they don't condemn or hurt anyone else. I will however not discount any events in the Gospels simply because of synchronicity with other stories. Look at MLK and Malcolm X: Both have very similar lives :African American, fathers are Christian ministers, arrested, rejected by own people, assassinated, dead at 39. Sometimes same shit happens to different people.
A Course in Miracles has a very intellectually sound gnostic perspective of Jesus and his message.
Awsome, Richard always has something cool to say..
It only remains 'possible' because we do not yet possess the means to disprove it. There exists no god-like entity within the known universe, that much is absolutely certain. Whether there exists some form of Deity outside the known universe, remains a mystery, although, according to our current understanding, this is probably unlikely.
Id like to see you do miracles christians claim such as: incorruptable bodies of saints or, the communion changing from bread and wine to flesh and blood etc..
Many other scholars also doubt the interpolation claim. I'm not convinced by the arguments that say it was. It seems like this "no crucifixions" point is just focusing on stuff we don't have - which will ALWAYS be the case when determining ancient history. But we do know: Pilate was fired for harshness in 36, tensions were building, crucifixions did happen during the war, other "prophets" were executed pre-war for stirring up crowds (Theudas was armed?). Jesus' crucifixion is entirely plausible.
As Richard says, the Nazareth mentioned in the gospels certainly existed by the later 1st century. However, the town itself, as described therein, is dubious at best. The village described had a significant population because Jesus returns there and draws quite a crowd who apparently knew him well. It is also implied that Mary and Joseph had long lived in the village and had ancestors there. So, the description given is of a village that probably existed in the mid first century BCE---and there is absolutely no evidence for such a place at that time.
You know, this question is really quite moot. Jesus referred to himself as the "Bread of Life", meaning, his teachings on how to be a better person are found in the Bible, as well as more expanded versions are also in The Urantia Book, they feed our souls. We have those teachings. They exist now. His life was an example of what a purpose driven life looks like. One can gain inspiration from it if one so chooses. Arguing over whether or not he existed can be an interesting exercise I suppose. But it doesn't answer the question: "Would you be willing to allow *who you might be* to continually and painfully triumph over *who you currently are?"* [Jordan Peterson] Becoming more perfect, is an option, but it takes work. It's not for the lazy at heart.
It is virtually impossible to verify what someone said or did 2,000 years ago, whether it be a figure from political history (which few question) or religious. Thus an historian is often constrained to use logic and plausibility in order to determine whether the literature is a straightforward account or a piece of fiction. Most historians recognise the potential worth of such ancient writings and would not abandon the study merely on account of "lack of evidence".
Atheism should also include a healthy skepticism about any unsubstantiated claims. To just casually say "I still think Jesus did exist but wasn't the son of god", is not practicing the type of critical thought that gets you to atheism in the first place. Maybe Jesus did exist but after listening to Carrier's evidence, I have a strong suspicion that he didn't.
From what I was taught in Sunday School, being "Born Again", or our "resurrection" into "the Kingdom of Heaven" mean something totally different than the term "reincarnation" which from a Buddhist or Hindu perspective means some sort essence being returned multiple times to standard animal or human. Reading a prophecy and then claiming or being claimed the fulfillment of that prophecy is not reincarnation.
The ancient Greek mythology of "Rape of Persephone",ancient Babylonian mythology of "Inanna and the Huluppu tree",ancient Sumerian mythology of "Enki and the Making of Man",and "Enki and the Deluge" has many elements of Genesis of the Old Testament.Creation of man,a sacred tree in a garden,a crafty serpent,a great flood/boat,forbidden fruit,Men of renown/hero,and Nephilim origin are in these mythos that predate Genesis.The Bible rewrites these in a monotheistic setting.
And how would you know that? I realise it's frightening to some folks to imagine the possibility, but--all it really takes to support my theory is to speculate that the cosmos might be a living organism. Examine the human body at the molecular level and you'll find the same array of chemicals, particulates and gases with no indication of the body that encompasses them. That the universe FUNCTIONS precisely like a human lung is the basis of my argument and it does account for all the phenomena.
Which is why we only accept as axiomatic the things that are required for us to have a discussion. If they were untrue, it would render any discussion meaningless. So, either there's no point to the discussion or these axioms are true.
Yes, we do assume "if it's possible and meaningful for us to have a discussion about this matter, then these axioms are true". This means that a solipsistic viewpoint is not relevant to the discussion.
My pleasure. Your comment is as much a breath of fresh air to me as mine are to you.
There's a difference between "accepting questionable premises" and giving them their due consideration. The pursuit of truth requires examining even the unlikely. To focus solely on what is "probable" may seem like an efficient use of one's time, but--in the end, it is necessarily inconclusive.To argue "lack of evidence" or even "incredible" is of less value to Science than the study of The Possible and The Plausible.The one dismisses, the other at least demonstrates that it MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED.
Julius Caesar was a Christos(title).Gave his life's blood,was seen as a God/son of a God. The Comet of 44 BCE was seen as his soul.His wax effigy was nailed to a cross,was seen as a savior,a craftsmen (military strategy),and related to the Dove symbol(Goddess Venus). Followers rubbed his pyre ash on their foreheads.Forgave sins.Betrayed by Brutus, stabbed
by Longinus on 3/15.Deified,and his worship was made official by decree by his heir Augustus(virgin birth thru the God Apollo).
Why didn’t Jesus invent the printing press? I would have been happy if Jesus would have learned to read and write.
the greatest (only) STORY ever told...the characters just change every 2000 years or so
37:30 And furthermore, when a witness is sworn in while in a "court of law" (whatever that means) they are required to place their hand on the bible in a ceremony to recognize it as a standard of truth! Well, I guess it's fitting since courts are a joke. Read Marc Stevens' book "Adventures in Legal Land".
You can call it :"philosophising" if you wish. But--the fact is that my theory a) adheres to all the accepted observations of the cosmos, b) answers all of the questions (what is gravity, what is dark matter, etc.), and even makes predictions. If I'm right, then eventually scientists will announce that they have discovered that the matter in the universe is DIMINISHING. This is a consequence of the exhalation of breath that is drawing us OUT OF THE BODY at an uneven rate.
but to be able to judge if a simplification of the complex is accurate, it is vital to understand the complex. scientists don't believe that the universe is flat but curved, you're misunderstanding. scientists believe that the universe is curved in the 4th dimension (i.e. a hypothetical dimension that connects to all axes of a 3-d-coordinate-system in a right angle).
I was referring specifically to the fact that Science remained doubtful that the planet was spherical for thousands of years after the idea was first suggested. And even before the invention of telescopes and other instruments, the theory COULD HAVE been tested by sailing a ship over the horizon etc., but--that institutional skepticism retarded such progress. By "intuitive faith" I mean using one's senses and imagination in accordance with one's reason in order to more readily grasp the probable
I said he was crucified, not killed. I believe he "played dead" and Joseph of Arimathea bargained for his body before he expired. That he was "entombed" in a drainage cistern in the walls of Jerusalem from whose aqueduct he crawled on his elbows to the Well Of Gihon where he healed himself using aquatherapy. Thus the empty tomb. The point of the reincarnation is that EXPLAINS why there are fabulous precedents. "Before the fathers, before Abraham, I am". They were his past lives.
It is much easier to suppose that people made up stories.
Rev. Charles Foster wrote a book entitled "Sinai Photographed" His translation of those eyewitness reports tells of the Jews' exodus under Moses leadership. In Rev foster's book "Sinai Photographed" it states: "the wind blowing , the sea dividing into parts, they pass over." This was written on an ancient stone inscription.
That said, I am in no way saying that the account written isn't exaggerated or a flat out lie. As they say, history is written by the victors. However, if I can find several other reliable sources that confirm what is written, then I can be more certain that the events described actually DID occur. Many Biblical accounts don't have any external verification. This doesn't mean that those events didn't occur- just that they are suspect.
Well--the main question is "the beginning of what?" This verse mimics the first line of Genesis, but--I don't think it was meant to replace it, or even to expand upon it. I think John was referring to the beginning of Spirituality, or perhaps, of Consciousness. I doubt that he meant that Jesus was the Creator of the physical universe. "I and The Father are one" I take to mean that Jesus and his messianic forerunner are one. That Isaac and he are one, that Moses and he are one, etc.
What is more likely that a legend evolved based on a man that actually lived and was probably one of a thousand nobodies claiming to be god in the region which had legends spring up, or a legend of he details AND the man springing from nowhere?
Friendly open debate is great, but to be a debate both sides have to present actual rational arguments backed up with evidence.
If all you can offer in a debate is assertions, unprovable personal experience, or passages from a holy book, then it isn't a debate.
Virgin births were a common plot element in ancient stories. Powerful heroes were either born of Kings, or were born of women impregnated by a god. No hero was ever fathered by a young, pimply Roman soldier stationed in the backwaters of the Empire. Greek father's got so tired of their daughters coming to them saying Zeus got them pregnant that they started putting them to death if they tried that line. Guess Joseph just fell for it.
Correction, they're what you view as most accurate and likely as well as most of society. I agree that solipsism as a belief is counter productive and belief in science is likely a much better course of action but only out of comfortability. The concision of science is also helps it case.
Though the recognition of solipsism on the metaphysical level is important. To get around solipsism, we take axioms but axioms can in no way be justified. So it's more like an "if we assume _ then _"
you can prove you love your family. love is an emotion and emotions can be read via brain scans.
There remains no way of providing proof for God though, that's correct.