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I believe that reductionism (reasoning) cannot fully account for reality.
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I suspect that, as Aristotle claimed, the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts -- and in that sense, the world is "magical."
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In my opinion, in other words, reality is itself magical, and that the Jesus concept/story invokes "miracles" should not be such a problem for us... There should be no "summary judgement" here based upon a requirement for the "supernatural." We should open our minds for a moment, accept that the world may, indeed, be magical, and go from there.
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The world is probably not the deterministic machine that much of science would have us believe.
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It turns out that we humans have two qualitatively different ways of thinking. For most of us, the left hemispheres of our brains process data "analytically," while the right hemispheres of our brains process data "holistically."
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In addition, we humans -- especially us males -- tend to be dominated by one hemisphere or the other, and think mostly in line with that particular hemisphere.
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It then appears that what we call "transcendence" (and with it, God) cannot be sensed (or imagined) by our analytic hemispheres -- it can be sensed (or imagined) by only our holistic hemispheres (note the connection to Aristotle's claim above). This could easily explain why the God concept can appear so foolish to some of us thinkers -- and so obvious to others...
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If God seems like a ridiculous concept to you, it is probably because you are dominated by your analytic hemisphere. (But, keep in mind that if there be a God, he (it?) probably is not a "Big Man" anyway. Maybe, Emerson's "Oversoul," or Lucas' "Force" is a better fit for you -- and, will relieve some of the tension... Maybe.)
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But then, whatever, we seem stuck with a dilemma -- either the analytic hemisphere is transcendence blind (as in "color blind"), or the holistic hemisphere hallucinates...
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So far, personally, I believe that it's the former. I believe that the analytic hemisphere is transcendence blind, and that holistic thinking is valid.
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I also think it is where human solace (Salvation?) lies.
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In other words, if human life has meaning, we should find it through our holistic thinking...
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And then, the Jesus concept/story seems to be (at least) an excellent stimulant for holistic thinking -- and consequently, to meaning, solace and "Salvation"...
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That's why I'm here.
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I want to "believe in" Jesus.
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But then -- I want to believe in him ... only if he was who he said he was...
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Consequently, the basic goal of this site is to TRY to present both sides of the Jesus issue, and to thereby help seekers (myself included) to determine whether or not Jesus was, in fact, the prophesied Jewish "Messiah"...
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If Jesus was/is the Messiah, we have some serious thinking -- and praying -- to do.
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And probably, we had best get started.
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Moving right along, I do believe that Jesus was a real person, that he was convicted of being a “false Messiah” by the Jewish supreme court (the Sanhedrin) and then, that he was crucified by the Romans.
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I believe that he was not given a fair trial, and I wish to correct that injustice to the extent possible.
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And then, I figure that Jesus' alleged Messiahship is at least one of the first places to examine when trying to figure out if there is something we should be doing with the rest of our lives.
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So anyway, I hope to correct the perceived injustice above by acting as Jesus’ Counsel and by personally presenting the best case I can muster for him being the prophesied Messiah -- while taking on all challenges to the contrary.
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With the Internet as my venue, a truly comprehensive and fair trial seems altogether possible -- though, it might take a while.
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I don’t know whether Jesus was (is) the Messiah or not, but I do WANT him to be -- and consequently, I must depend upon others to present the case against him...
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(If anyone wants to help (like they do on Wikipedia), please let me know at rsavage@nycap.rr.com.)