ironically this is a central assertion of unbelief/atheism. Substitute the word Jesus for any god, fairies, UFOs, conspiracy theory etc etc

If you are proud, arrogant and impressed with your own intelligence, then you will never find him.

You sound pretty impressed with yourself.

Man is very limited in the scope of his knowledge and wisdom. Scientists, doctors, engineers and other professionals do not have it all figured as you might be led to believe.

No, they don’t. But you do, right?

There are lots of possibilities. The written accounts came later and changed with time, so who knows what the truth was or if there was any truth to it, at all? Who knows what the Christians of Nero’s time were like, for that matter? Maybe they were roughly the equivalent of hippies, telling people to “Have a nice day” and saying that we could all try to be a little nicer to each other.

Whatever they were, they didn’t have to have witnessed anything and the story didn’t have to have any credibility to reach Rome. False rumours and stories can spread far and wide. Especially if it’s a good, entertaining one dressed up with the usual stuff that spices up stories – miracles (special effects), action, sex (probably added later), a betrayal, and a big finish.

Well, an alternative claim would be that there was no Jesus to see.

*shrug* Just voicing a possibility.

I am not sure I agree with the point reached but it does make a great point – maybe there is a lot in the Christian faith that needs to both be expained better or looked at with more depth.

Whay actually is funny is that last part about the resurrection and the few people seeing him – that made me laugh – it was truly comedic and made the point intended. It is strange Jesus was only revealed to very few – but then again – very few followed him quite closely also.

“why is Islam and Buddhism not as viable as Christianity”

Using only this logic, that would be true. Thankfully, there is far more to the story.

Paul,

“The ‘persecution’ was local and not empire-wide.”

Yes, but it was local in Rome. That means that the story of Christianity must have had enough credibility to reach the imperial capital and have more than enough followers to fill the Colosseum.

“just because the cult spread, that doesn’t mean the people doing the spreading actually witnessed anything”

True, but this doesnt mean that they werent around. In fact, you cant prove that the eye witnesses werent there. You would have to claim that every eye witness died immediately after having seen Jesus. This stuff didnt happen in a vacuum.

Secondly, if a large enough number of believers proves authenticity, you would have to concede the authenticity of other religions, with their hundreds of millions of followers.

Thirdly, just because the cult spread, that doesn’t mean the people doing the spreading actually witnessed anything. Missionaries continue to spread religions, without ever having met or witnessed the prophet personally. Believe it or not, there were gullible people 2000 years ago, too.