Man's 'Historical' Claim About Jesus and the Bible Would Throw Christianity Into a Tailspin — but Is It Really True?

In an article published in Free Inquiry, a magazine produced by the Council for Secular Humanism, writer Michael Paulkovich argues that Jesus Christ was a mythical figure who never walked the Earth.

In his piece, titled, "The Fable of the Christ," Paulkovich describes reportedly finding no mentions of Christ when exploring the works of 126 writers who lived during the first to third centuries — and claims that Christians invented Jesus in order to have a figure to worship, the Daily Mail reported.

The author made similar arguments in his 2013 book, "No Meet Messiah," which also focused on the theory that Jesus is a figment of early believers' imaginations.

"The book 'No Meek Messiah' chronicles the cobbling of Christianity, its outrageous forgeries, and its immoral acts of torture, genocide, and obfuscation over the many centuries," a description reads. "The 'virgin birth' tale was a forgery perpetrated 250 years before Jesus, even admitted by the Catholic Encyclopedia."

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And in a separate explanation of the text, Paulkovich made it even clearer that he believes the Bible is filled with lies and deceitful tales.

"In 'No Meek Messiah' I provide a list of 126 writers who should have recorded something of Jesus, with exhaustive references," he wrote. "Perhaps the most bewildering 'silent one' is the mythical super-savior himself, Jesus the Son of God ostensibly sent on a suicide mission to save us from the childish notion of 'Adam's Transgression' as we learn from Romans 5:14. The Jesus character is a phantom of a wisp of a personage who never wrote anything. So, add one more: 127."

Paulkovich's main argument is that Jesus should — and would — have appeared among the writings of the 126 individuals he examined if he were truly the messiah he claimed to be.

But, since he said he didn't encounter Christ among the writings he explored, Paulkovich concludes that the Christian savior never existed and that he is "nothing more than urban (or desert) legend," according to the Daily Mail.

The author did admit, though, that Jesus was mentioned by Roman historian Josephus Flavius in 95 A.D., but posited that the inclusion was later added by editors and was not original to the text. Read more about his overarching argument here.

While Paulkovich's claims are certainly bold, he is not the first person to outline such a proposal. Self-professed Biblical scholar Joseph Atwill alleged last year that Roman aristocrats manufactured Jesus.

As previously reported, Atwill believes that Christianity was concocted as a government project that was used to control Roman citizens. During a time in which Jewish residents were waiting for their messiah, he says they were a constant source of insurrection, leading the Romans to seek out an equalizing and tempering force.

Atheist Richard Dawkins, too, has said that evidence for Jesus' existence is "shaky."

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TheBlaze explored the issue of Christ's existence back in 2012, outlining that people generally fall into three categories: those who believe Jesus existed and that he was the Christian savior, those who believe he existed and was a mere man — and then those who patently reject his existence.

It should be noted that many theologians, scholars and Bible enthusiasts would accuse Paulkovich of overlooking key evidence corroborating Christ's existence — and that the vast majority of scholarly opinion holds that Jesus did, indeed, exist.

"Considering that Jesus' ministry was largely confined to a relatively unimportant area in a small corner of the Roman Empire, a surprising amount of information about Jesus can be drawn from secular historical sources," GotQuestions.org explains.

Read more about that evidence here.

It appears at least one atheist has also taken issue with some of Paulkovich's claims.

(H/T: Daily Mail)

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