Are there any deities/gods that can be seen? My question is why is that every god that's ever been, cannot be seen? Isn't this pretty much consistent with every god.. or are there ones that claim they can "materialize"?

Discuss or /

God was on Earth from around 3BC to 30 AD.

Briefly doesn't count. Especially when it's only been documented in one book (and by only a handful of people).

It's not one book, it's a lot of books, and Jesus is even written about in accounts by historians.

And why wouldn't briefly count? You are creating false ideas about God.

But to answer you, I believe Hindus believe there are incarnations of Shiva, Vishnu, Krishna and the like alive today.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/a...g-operation.do

Are you referring to letters as books?

Are 2 John and 3 John books?

Here is the "Book" of 2 John in its entirety...

2 John 1 (New International Version)

2 John 1

1The elder,
To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth—and not I only, but also all who know the truth - 2because of the truth, which lives in us and will be with us forever:

3Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, will be with us in truth and love.

4It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. 5And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 6And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

7Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. 11Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.

12I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

13The children of your chosen sister send their greetings.

Was that a book?

The collection known as the "New Testament" contains 21 letters, or epistles as they prefer to call them.

Who are the historians who wrote about Jesus?

Please list a few books where Jesus was spoken of (that aren't part of The Bible). And when I said "can be seen", I didn't mean as an incarnation.. or hallucination.. or visitation. Why are gods always invisible? Surely someone sees the irony.

Chuck saves ><\\\'>

Because if he revealed himself we'd be forced to believe he exists. Which would ruin our freewill to choose whether we believe in him or not. (disregard those who have seen him, they don't count ldo)

Well, just the fact that he chose to appear once or twice, according to The Bible, makes me think that theory doesn't fly. Why appear at all if it's such a risk to our freewill? Was his presence really that necessary? I doubt a normal person could come up with an answer to that using normal logic and reasoning.

I'm just trying to figure out why an invisible god would choose to show themselves at one point in time over, let's say, any other point in time.

Too dangerous??
No one important enough to talk to??
Not the right time??
It was different back then??
The message is the same??
The world would collapse??
People would be forced to believe??

Not one of the above makes any sense whatsoever. You're a god. You're invisible. Nobody sees the problem? Dorothy did when she went to see The Wizard of Oz. Power behind the curtain isn't real power.. it's fear.

...

Yeah i don't believe what i wrote, just giving you the party line for your question. I agree its ridiculous.

It depends how you define God. There have been plenty of seen Gods like some of the pharaohs or emperor/king Gods throughout the world.

Only in the briefest and vaguest terms possible. And no source outside of the New Testament or the apocrypha credit Jesus with any kind of supernatural ability.

Well sure. Anyone can just look in the mirror to see the most popular god of them all.

Indeed, what we call the Bible is actually an ensemble of books, a "collection of sacred scripture" as Wikipedia puts it.

Pretty much what my post would have said. You need to define it more specifically. Plus im sure the sun, wind and waves were probably considered the physical manifestations of gods at some point so there is that too.

Jesus was one of many preachers of his time and as an atheist i have no problem believing he existed and maybe got betrayed and crucified as the bible claims though im a bit less willing to claim this happened since im pretty sure i read there are no Roman records of his execution. He almost certainly did none of the miracles attached to him and a lot of the mythology like being born of a virgin birth and rising from the dead were lifted directly from other religions popular at the time, with ancient Egypt being most notable.

A guy preaching to be good to each other then years after he died having a bunch of stories about his origin and life attached to him is much less a god than the Pharaohs were of Ancient Egypt who were worshipped as gods in their time and Jesus probably wasnt and never claimed to be a god.

The first question is: should we even expect historians to have written about Jesus?

The answer is: perhaps not, since He was rejected at the time. Even the apostle Peter denied Him three times.

If He would have fallen to the temptation to rule all the kingdoms of the world as an earthly king rather than fulfilling the mission God had appointed Him, then historians everywhere would certainly have recorded Jesus.

The lack of records means absolutely nothing. The records from that era are very sparse at best. For example, there are no surviving Roman records that record the existence of a Roman governor of Judea named Pontius Pilate. That is of course the name recorded in the Bible. In the 1960's a fragment of masonry was unearthed that did finally document from non-Biblical sources that there was a governor named Pontius Pilate in Judea in the correct time frame.

This does not prove the crucifixion story. What it does show is that a single execution (one of probably hundreds in that time period) is very unlikely to have a surviving record if even the ruling governor's name does not. It also shows that the gospel letters do contain reliable historical evidence.

so how, NOT writing about Jesus is just further proof of his existence. Brilliant!

If you don't want to believe...don't.

But to disclaim an answer to your question is just....lame.

Millions of people, including many devotees from the West think this guy is God. He's still alive right now

The three wise men didn't write anything, but the illiterate fishermen did (in excellent Greek)?

doesn't Josephus count as a historian?

It shows no such thing, any more than the fact that we have evidence that Julius Caesar existed proves that Shakespeare's play contains reliable historical evidence.

Alas I can't take credit for it, since that is not what I meant.

Perhaps. Read this.