In response to Dr. Morgan’s letter in Monday’s paper titled “Christ unoriginal — for a deity”: I found your letter interesting. However, you are grossly misinformed.

I can summarize your argument as follows: The Jesus story is similar to other stories; these other stories are clearly myths; therefore, the Jesus story is a myth.

I have to admit I have never heard of most of the stories you mention in your letter, but I don’t need to know what they say to prove your reasoning invalid.

The problem is that even though things are similar, they are not the same thing. For example, a bowling ball and a ping-pong ball are similar in that they are both spheres, but they are also very different.

The statements “God exists” and “God does not exist” are similar in that they are both statements about the existence of God; however, only one can be true. So, just because the Jesus story shares certain similarities with known mythology it is a leap to assume it is also mythology.

It is clear from your article that you feel this jump is justifiable from the statement ” … there is no evidence to support the existence of Jesus.” This statement is false.

The New Testament of the Bible is a historically accurate document written by not only contemporaries of Christ, but by several authors who were eyewitnesses of the events they recorded for us.

They were known to be men of the highest integrity and held on to their testimony until all but one died martyrs deaths. Many who discount the historical veracity of the new testament documents do so because they have disregarded the archeological evidence or read the documents with a philosophical bias.

However, for those who can’t accept this, there are also many non-biblical references to Jesus and the early beliefs of those who followed him. The following are a few: first-century Roman historian Tacitus (Annals15.44); Josephus, first-century Jewish historian under Emperor Vespasian (Antiquities 18:3); Thallus, a first-century author, is quoted in the third century by Affricanus (Extant Writings, 18 in Ante-Nicene Fathers).

There is enough historical evidence to support the fact that Jesus was a real historical figure, who did real things in human history.

The differences between Jesus and the mythological characters mentioned in the article are significant enough to eclipse any apparent similarities.

J.T. Bridges

Senior

Exercise and sport science