Let's pretend Jesus is real

[Donovan]

I've had a couple of long commutes lately and sometimes this thread comes to mind. I want to ask Donovan if Jesus is not real, then the bible is not real and neither is God.
I mean those are obvious statemens I am sure, but I just wanted to get clarification. Also one of those links in the OP didn't work, but I found many similar arguements about this online.

Shoot, just seeing your most recent post. (I assumed no new posts were made in this thread since it didn't come up in my "new" feed today)

Reading now.

Jesus may have been real. He was the son of God as much as any of us is, and never claimed anything more. So if you believe yourself to be a child of God, then so was he.

The bible is real as well. It contains many thoughtful rules for living life that are seldom adhered to in any consistent fashion, as well as archaic edicts which would be better forgotten. It is not the word of god. It is the work of men. And therefore subject to the same criticism any other purported "self help" book might receive.

God is the following story. When my child was around 9 he asked me if god was real. We were in the front yard of our home at the time. As an answer I pointed to an ant hill in the sidewalk we had probably stepped over a thousand times. I said, have you ever noticed that before?
He said no, he hadn't. I said, do you think those ants know we are here? He said, no, we are too big. I said, we and the ants are living side by side and neither knows the other exists. Then I took my foot and swiped away the anthill poking through the cracks and the ants went into frenzied motion, running around frantically rebuilding their home and assessing damage and doing other frenzied ant things. I said, do you notice them now? My son said yes, they're running around like crazy. I asked, do you think they can see us now? He said no, we are still too big.

I told him as I tell you. That is what god is to us and us to him. It is not our place as ants to define the unknowable force that occasionally takes notice of us and destroys what we have built.