What are the challenges raised by skeptics such as the Jesus Seminar?

Answer 1

A:The Jesus Seminar is a seminar of theologians that seeks to discover the historical Jesus behind the Gospel account. The first and greatest challenge for conservative Christians is that all or most of the members of the Jesus Seminar are themselves Christians. Far from being sceptics on the one hand or blind adherents on the other, they are knowledgeable Christians who simply seek what they regard as the truth.

Their findings may or may not be closer to the truth, but they do challenge the beliefs of some Christians and some atheists. They conclude, for example, that in the four canonical gospels and the Gospel of Thomas, only about 18 per cent of sayings attributed to Jesus were likely to have been said by Jesus himself. Many conservative Christians would be challenged by this finding, but so also would those atheists who believe that Jesus never existed. An even greater challenge for nearly all Christians is that the Jesus Seminar says the story of the empty tomb is a fiction. Jesus never rose from the dead.