Most antiquities scholars think that the New Testament gospels are "mythologized history." In other words, based on the evidence available they think that around the start of the first century a controversial Jewish rabbi named Yeshua ben Yosef gathered a following and his life and teachings provide...
The only difference between a religion and a cult is time.
If someone comes up with a fanciful story right now about a savior or prophet that said a bunch of stuff 60 years ago and a group of people started following it as a teaching … we’d call them a cult.
If the cult lasts for generations or hundreds of years we eventually start referring to it all as a religion.
I wish people would stop saying this. Research into the BITE Model and High Control Organizations have given specific criteria to the sorts of groups people would call “cults”. Some of the more fanatical sections of the Catholic Church qualify just as much as a multi level marketing scheme that started 5 years ago.
Agreed. But I would also say that the person 60 years ago is not the same as the person they worship. It may be based on them, but it isn’t them,
The example I always use is the villain Bloefeld in the James Bond novels and films. Ian Fleming based him on the father of his school friend, who had the same name. I don’t think anyone would claim that the “real” Bloefeld is the one from the novels and films.
That’s my problem with this debate. As I said, it doesn’t matter whether or not there was a real person the character of Jesus in the Bible was based upon because the character of Jesus in the Bible is the one that Christians worship and he definitely did not exist.