re: Does anyone actually believe this

quote:

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Did Aristotle, Socrates, or Plato exist?

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Here's the difference: it doesn't matter to anybody's religion if those guys existed.

So what if Socrates didn't exist? What he supposedly said and did - even if fictional - would still have meaning. The Socratic method doesn't rely on Socrates actually having existed in that it holds up to scrutiny on its own.

You can't say the same for Jesus and Christianity.