Yes, I suspect that that is exactly what most of them were...allegories. On the other hand, if you were to go into martial arts or yoga very deeply, for long enough, around the right people, you might see something you would consider miraculous...in that it was very, very unusual and was something most people cannot do in their wildest dreams.

I suspect Jesus did a few things like that too, here and there.

Put it all together and you've got some wonderful stories to tell.

Miracles are still happening nowadays. I've seen a couple. But I will not discuss them here for the benefit of someone's idle curiosity. They did not (except for one) occur within the context of the Christian religion, not that it really matters...

Miracles happen every day on this planet, it wasn't just a case of someone remarkable who lived 2,000 years ago.

My thing about Harim Ben Afsadhi was a joke. He was the camel seller who lived next door to Jesus' family when Jesus was a teenager. No one remembers him today (except me) and no evidence is around now proving he ever existed, as far as anyone knows. In that respect he (and Jesus) were exactly like 99.99999999 % of all the people back then, of whom we have no evidence that can convince Clinton Hammond that they ever existed. :-) Big deal.

On the other hand, very few of them delivered such profound teachings that they created in their wake a major religion and a whole civilization which has endured to the present day!

Find me evidence that Buddha existed. Find me evidence that Lao-Tse existed. Find me evidence that the Yellow Emperor (in China) existed. Such evidence will not be found in physical artifacts (which can always be disputed over by learned people, as to their authenticity and meaning), but in what Jesus, Buddha, Lao-Tse, and the Yellow Emperor achieved in affecting the awareness of living people, then and now. In the case of all of them, the achievement was absolutely profound, and is the strongest evidence that they did exist.

As for Harim Ben Afsadhi, well, like the other millions and millions of ordinary people who did not launch a major new philosophy and change civilization he remains a mere footnote, and no one will even care to debate over whether he existed. But he was a good camel seller, nonetheless!

- LH