Do you think it's likely that Jesus was an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person)?

If you read the Bible literally (and I spent a good deal of my life doing just that), Jesus was a pretty OK guy. Like, I’d be friends with him, though I’d have to try to talk him out of the whole ritual cannibalism thing and the mild xenophobia, and his sort of chaotic-neutral approach to stealing/killing other people’s livestock.

I don’t know the definition of “highly sensitive person”, but let’s be honest, he got pissed off at a tree for not having fruit on it in the off-season. That’s pretty snowflakeish.

No, I think he was too righteously idealistic. I don’t disagree with his idealism, but he could have had a better way to deal with conservatives without putting himself out there for attack.

He was a bright example of nowadays’ political rebels who get caught quickly for being too direct. I’m sure there were people back then who noticed the same things he did, but they were too worried for their life to say it out loud.

No – he wouldn’t have done all he supposedly did if he were.

“Highly sensitive person” doesn’t necessarily have to do with people being offended. It has to do with a greater depth of cognitive processing and emotional intelligence. People who are HSP tend to have high levels of empathy

@rockfan I know well what it is and I stand by my answer.

I think he must have been a pretty thick skinned and determined individual to advocate compassion so strongly in what was then a very macho Roman world.

@janb oh sorry I was replying to @Muad_Dib

Even under the best of circumstances, it is difficult for me to imagine someone who is HSP telling the world that he has found the one true way. “What you are believing is all wrong. Follow me.” And in Jesus’s case, it was definitely not the best of circumstances.

I also don’t buy into the standard story of Buddha as a sheltered young prince who, upon seeing all the suffering in the world, retreated to find an answer.

@rockfan – In that case, no, I don’t find him to be particularly empathic or even terribly intelligent.

What he absolutely was, was given a lot of attention from a very early age, and that’s bound to go to someone’s head after a while. The Sermon on the Mount-type stuff is great and all, but what else would you say when trying to make a crowd of peasants happy and get them to join your cult?