"It was the foolishness of the Jews that they crucified him and created Christianity. If he had been simply ignored by his peopleand there was nothing much in it. What he was saying were very simple truths which have been known for thousands of years. There was nothing new in it, there was nothing dangerous in it.

"To crucify him was absolutely baseless. But it seems Jesus wanted it to happen, because before the crucifixion he was aware that he was going to be caught if he went to the festival; if he went into Jerusalem he was going to be caught and crucified. He was fully aware, it was known to everybody. There was no need to go there, but he was pulled toward Jerusalem as if pulled by a magnet, irresistibly. He was filled with this idea that 'crucifixion will prove my messiahhood.'

"You have to understand the background. Jews have certain things that a messiah has to fulfill; one of them is crucifixion and resurrection. But resurrection is possible only if crucifixion happens. And Jesus was declaring himself to be the messiah, the awaited one, for whom the Jews have been waiting for centuries, who would redeem them from their suffering, their misery, and who would open the doors of heaven for them. They could not believe that this poor carpenter's son, utterly uneducated, was the messiah – that 'he is going to redeem us, he is going to redeem the whole of humanity from suffering.'

"And that's why they were insisting that the only test would be the cross. Jews were insisting on the cross, because that would prove whether he is a messiah or not. And Jesus was hankering for the cross and crucifixion, because unless crucifixion happens, resurrection is impossible. It might happen, it might not happen, after crucifixion, but it could not happen without crucifixion – that much was certain. So when he heard the news that he was going to be crucified at that year's festival he started moving toward Jerusalem.

"He was a fanatic. In fact, all old so-called religions are fanatic because their faith is not based on reason, on science. Their faith is based on absolutely unprovable beliefs."