Facts that only fit the resurrection.
If you have been reading apologetics, you have heard of the minimal facts argument for the resurrection advanced by Licona and Habermas. These facts are
- that jesus died by crucifixion
- there was an empty tomb
- people reported meeting the risen Jesus (Paul has 500 of them. And I just want to know the names of two of these people)
- conversion of skeptics
- the growth of the christian church
It’s interesting to note here that this was a tactical change in approach by the Christian apologists. When it was no longer tenable to demonstrate the existence of Jesus, they felt if an argument can be made for the death and resurrection, then it follows that for a person to die, he must have lived.
We know that before the edicts making Christianity the religion of the empire, it existed as an underground cult. And two, growth of a religion does not attest to the truth of its claims. The skeptics referred to here are Paul and James the brother of Jesus. Paul tells us he was a persecutor of the Jesus sect. Paul tells us he is the foremost evangelist. I have seen many of this type. May the real Paul stand up!
It is curious that Jesus after resurrecting, chose to appear to 500 anonymous people who only Paul knows but never once do we hear he was seen by the skeptics in the town or even paying a courtesy call to Pilate just for laughs. All who saw him were his followers. I could concede that he didn’t want to be crucified a second time, but this just doesn’t sell.
Here, and here are interesting reads on the resurrection. Thomas Pain also said something about the resurrection.
Walter Cassels again
[..]The actual occurrence of the Resurrection and ascension, however, is certainly a matter of evidence and, to retort, it is scarcely decent that any man should be required to believe what is so opposed to human experience, upon more imperfect evidence than is required for the transfer of land or the right to a title, simply because ecclesiastical dogmas are founded upon them, and it is represented that unless they be true our hope is vain.
[..] Proportionately, it should be as unparalleled in its force as those events are in fact.
In the end, this person is trying to say there’s more justification for believing someone can come back from the dead than cults making stuff up to impress people.
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He is saying there is more justification for believing the fellow died and resurrected than there is for the fellows life.
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It’s so pathetic that these “facts” are anything but. with this BS, Islam is just as “true” as Christianity.
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Islam IS the one, true faith! Hell, right in the Koran it says, “This book is NOT to be doubted!” WTF put that in the book if it weren’t true? š
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exactly, my inspired friend! Why Islam says that Mo rode on a magic pony and surely that must be true!
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That my friend is true. You have no reason to doubt it
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That was a stroke of genius
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In chapter 5 he said Islam isn’t true but represent private revelation that Muhammad received while Christianity has evidence
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He obviously can’t read! The Koran SAYS it’s not to be doubted! What more evidence can an intelligent person seeking TrueFaith EVER need to see!?
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He refused to read the Koran. He had found the true religion at 15
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Well, Allah certainly has a fitting (and painful) punishment awaiting this self-blinded eternal adolescent! After all, I too, believe everything I believed at age 15. That is the best human way. Look at all the people in the highest reaches of the American government and economy who believe in the adolescent and sociopathic drivel of Ayn Rand, a thinker who only an angsty teenage boy can really love.
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To be so convinced that an experience he had at 15 and followed by confirmation bias all through represents the reality is, I think, quite arrogant. Reminds me of child preachers around here. Maybe, as Nietzsche says, had Jesus lived to a mature age, he would have changed his mind on many things.
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LOL. poor lil’ dear, he just has no idea what he is saying.
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he is da messenger of god, don’t you know
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I think this is the weakest part of Justin’s book. The resurrection exists by assertion only.
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I think chapter 6, 8 & 9 are really bad.
I think Paul or whoever it is put a spanner in the works by saying if Christ is not risen, then their faith is in vain. This means they have to make the resurrection be a real event
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