does a resurrection prove a religion?
I’ve heard it stated on a few occasions that if Jesus did indeed rise from the dead, then Christianity must be true. I am unable to follow this line of thought, so invite any readers who can explain to me why this would be the case to let me know.
In the meantime, putting aside the debate about the historical evidence for the Jesus character and the argument about how reliable the ‘eye witness’ accounts were, here are some reasons why the claim makes no sense to me:
- It could easily have appeared that Jesus rose from the dead. As my best blogging buddy Rautakyy has pointed out, he was a young man in his prime and it is perfectly possible that he passed out or went into a coma, only to regain consciousness. It’s possible that his friends bribed the soldiers. It’s possible that any one of the allegedly thousands of people who had followed him broke into the tomb. There are many possibilities that could make the story of a young man surviving a crucifixion true without the need for divine intervention.
- If a supernatural event did occur and Jesus was indeed a reanimated three-day-old corpse, then why would it follow that the Jewish god God is the creator of all things? Could it not be equally likely that more advanced creatures from another dimension had intervened because they got bored of making pyramids? Do things only happen if they get written down? Is everything that’s written down true?
- If this supernatural event did occur, and Jesus is a deity, why would it make everything else in the Bible worth paying attention to? Why would it not make more sense that the Bible is part of the Jesus-followers’ test? After all, who could believe that an all-powerful deity spent most the existence of his creation angrily obsessing over the seriously petty doings of one tiny group of people, then decided to have a character revolution and extend his deity-ness to the rest of the world by sending himself to earth in the form of his son as sacrifice to himself (copyright John Zande)? Who would believe that benevolence or intelligence includes suppression of women, slavery, stoning, reviling same sex relationships, genocide and encouraging people to believe they are naturally ‘bad’?
As we all know, it’s impossible to tell if the resurrection of the character Jesus took place. But I think it’s easy to work out that on the exceptionally slim possibility it did, it unfortunately does not prove in the slightest that Christianity is a religion worth following.
Ching Ching! Send your 10cents to Brazil 🙂
Yes, its all rather silly, but isn’t the plot line that the god God could come to earth, did and did so in the ass end of nowhere at an entirely non-important time and didn’t even bother to leave as much as some graffiti on a wall the silliest part of it all?
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10 cents? I’m sure I can rustle up an Argie 10 peso note – you’re worth it! 🙂
I’m so disappointed no Christians have stopped by to explain to me why if the resurrection happened, Christianity is true. They’re so keen on saying it … I miss PeW!!
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If you want to see some true jesus absurdity go to this post and marvel. I’m writing a post on it, its that good!
http://clubschadenfreude.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/not-so-polite-dinner-conversation-so-if-i-agree-to-a-possible-historical-jesus-then-what/
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Is Potato your new friend?
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He’s priceless, isn’t he? I’m glad that Ron fellow jumped in.
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Still mulling over your words, have to say the first thing that came to mind was the occult.God fearing people call it the devil’s work – past lives, seances, reincarnation – not exactly the same as Jesus rising from the dead but certainly in the same camp.When all is said and done we must remember; written history is only as accurate as the authors agenda, marketing strategies have existed since the dawn of time.
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Absolutely! And as well as marketing strategies we have poor memories, confirmation bias, hallucinations and sheer ignorance all playing a huge part.
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Witchcraft 🙂
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This is brilliant. I don’t think there is a slim chance the character existed. The Crucifixion and resurrection, to me, serve no purpose!
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Really? You think he’s totally made up? Just imagine if that was leaked from a Vatican vault!
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I think totally made up as they went along growing bigger by the day just like Mo, getting mysterious as you keep going
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I believe a german scientist had written a book in which he defends option 1. This is based on the fact that it usually took days for someone to die on the cross, and this was on purpose: the romans intended to make this a slow and painful death. The romans did have a quick and relatively painless way of execution at their disposal: beheading. Therefore it’s quite unlikely that a healthy person would die in a few hours on the cross, so passing out in a coma would a more likely explanation. And we have to take into account that it’s often difficult to establish whether someone is dead or not, it happens (even in our days) quite often that living persons are prematurely pronounced dead. According to our german friend, the whole purpose the tomb was to be used as an ER chamber, to treat Jesus from his coma.
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Indeed. There are many odd things that are physically possible, and surviving such an ordeal for a man in his prime seems more likely that being reanimated by an invisible deity.
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Jesus did not die on the Cross to start with; so there is no case of his resurrection from the dead. He was put on the Cross but he was delivered from it in the near-dead position nevertheless alive; after treatment of his injuries by his friend in the tomb where he was laid; he secretly traveled out of Judea to India along-with Mary his mother.
One could view the following documentary in this connection:
Jesus In Kashmir (India) – Documentary by Indian Govt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=e_Ecm4gMhiM
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Thank you! I’ll definitely try to have a look at that video.
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Ahh. It is nice to be your best blogging buddy. 🙂 What is the name of that flower? In Finland we call them “koiranputki” which roughly translates as “dogs-pipe”. Or perhaps it is “siankärsämö”, that is “pigsnose”.
If the supernatural event took place and Jesus is a son of a god, then who gave him clothes? And why? Could a god loose it’s authority by appearing naked?
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That’s interesting, I wonder what the pig connection is – it’s hogweed in English. I guess if a supernatural event took place, the god God could easily have magicked some clothes down, for decency’s sake. 🙂
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Q : DOES A RESURRECTION PROVE A RELIGION?
A : No;, it does not; in the first place it never happened..
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