Jesus is a historical figure
Agreed that the existence of Jesus appears certain.
the founders of all those other religions are now dead
Also true. I'd just lose the word other.
Jesus' resurrection is an historical fact, granted, it is a disputed fact.
Well, it's not a fact at all. I'd accept claim, belief or myth.
The only 'evidence' lies in the NT; and it simply isn't meaningful to use the Bible as truth of the Bible.
As useful to argue that Baldur was revived after death, or the King of the World Tree, or (I forget the name but it was one of the Egyptian deities). Resurrection is a startlingly common theme in religion, as are gods incarnate.
People don't usually die for what they know to be a lie
It isn't a lie to them. Doesn't make it true.
Plenty of people have died for most major religions... ever heard of the Crusades? The Inquisition? the first 800 years of Islam? Buddhist resistance against the Chinese in Tibet? The role of the Sikhs in India?
Plus plenty have died for (and/or against) some movements claiming not to be religions, and not even offering the promise of eternal bliss - Nazism and Stalinism come to mind. I'd assert that the philosophical underpinnings of Nazism were/are pretty poorly rooted in truth... no matter how many Nazi's died to prove otherwise.
For that matter, I don't really think the recent suicides of Falun Gong members 'prove' the truth of their movement.
Any more than the deaths at the hand of the Spanish Inquisition 'prove' that Protestantism was right, and Catholicism wrong.
Even Galileo couldn't 'prove' that the Earth revolves around the Sun simply by dying. (er, hope that didn't come as a shock... the Earth is not the centre of the Universe, either.)
The explanation that someone was actually the son of God and rose from the dead three days after burial is hardly the simplest explanation. Simplest? They were wrong. But plenty of people have died for wrong beliefs.
And if you're going to be killed as a heretic, traitor or revolutionary anyway - which I presume was the likely fate of those apostles who died violently? - then you might as well go affirming your beliefs...
Finally, do remember that the NT, and most documents around the early apostles, were written by followers of said apostles. I tend not to trust the myth writers to portray the absolute 'truth' of events - the latter being what, say, a camera would record happening and a computer would play back. Or even what I might see and hear. LOL.
Cheers,
ts
PS any variant of my tag does fine for a name... I refer anonymity for now (various reasons). It's just embarrassing when I refer to myself as thames IRL... I have done. MOre than once. |
