Sunday, March 31, 2013

Scientists prove Jesus rose from the dead!

Jerusalem, April 1, 2019. After two years of intensive study, a conference consisting of nearly one thousand leading historians, archaeologists, and bio-chemists have concluded that a recent cache of documents and artifacts found buried near the Dome of the Rock prove conclusively that a Jewish prophet named Jesus was crucified by the Romans and rose from the dead.
“The DNA samples simply cannot be refuted,” said Nobel laureate Ronald Q. Symonson. “The evidence is overwhelming. Somehow this first-century Jew who was crucified by the Romans died and came back to life after several days.”
Even Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and confirmed atheist, had to admit the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection was as convincing as the evidence for the assassination of Julius Caesar.
“There is no reasonable doubt,” said Dawkins, “This resurrection of a first-century Jewish sage or prophet or what have you named Jesus is an historical fact.”
Asked whether this meant he was revising his views about God, Dawkins replied:
“Why should I? Just because a man rose from the dead doesn’t mean there is some supernatural being that caused it. We just have to revise our scientific thinking to conclude that somehow it is possible for the cellular structure of apparently dead people to be altered in some way so they can rise from the dead. Look, that’s what happened to that neurologist Eben Alexander who wrote a best-selling book "Proof of Heaven." He was brain-dead for a week, and he revived. That’s a fact. All that nonsense he spouted about having gone to heaven is another matter. That’s just delusional, just like those early Christians who imagined that Jesus flew up to heaven.”
I think you see where I am going with my hypothetical news story.  Resurrection from the dead is not in and of itself good news. If you lack faith in God, if you have never experienced the wonder and mystery of the Divine, then even a seeming miracle like resurrection becomes just another fact.
It’s like the unusual ability of the "resurrection plant' (Selaginella lepidophylla), which my wife Kathleen of blessed memory shared with kids at Sunday school to illustrate how Jesus rose from the dead. This desert plant is able to transform itself from a dry and seemingly dead state to vibrant life in a few minutes when dipped into water. To most people, this seems miraculous. To a biologist, it’s an interesting example of adaptive behavior on the part of a desert plant.
The same would be true if it could be shown that a man called Jesus rose from the dead. To a scientist, this would be simply another interesting scientific fact.
Yet for some, there is still the desire to know "beyond a reasonable doubt" if the Gospel story is true. How can one prove the resurrection “beyond a reasonable doubt” to someone who has not experienced the risen Christ?
One of the most powerful proofs for the resurrection I know is that those who witnessed this event were willing to stake their lives on the reality of their experience.
This is "judicial proof." For example, when a jury of nine men and women hear evidence accusing a man of murder, they must affirm that they are convinced “beyond a shadow of doubt” that the defendant committed the crime and therefore deserves to die. The law, and most people, believe that such a process proves guilt.
If such proof is strong enough to justify the taking of a human life, how much more convincing it would be if nine witnesses said: “I saw what happened and I am convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this man did not commit a crime. He actually did his best to save the life of the murdered man.” If the witnesses were so sure of what they saw that they were willing to die rather than repudiate their testimony, this would certainly constitute "proof beyond a shadow of a doubt."
Suppose that not nine but hundreds, thousands of witnesses, claim that they experienced something they called “the risen Christ.” This of course is not hypothetical. This is what happened in the early days of Christianity, and continues to happen to this day.  Ordinary men and women became willing to sacrifice their lives in the belief that they had this transforming and empowering experience.
Does this prove conclusively that Christ rose from the dead?
I would say yes, but you must decide for yourself, based on your own experience and epistemology.* I ask only that you be willing to suspend your disbelief and be open to the possibility that there is more to life than our finite minds can grasp. If you are open to this possibility, you may experience something life-transforming. I can testify from my own experience that the presence of the risen Christ has changed my life beyond what I could possibly have imagined!

*Since writing this essay, I have run across a little book called The Case for Easter, by a hard-headed journalist named Lee Strobel. Stobel interviews some of the top Biblical scholars in the world, who make the case that what is described in the Gospels is not myth, but a plausible historical reality. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to explore the possibility that Jesus was in fact crucified and rose from the dead. 


10 comments:

  1. You should add a message saying that this post is just satire. Some people are extremely gullible.

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    1. This irony is too much. Indeed, they are extremely gullible...

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  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  3. Jesus' resurrection after his death is the ultimate and defining proof of Jesus' divinity. Just about everyone knows the story, which is summarized in the Apostles' Creed. Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

    There is only one way for Jesus to prove that he rose from the dead. He had to appear to people. Therefore, several different places in the Bible describe Jesus' appearances after his death:

    •Matthew chapter 28
    •Mark chapter 16
    •Luke chapter 24
    •John Chapter 20 and 21

    1 Corinthians 15:3-6 provides a nice summary of those passages, as written by Paul:

    For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. As you can see in this passage, Jesus appeared to hundreds of people a number of different times.

    Being like Paul: When we look at these Bible passages, there is a question that comes to mind -- why did Jesus stop making these appearances? Why isn't Jesus appearing today? It really is odd. Obviously Paul benefitted from a personal meeting with the resurrected Christ. Because of the personal visit, Paul could see for himself the truth of the resurrection, and he could ask Jesus questions. So... Why doesn't Jesus appear to everyone and prove that he is resurrected, just like he appeared to Paul? There is nothing to stop Jesus from materializing in your kitchen tonight to have a personal chat with you. And if you think about it, Jesus really does need to appear to each of us. If Paul needed a personal visit from Jesus to know that Jesus was resurrected, then why wouldn't you? It is an important question for the following reasons:

    •We are told by the Bible that Jesus appeared to hundreds of people.

    •We therefore know that it is OK for Jesus to appear to people -- it does not take away their free will, for example.

    •We know that it would be easy for Jesus to appear to everyone all through history, since Jesus is all-powerful and timeless.

    •We know that, if Jesus did reappear to everyone, it would be incredibly helpful. We could all know, personally, that Jesus is resurrected and that Jesus is God. If Paul (and all the other people in the Bible) needed a personal visit to know that Jesus was resurrected, then why not you and me?

    •Yet, we all know that Jesus has not appeared to anyone in 2,000 years.

    THINK folks! Which is more likely: A dead man walked out of his grave 2,000 years ago, ate a broiled fish lunch with his fishing buddies and then 40 days later levitated into outer space, or, this entire story of a Resurrection is a legend: a legend based on false sightings and/or visions and hallucinations, of well-intentioned but uneducated, illiterate, hope-shattered, superstitious Galilean peasants, desperately trying to keep alive their only source of hope in their miserable, first century existence?

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  4. News Alert: Scientists have proven the Bible False

    And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. –the Bible

    The ancient Hebrews and therefore the early Christians believed that above the earth, God had created a “firmament” or domed ceiling, upon which he hung the sun, moon, stars, and planets. Heaven was directly above this “ceiling”.

    Let’s now look at the story of the Ascension of Jesus:

    When he (Jesus) had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” -The Bible

    If you lived in the first century AD and believed that heaven was just on the other side of the firmament or “ceiling" above the earth, then it would be very consistent with your worldview to believe that if Jesus was going to return to heaven, all he had to do was to ascend past the clouds and he would soon reach the "ceiling" of the firmament, to which are hung the planets, the sun, and moon, and he then would pierce the firmament to enter heaven. And if one can look up and see the planets and stars, then these heavenly objects must be within a day's travel time. You would know this by common sense: if you can see a mountain in the distance, chances are you can reach it in a day's time. So believing that Jesus could ascend to heaven, at a speed slow enough for his disciples to watch him ascend into the clouds, would be completely consistent with this world view.

    The problem for the Bible, and for Christians who believe that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant word of the Creator, is that this worldview has been proven absolutely false by modern science. There is no firmament. Jesus could not have reached the outer reaches of the universe to enter heaven moving at a speed at which humans could watch him ascend. Scientists have demonstrated that for a rocket or space ship to reach the next closest galaxy to our own, the Andromeda Galaxy, it would take two million LIGHT YEARS to get there!

    Unless Jesus entered a tractor beam once he got into the clouds, a tractor beam that "beamed him up" to heaven like Captain Kirk would regularly do on Star Trek...Jesus...at this very moment...is in outer space, putting along, somewhere between earth and the Andromeda Galaxy. Bombshell! Jesus hasn't made it to heaven yet! Jesus is not sitting at the right hand of God the Father as the Bible claims.

    Thus, scientists have proven the Bible false.

    Trust science, my friends, not the scientifically ignorant superstitions and legends of ancient peoples, nor their holy books, full of preposterous supernatural claims.

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    1. Hahaha...thats the most vague false claim I've ever heard.

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    2. Wow, that's your proof. The bible has been the greatest gift ever. Is this from a real scientist? That would be the real question. God is real, he change my life. Want to find proof if God is real? Look deeper.

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  5. And what makes you think that if there is a creator that he is bound by your understanding of science? Do you think that the creator who created the laws of nature and physics that you understand and are bound by would be bound himself the that which he created? Make no sense. Is man so arrogant that he thinks his knowledge and understanding is equal to the creator?

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    1. You are correct, it is certainly possible that a creator exists who operates outside the laws of science. But my argument above is not to disprove the existence of a Creator, which in my opinion is impossible, but to prove the Bible false.

      If one claims the sky is green, but all the world can see that it is blue, you are either delusional or a liar. The Bible is full of such falsifiable claims.

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  6. I am unable to find any reference to Ronald Q. Symonson on Google. Perhaps you could provide a citation to where you found that quote by him? Thanks.

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