What are your reasons for believing that Jesus's resurrection never happened?

Question

And I don't want any "Well everybody knows Jesus never rose....." or "Show me a miracle and I'll believe he rose from the dead!" or "Jesus is stupid" Because right now we've got a whole lot of die hard (literally) eye witnesses on one side claiming they saw this guy walking around. And I don't know of any eye witnesses claiming that they toted his dead body through the streets to stop the Christians from spreading lies of his ressurection. I want answers that include historical documentation, it's 2000 years later now and speculation isn't going to get us very far unless it's based on something from that time period.

Answer 1

Because outside of Justin Martyr (excluding his earliest writing), the early Christian Apologists knew nothing of Jesus of Nazareth or his Resurrection. These Christians wrote about a spiritual "Son of God" who they equated with the Logos in a kind of Platonic Hellenized Judaism. Jesus the man was completely unknown to them.

Theophilus, who was supposed to be a Bishop according to Church History, wrote a defense of Christianity without every mentioning Jesus. In fact, he claimed that "Christians" were called "Christians" because they anointed themselves with oil. No mention of "Christ" at all. He also wrote a history of the world from Adam to Marcus Aurelius and never once mentioned Jesus. This is some real food for thought.

Minucius Felix actually defended Christianity against wild accusations that Christians worshiped a criminal who had been crucified. He laughed at the idea of worshiping ANY god who had become man, died, and then rose again, equating the idea with paganism. This man was a Christian apologist, defending Christianity, and he didn't believe in Jesus!!!!

Jesus of Nazareth developed as a separate myth and was not fully integrated into Christianity until much later. History attests to this. Even if modern Christians deny it. Jesus did not rise from the dead, because he never existed.

Answer 2

The same story of the resurrection was told more than 14 times throughout the past 3000 years. Shiva was killed by her own and rose from the dead, as did Buddha, Mohammad and Shaka to site but four examples. The Christ tale is but one of many, and most were based on the concept of One True God in a polytheistic time. Monotheistic (one God) belief is simpler, easier and less complicated in terms of remembering the hierarchy of the Gods. However, it must be understood that all religions are and always have been, based on control. In ancient times when most of the population was illiterate, it was necessary to tell stories, and these stories gained the illusion of truth as they moved through the ages. It didn't matter if they were true or not, most were just stories to keep the locals in line, or scare the people into seeing things your way. Or perhaps just to keep the kids in the yard. All religions must have a miracle, they must have an absolute to give the illusion of finality to the story. There cannot be proof, nor can their be denial, this creates the biggest conflict. No one can be right, and yet no one can be wrong. Because there is no credibility either way. If you choose to believe, then it is up to you to create credibility, and it must be real, tangible and without question, before insisting that others believe as well. It cannot be based on ancient text, nor can it be the word of the local minister who would presume to interpert such text.

Answer 3

What "witnesses"? The only mention of Jesus life and resurection is in the Bible. These accounts were not written by eye witnesses, but several generations after the putative events. There is no independent (i.e. non-biblical) accounts of Jesus life....please don't mention Josephus, Seutonius etc....these writers all were born after Jesus supposed death, and merely mentioned in passing that such a man was said to have lived. There is no reference at all to a death or resurrection of this person outside of the bible.

You are correct...it is 2000 years later. The earliest COPIES of books of the bible date from 200-300 C.E. These have been copied, translated, edited, redacted, re-copied, re-translated and been subject to the religious-politico bias of every editor whose hands they passed through. We wouldn't accept any of this as evidence in a court of law.

Answer 4

What you want and what you get don't coincide. Why don't you explain how a guy that's been dead three days gets up and walks around like nothing ever happened?

Or maybe explain how a guy just floats up into the sky, and then zooms off to heaven. You really believe that stuff. Maybe you should get a degree in church science, and then explain to everybody exactly how all those preposterous things happened.

Tell us also about Adam and Eve and their talking snake.

There is so much we can learn from you.

.

Answer 5

I don't believe it because it's scientifically impossible to be dead for 3 days and then come back from the dead. And, as another user mentioned, the only documentation is the Bible. It's not very convincing to use the Bible as proof of the birth, life, and death of Jesus. Literary works which are unbiased, not used as religious tools, would perhaps work better to believe this story.

Answer 6

Ever been to a wake? You know....when someone dies and people gather at the funeral home to mourn and in some cases the casket is open and people can view the body. Ever wonder why we do that? It's done because way back when, before medical professionals had the kind of technology we have now to determine whether or not someone has actually died, a lot of people were pronounced dead that were actually only unconscious or in coma-like state. So they held "wakes" in people's homes to leave a few days before they buried the person in case they woke up.

There for a while, people kept digging up old graves for various reasons and finding scratch marks on the insides of the coffins, evidence that the person was actually still alive when they were buried. To make sure that no one was buried alive, they started running a string from the inside of the caskt up to ground level that was attached to a little bell. Someone had the job of patrolling the grave yard at night listening for the bells to ring so they could dig the person up and save them....hence the terms "Graveyard shift" and "Saved by the bell".

In Edinburgh, Scotland there was a woman who was convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. They held a public execution, she was hanged in the town square and 3 days later, at her wake, she sat straight up and started screaming, frightened but very much alive. She hadn't actually died. The local magistrate tried to hang her again but her lawyer argued that she had been sentenced to hang and she had served her sentence so it wasn't fair to punish her again when she had already completed her sentence. That's where laws concerning double jeopardy come from.

The point I'm making is that 2,000 years ago, doctors had no real conclusive way of knowing if someone who appeared dead was actually deceased or if they were simply in a coma (unless of course there were obvious signs of death like decapitation). How do we know that Jesus actually physically died on the cross and wasn't, in fact, alive when they entombed him? It's all speculation and no one has yet to offer solid evidence to prove that he was dead.... that's why I question the theory of his resurrection.

Answer 7

The only proof we have on his supposed resurrection is a Christian Document over 2000 years old. Not to mention it's translations over the last two mellenia by people who want power over other people. For instance; the King James Version. King James wrote his own Bible simply for his own political interests.

People want to believe what they want to believe. More power to them, I say. However beliefs are meant to be sacred and kept to ones self. I don't want to get off on a rant here, but a belief is never really meant to be proven. Just believe in it and to yourself it's true enough.

Answer 8

When a person is dead - - - really truthfully dead. He stays that way forever. Superstitious people will say otherwise, but common sense rules over superstition every time with those of any intelligence at all.

Answer 9

No one wrote it down. If that happened don't you think there would have been a buzz about it then, not decades later. Out of the 40 well known writers in that area at the time absolutely zero wrote it down.

Answer 10

Jesus did not rise because Jesus did not exist.