Turton, your claim that "the dead do not rise" and that it "is not possible" for them to do so, is not a historical objection, it is a philosophical objection, based on your philosophy of naturalism and a-priori ruling out of the supernatural.

If you would not object to the supernatural as you do, and incorperate it into your explanation for certain aspects of history, then you could join all the Christians in their ignorance-is-bliss insistance that the "evidence" for Jesus' resurrection is sufficient to prove it because it doesn't make sense to rule out the supernatural. And the only catch is that you also have to accept Apollonius' raising of the dead and ascension into Heaven, the miracles of the cult of Asclepius, the healing powers of various statues in ancient Rome, the power of Hatian voodoo preists to raise people from the dead, the realization that the Moai statues of Easter Island really did just magically get up and walk to their present locations, and a wealth of other absurdities too numerous to mention. Is that too much to ask?

Hey Dan, no problem; never was. Note the smily in both posts. Meant what I said, that I didn't want to give you the wrong impression, and nothing more.