Underseer

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspo...urrection.html

Obviously, this is highly speculative as we have no evidence other than the text of the Bible itself.

Sarai

My understanding was that resurrection entered the Jewish ideology around the time of the Maccabees, well before NT times. The way I was taught it way back in Hebrew school was that resurrection was introduced as a recruitment tool for soldiers.

Regards,
Sarai

Chili

Grief? It was a comedy for Christ's sake, so what the hell was he thinking about when he wrote that.

Or is he a bleeder himself maybe now licking his wounds?

Chili

See? From the link:

dendrast

After my wife's father died, she had a dream that he came into the bedroom. She dreamt that she said, 'go away, you are scaring me', and he did. She was raised Catholic, became atheist with no pressure from me, and knows that it was a dream. Not a delusion. Not a vision. Not a miracle.

(Actually, knowing him for the abusive alcoholic he was, I don't blame her for not welcoming the apparition. It would've scared me too, if I'd been his kid.)

And ghosts on Christmas Eve!? Really? 'Begone, apparition, you have more of gravy than the grave!' Scrooge, A Christmas Carol He even had 'stomach colic' for crying out loud. Probably passed the gas bubble and felt at peace.

Toto

This is a BCH topic. This is Luedemann's explanation for the rise of Christianity without a Resurrection to explain things.

Sabine Grant

Topic better suited for BCH than ABR.

Toto

This is what Robert Price describes as Protestant Rationalism. Assume that all the events described in the gospels are accurate, but that there is a naturalistic explanation, so the Resurrection is explained as a hallucination, rather than a fictional tale.

Iskander

Roman pagans before the birth of Jesus also appear to believe in the resurrection of the dead,


Virgil, Aeneid Book 6,


Talibus orabat dictis, arasque tenebat,
cum sic orsa loqui vates: `Sate sanguine divom,
Tros Anchisiade, facilis descensus Averno;
noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,
hoc opus, hic labor est. Pauci, quos aequus amavit
Iuppiter, aut ardens evexit ad aethera virtus,
dis geniti potuere

Translation

Then thus replied the prophetess divine:
"O goddess-born of great Anchises' line,
The gates of hell are open night and day;
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
In this the task and mighty labor lies.
To few great Jupiter imparts this grace,
And those of shining worth and heav'nly race

In Virgil’s Aeneid resurrection is a privilege bestowed by the god (Jupiter) on deserving humans or perhaps only granted to the humans he had chosen: the elect.

Vorkosigan

It was all the rage. Plutarch records that Vespasian had been entertained by a dog that "died" and "resurrected", as I recall. When something is made fun of, it is a staple of popular consciousness.