Easter, Impossibility, and Intellectual Honesty

Since Easter is around the corner, where millions of of people celebrate a man coming back to life after being executed for treason 2000 years ago, according to the texts of a heretical Jewish offshoot religion of that era, I want to think a little about impossibility and implausibility.

Since the dawn of scientific reporting, there has not been one documented case of a dying thing coming back to life after three days of death -- not plants, not animals, not humans. Everything we know about life, natural laws, and science says it's impossible. It just does not happen. So when texts from a couple millennia ago say that it did happen, we all have cause to be incredibly skeptical -- just like we're skeptical when we're told that the Greek demigod Orpheus traveled to the afterworld Hades to rescue his love Euridyce (another ancient religious story about a god-being going into the afterlife as a savior, and returning). We don't even entertain the possibility of this story's credence, because as ancient religions go, they like to present fantastical stories that modern scientists will tell you are literally impossible.

For us to believe that something that goes against everything we know -- something that all our experience tells us is impossible -- we have to know for absolute, 100% certainty that nothing else, however improbable, can be the case -- otherwise, we're being intellectually dishonest. Especially if this fact is important enough to arrange your entire life around. Because if something improbable is still possible, then it should be believed over that which is, to all our understanding, impossible.

Dr. Michael Licona gives us 3 Bedrock Facts, none of which I (or most people) dispute.

1. Jesus died by crucifixion.
2. Very shortly after Jesus' death, the disciples claimed that Jesus had been resurrected and had appeared to them.
3. Within a few years after Jesus' death, Paul claimed that Jesus resurrected and appeared to him.

And since, as far as we can tell, none of the apostles or Paul ever recanted their testimony, it seems that they must have believed in their message very strongly. I'll accept this as a Fourth Fact in good faith, though it should be noted that this is not one of Licona's Bedrock Facts.

So we must ask ourselves: Given these 3 Facts, are there any possible scenarios where Jesus of Nazareth did NOT raise from the dead in the face of all things scientific?

YES. Of course there are. There are dozens of scenarios (some improbable, but all possible) that could weave those facts together. And that alone should mean that ordering your life around an impossible interpretation of the data isn't the most intellectually honest thing to do.

I'll provide one possibility as an example. Remember, this doesn't have to accurate. It doesn't have to be true or historically proven. All this example has to do is be possible, given the 3 Bedrock Facts, and it will be more probable than the scientifically impossible scenario of the dead coming back to life. Ready? Here we go.

The year is around 30 AD. Not quite a hundred years before, Rome subjugated the nation of Israel. Ever since then, the people have bristled under a foreign rule. Now, Judaism teaches that its only ruler is Jehovah, God himself, revealing his will and contrition through a Levite Priesthood, so the Jewish people are absolutely discontent with a foreign, pagan king. Because of this discontentment, a few self-proclaimed Messiahs have been popping up every decade to throw off Roman rule and usher the Kingdom of Heaven, God's rule, back to the Israelites: Simon of Paraea, Athronges, Menahem, and a dozen others. Every single one of those Messiahs has been ruthlessly hunted down and executed, and Israel is no closer to attaining the theocracy it wants. In fact, the people becoming more and more unruly and discontent, and things are coming to a precipitously dangerous situation in which Rome, to put it bluntly, is getting pissed. And as everyone in the ancient world knows, you don't mess with the Roman Army.

Enter Jesus. Despite coming from a tiny farm town (Nazareth), he has uncommon wisdom and foresight, and he sees that unless something major changes, the Romans are going to descend on Israel and destroy it, because they're getting mighty tired of Israel's many rebellions. So he formulates a plan that involves changing a fundamental tenet of Judaism: its determined adherence to theocracy, which was inseparably enmeshed with the temple, the Levite priesthood, and the High Priest as access to God's will and God's forgiveness. Because if people can worship God without needing to live in a country politically ruled by God's chosen High Priest, then maybe Jews will calm down about Rome's rule, and Rome won't massacre the lot of them.

So Jesus puts this plan into action. He gathers twelve men and explains an idealistic and ambitious plan to lead people to a better (and politically safer) way of accessing God: through an Ultimate Sacrifice that takes the power out of the entire Jewish governmental system (the Temple, the priests, and the High Priest, all of whom are pretty corrupted by Roman influence anyhow). If Jews believed they could still follow Moses' law and still be ruled by a Roman Emperor, Jesus posited, then maybe their country, their lives, and their families would be safe. Maybe then Israel could be content to live as a subjugated country.

It was a huge task with a small chance of success, but the only alternative seemed to be the destruction of everything they loved. The twelve men, desperate to save their country, feel they only have one choice: Follow Jesus, use his message to alter the public's perception of the Priests and the Temple, and stave off Rome's apocalyptic ire... or die trying. It's a radical long-con that could save all of Israel if it worked. 

The 12 Apostles sign on with grim determination.

So Jesus preaches turning the other cheek instead of violent revolution. He teaches loving your enemies. He teaches that the meek, not the zealous, will inherit the earth. And he teaches repentance, baptism, and a new kind of Kingdom of Heaven -- one that exists not as an independent Jewish nation, but as a peaceful, loving place. And he takes on the mantle of the Messiah, Son of God, King of the Jews, and is martyred for it without a second thought just like every other Messiah claimant (the Roman regents were nothing if not thorough and brutal).

The Apostles dutifully proclaim Jesus the Nazarean as God Incarnate, a new kind of Messiah Sacrifice who rose from the dead, looks down from the right hand of God, and wants his people to love their neighbor and be meek (i.e. chill out and stop getting themselves killed in rebellions and revolutions). The Apostles are ridiculed and persecuted by the established Priesthood, whose power they're trying to take away, but they believe that their message can save a nation hurtling toward disaster, so they don't ever change course. 

Saul of Tarsus, who viewed Jesus disdainfully as just another Messiah claimant among many, came to realize what this new message could do for his country -- so he meets with the Apostles, joins their mission to bring a measure of humility an overly zealous nation, and does everything in his power to convince Israel of Jesus' divinity.

The stubborn Israelites are slow to accept the message, and it just doesn't spread through Israel quickly enough. In 66 AD, the Jews revolt again and throw back the Romans. For 4 years, they reestablish their theocracy through the Priests. And in 70AD, the frothing-furious Romans absolutely demolish Jerusalem. Brick for brick, they dismantle the city, massacring every living inhabitant. 

Jesus's ambitious plan has failed. Israel is decimated, just as Jesus foresaw would happen and tried to prevent. But maybe, Paul entreats the other Apostles, maybe if they're more organized, and maybe if the people are now a little more timid and willing to accept a meeker way of life, then maybe they can prevent this from happening again. So they write the gospels and continue evangelizing people to a religion that glorifies meekness. 

And over time, Christianity spreads. Legends grow, books are written, facts are forgotten. But the Jews no longer make sacrifices at the Temple, and no longer pine for a Priest-led theocracy.

Now -- is this what actually happened? Probably not. But it is a possibility that fits the 3 Bedrock Facts. And that makes it more believable than a scientifically impossible story about a resurrected God-incarnate carpenter. As long as we're constructing stories from those facts, the one I just wrote should be the one that you accept as more probable. Because according to everything that we've ever experienced, the Biblical story isn't possible. 

In a world where intellectual honesty is the greatest virtue, improbable should always, always be believed over impossible.