CRJ: Class 5 Recap

Thursday April 7, 2016 we met for our final study of “Case for the Resurrection of Jesus”. Overall our study of this book and topic went really well. There were a lot of thoughtful discussions at every meeting, we learned a lot, got better equipped to make a historical case for the resurrection of Jesus, and bolstered our faith in the truth of Christianity! Before a recap of Thursday’s meeting, I want to say thank you to everyone who supported this study. Thank you to everyone who came out to the meetings, thanks to those who provided much prayer and encouragement, and thanks for the opportunity. Thank you!

So Thursday’s meeting consisted of two parts: 1. Final cumulative quiz 2. The challenge of naturalism Final cumulative quiz As a reminder, we’ve been taking quizzes each week on a review of what we covered the prior week. Each person’s quiz scores have been summed and the two people with this highest total scores were promised a little prize! The final cumulative quiz had 36 questions so it was more than half of the overall available points. Everyone did really well (the highest score was 35/36!). In the end, the people with the top two overall scores were: First place: Eric Second place: Donna Congratulations to Eric and Donna! And congrats to everyone for their hard work, study, and participation!

Challenge of Naturalism With a few remaining minutes we then discussed some thoughts regarding the challenge of naturalism. As we showed, the only liability to the best proposed hypothesis (the Resurrection Hypothesis) is the existence of God. If God does not exist then that hypothesis fails. To address the existence of God we replied to common statement made to support a naturalistic worldview (i.e. the natural world is all there is). Below are the topics we discussed followed by a bulletized list of rebuttals. “Only What Science Proves is True” Science is limited Self-refuting, since this position can’t prove itself Self-refuting, since scientific method can’t prove itself Historian can deal w/non-supernatural elements of resurrection data “Science Proves that People Don’t Come Back to Life” Science proves that people don’t rise by natural cases Jesus’ life and claims provide a context where his resurrection was right at home “Science Can Explain Everything. We Don’t Need God” Former “God of the Gaps” explanation no more undermine current arguments for God than discarded scientific theories undermine today’s science Genetic fallacy Not what we don’t know, but what we do know Unjustified leap to proclaim we’ll find a scientific answer for Resurrection “If God Exists, He Cannot Intervene in the Laws of Nature” How does skeptic who claims “God cannot be known” scientifically know what God can and cannot do? What would prohibit God from suspending the laws He created? Jesus’ resurrection would show that God could and did act in our world “Science Must Assume a Naturalistic Explanation for Everything” Should not deny supernatural explanation, when evidence points that way, religio-historical context exists, and no plausible natural explanations. Question is whether there is a God who may have superseded nature Certain miracles have characteristics that show they are actual interferences with the laws of nature Arguing in a circle, since assumes naturalism “Even if a Miracle Occurred, We Could Never Know it Was a Miracle” If God exists, we have reason to consider a divine cause Religio-historical context can identify an act as a miracle Expanding laws of nature to eliminate miraculous nature of data creates more problems “Miracles in Other Religions Count Against Christian Miracle Claims” Genuine miracles could happen among unbelievers and be entirely compatible with Christian belief Poorly evidenced miracles cannot rule out well-evidenced ones Usually always dismissed by plausible opposing theories, whereas these fail for Jesus’ resurrection “Huge Mountain of Probability Against an Event Ever Being an Act of God” If God Exists, there is no reason to reject possibility of miracles Claiming we should deny Jesus’ resurrection, no matter how strong the evidence, a priori rules out possibility that this data may overthrow naturalism We learn about the nature of this world by experiences. Only 1 legitimate miracle claim overthrows naturalism. Answered prayer & NDEs significantly challenge a naturalistic interpretation of this world

A final comment regarding naturalism (i.e atheism) versus theism is that there are also numerous arguments for the existence of God. So our reply to the challenge of naturalism isn’t simply a defense against non-theistic statements, but is also a positive case of argument for God’s existence. Probably the best atheistic argument is the problem of evil but on the other side of the scale is the Contringency Argument, the Cosmological Argument, the Fine-tuning Argument, and the Moral Argument – to name a few!

Conclusion So that sums up our study of “Case for the Resurrection of Jesus”. We will be on a break over the summer and plan to start up a fresh new set of studies next Fall. So be on the lookout for information about upcoming events and happenings! Have a great summer!