However others may disagree with me and say that the resurrection was a historical event because the Christian Church was inspired by the resurrection and without it the Christian faith would not exist and be emptied of its meaning. Other people could say that if the tomb was not empty why did no one ever see Jesus body? Also, if the disciples had stolen the body, is it likely that they were prepared to suffer and die for belief in the resurrection? If the story was made up, why did the disciples use women as witnesses as women were unable to give evidence in a Jewish court? People could say that the resurrection did happen as Jesus’ physical state after the resurrection was that he could be touched and he could eat food so he was not a ghost and both individual and group appearances make wishful thinking unlikely. Also when Jesus went to have supper with the two men he appeared to on the road to Emmaus, they witnessed Jesus blessing and breaking the bread the same way he did at the Last Supper before the resurrection.
Nevertheless I think that my views are the most convincing. This is because other people could say that Jesus did die but the disciples stole his body early in the morning, before anyone was awake, and made up the whole story to hope that by doing this it would demonstrate that Jesus had risen and God’s power were greater than evil.
Sigmund Freud had a psychological view on religion and he wrote a book called, “Moses and Monotheism”. He believed that religion is a big lie and that we all believe in it to comfort ourselves. Like Freud, Bertrand Russell called religion “comforting fairy tales” in his book “History of Western Philosophy”. John Hick said that God exists but that the Resurrection is not true; it is a metaphor for when you repent of your sins, you start a new life and you are born again. Also, Muslims believe that Jesus was a good teacher but was not resurrected; he was not the Son of God.
Another philosopher called Wolfhart Pannenberg wrote in his book, “Jesus: God and Man” that if you do not believe in the Resurrection, you do not believe in Christianity.
I believe that the resurrection of Jesus was pure imagination and wishful thinking because Christians wanted their faith to be supported with evidence that Jesus was resurrected otherwise the whole Christian religion would have been based on a lie and Christians can not accept that this may be the case.
