Chapter 4

I think perhaps the reason why there hasn't been much discussion on these two chapters is because ancient beliefs and practices are not necessarily an area of expertise for most of us. After all, I really don't have the knowledge to say, "Actually, on page xx Wright states that the pagan world surrounding the 1st Christians was largely skeptical of resurrection and only a small number of Hellenistic thinkers even put much thought into life after death, even if it were as shades in Hades, when actually the ancient Etruscans had a very intricate system of the afterlife, including a resurrection idea that included a new body in the form of wolves" or whatever. So mostly they were "shut up and learn" chapters for me. I appreciate those.

A few words about things that struck me... Wright makes a very good argument against Hume's critique of miracles in this chapter. For those of us that need a refresher, Hume basically stated that there was NO way to prove the existence of miracles because there existence goes against our experience to the contrary. And to some extent he has a point. After all, how many people have YOU seen raised from the dead, and aren't you a little skeptical about the "faith healers" on TV? However, the fatal flaw in Hume's reasoning is that even the totality of human existence, even if we could somehow account for that, would not be sufficient to comprehend all of reality. Just because my friend Bo (who lives in south Texas) has never seen it snow doesn't mean that snow is not only possible but that it actually HAS snowed in quite a few places!
Even if it has only happened once, Writght states that many historical things only happen once. And that intrigues me for some reason. While Caesar must have crossed the rubicon many times, he only "crossed the rubicon" once. Man only landed on the moon (if you believe that we did ;) ) for the first time only once, and before that it was unheard of, the stuff of science fiction (except in some primitive cultures that believed that their Shaman went to the moon every night!). But the resurrection happened, and it happened only once (yet); that isn't to say that other people hadn't been raised from the dead, but not to the new body, just to their old body. That flies in the face of modern science which HATES singularities. After all, if there is only one of something, you can't replicate it, test it, analyze it, and retest the hypothesis. It is this disdain of singularities that leads many to conclude that there HAS to be other life-supporting planets out there, there HAS to be another universe (perhaps parallel), etc. Perhaps this is why they are so determined to find parallels to the resurrection story of Jesus (e.g., Isis and Osiris).

Any piece of information you found helpful or interesting?