Beyond Faith and Rationality by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030435356
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Or, in the form of natural deduction:2.

Proceeding by natural deduction, we can reconstruct the argument maintaining Susanna’s innocence in the context of classical propositional logic as follows:3.

Now let us consider the four Evangelists’ narrations of the resurrection. Close examination of the details reveals that they have several elements in common. For example, in all four accounts, the people who visit the sepulcher do so very early in the morning on the first day of the week; Mary Magdalene is always among the visitors; and the body of Jesus is not in the sepulcher—the tomb is empty.

However, there are also some significant differences among the narratives. For example, in the Gospel according to Matthew, two women visit the sepulcher; according to Mark, three women visit it; according to Luke, many women visit it; according to John, Mary Magdalene is the only one to go there. In three of the four accounts, the sepulcher stone has already been removed by the time the women arrive, while in the fourth, the angel moves it in front of their eyes. One of the Gospels speaks of a single angel; another speaks of a young man; another of two young men; another of two angels. In three of the accounts, either the angels or the young men send the women to tell the disciples that Jesus has risen from the dead. According to Mark, Jesus encounters Mary Magdalene and James’ mother just after they visit the tomb and sends them to tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee. According to John, after a short conversation in which Jesus talks to Mary Magdalene about being the Son of God, he sends her to tell the disciples that he is returning to his Father.

These testimonies evidently contradict each other with respect to certain details. Leaving aside explanations based on the fact that the Gospels were written in different circumstances, and the obvious problems that translations can generate, if we apply the same kind of reasoning we did in the case of Susanna, we must conclude that the sentence “Jesus rose from the dead” is false. This inference is likely to present a serious problem for the Christian believer, since God’s salvific plan in which Jesus is the Savior—one of the pillars of Christian faith—depends on the resurrection of Christ.

Bart Ehrman, an American New Testament scholar, proffers an example of just such a dispiriting realization. In Jesus, Interrupted, Ehrman (2009) explains that one of the reasons why he abandoned his belief in Jesus as the Son of God was the many contradictions he found in the New Testament—including those related to the resurrection itself. This dramatic loss of faith is not what happens to the type of believer I want to consider here. Said believer will not admit that the sentence “Jesus rose from the dead” is false despite the contradictory accounts of the resurrection, in which some assert p, while others assert either not-q or something that implies not-q. Based on this case and that of

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