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Dear Friends,

We are continuing our journey through Part 4 of The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, by Gary Habermas and Mike Licona. Part 4 addresses additional objections to the Christian resurrection story.

Last time, I responded to the claim that risen-Jesus sightings have about the same credibility as post-1977 Elvis sightings. Today, with God’s help, I will address a similar claim: That Resurrection sightings are no more believable than alien sightings.

In the below analysis, I might make numerous references to previous posts in this series of mine on the Resurrection. For example, if I refer to “post #10”, you can simply scroll to the top of this post, open the “series outline”, and then click the link for post #10.

More naturalistic arguments against the Resurrection

• “If atheism is true, then Jesus did not rise”
• “The Resurrection doesn’t prove God’s existence”
• “Jesus never died, so there was no resurrection”
• “Reports of Jesus’ appearances differ little from the reports of the angel’s appearance to Joseph Smith”
• “Reports of the Resurrection are no more believable than today’s reports of Elvis and alien sightings”
• “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”

“Reports of the Resurrection are no more believable than today’s reports of alien sightings”

Since the overarching category here is naturalistic arguments against the Resurrection, we’re probably dealing with the person who denies that angels and demons exist, but admits the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Extraterrestrials are almost required by the naturalistic view; after all, there are only two naturalistic possibilities for human origins:

1. We evolved on earth with no help from an outside intelligence, which means the same phenomenon could have happened on other planets
2. We evolved on earth with help from intelligent extraterrestrials

But because our interlocutor is trying to discredit Christianity by comparing alien sightings to risen-Jesus sightings, he or she clearly has deep skepticism towards supposed alien sightings.

So, if we try to unpack the implied argument here…

…it might go something like this:

1. Angels and demons don’t exist
2. So, the only extraterrestrial being that could actually appear would have to be an alien
3. It’s extremely unlikely anyone has actually seen an alien
4. So, claims of alien sightings are not credible
5. The evidence for risen-Jesus sightings is similar to the evidence for alien sightings
6. So, claims of risen-Jesus sightings are not credible

This seems like a very weak argument to me. Let me count the ways.

The details are in the devil

Let’s start with the first premise (“Angels and demons don’t exist”). This is more or less an appeal to atheism, and so it seems appropriate to mention that evidence for the Resurrection was a key factor in Yale graduate Lee Strobel’s conversion from atheism to Christianity. In fact, he’s the inspiration for the name of this series of posts (see post #7). So, I guess my question to my atheist readers is: Why not carefully evaluate the evidence for the resurrection on its own merits, instead of invoking your atheism as part of a summary judgment? Like Strobel, you might end up leaving your atheism after all…

I also want to point out a related problem with the first premise, and it is the atheists’ tendency to say that atheism is simply a lack of belief in God. They haven’t decided God doesn’t exist, they say; they just haven’t been convinced. If that’s true, then they haven’t decided angels don’t exist either, have they? So, why are they using the non-existence of angels and demons as part of an argument against the Resurrection? It seems like a shell game to me.

“But TFOTF, even though we haven’t decided God doesn’t exist, we can still use the non-existence of God as a working hypothesis.” OK, then you cannot use the non-existence of God as a way to refute a theistic argument. At that point, you’re using materialism as an axiom, not a working hypothesis.

Make up your mind, folks!

Click here if you’re interested in other theistic arguments on this blog.

Martyrs for K-PAX?

I think the next weakest premise is #5; the idea that the evidence bases for alien sightings and risen-Jesus sightings are similar.

Part of the evidence for the risen-Jesus sightings is that His earliest followers actually believed they saw Him (this has broad scholarly support, see post #18), and I think the best evidence for their sincerity is their martyrdoms. Remember, the sincerity of a belief doesn’t prove the belief is true; but a claim that is sincerely believed by some people is more credible than a claim that is sincerely believed by nobody! So, do we have any martyrdoms of people who claimed to see aliens? Do we have any Killer 180s (see previous post, #32)? Waiting…

Auroras, weed, and other trippy stuff

Oh…I have more to say against premise #5.

So far, we’ve covered angels/demons, as well as possible insincerity, as explanations for alien sightings. Neither of these explanations militates against Jesus-lives theory; but what about classified military aircraft, drug-induced visions, or other hallucinations?

In these situations, we have people completely misinterpreting what they’re looking at, or even seeing something that’s not there at all. That seems to be the most likely scenario that our naturalist friend might have in mind.

Here are my objections to the use of these three scenarios to cast doubt on the Resurrection:

• Classified aircraft: You’ll need to tell me what the equivalent would be in the resurrection narratives. It’s on you to explain the connection, not me.
• Drug-induced visions: But the disciples didn’t use drugs!
• Other hallucinations, whether caused by strong emotions, brain damage, etc.: See post #23 and search the page for “hallucination”

Jesus wins, alien loses

Alien sightings can be explained by angels, demons, insincerity, classified aircraft / other flying objects, drug use, and hallucinations. None of these explanations casts doubt on eyewitness resurrection accounts.

Only one more naturalistic objection to go. God bless, and stay tuned!