Skip to main content

It's Obvious . . . Really?

By Carl S. ~

Kahlil Gibran : “The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.”

Hans Holbein- The Body of the Dead Christ in t...
Hans Holbein- The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Prior to modern scientific forensics, there was no acceptable way to prosecute a murder suspect without the actual physical body of the victim. This is no longer the case. Fiber analysis, DNA, footage of the suspect purchasing the murder weapon, or being absent from a place where the murderer claimed himself to be at the time of the killing, etc., are acceptable evidence in courts of law. Whenever enough evidence is amassed to show that the victim was killed by a particular person, a conviction follows.

You can understand how in the past, being unable to prosecute without a body allowed murderers to get off Scott-free. Or how, even with an actual corpse, the innocent could be convicted solely on the testimonies of what presently can be proven to be hearsay and/or dubious “eyewitness” reports. (Such eyewitnesses having their own motives pro or con the accused.) By today’s standards, what was formerly acceptable as “obvious,” isn't.

If we imagine those former times, when a body WAS necessary to prove that the person was actually dead, we might conjecture this conversation:

Luke: They told me the Great One was murdered and interred near the place where the murder took place. I went looking but I didn't find his body. I thought someone moved it during the night and buried it someplace no one would think of looking for it, to cover up the crime.

Matt: I don't understand. You think someone dug up a body and re-buried it?

Luke: It wasn't buried, but I think it could be now. I've been told it was placed in a tomb. I looked into the tomb everybody mentioned, but there was no stone moved away from in front of it. In fact, there were no marks to show any stone had been moved. But, there were many, many footprints on the floor inside, indicating that much activity took place there recently.

Matt: Look. Save your time. I and many others know that the victim came back to life fro the dead and walked away. We have this information from witnesses. In fact, he went back to assure his family and close friends that he wasn't dead. They didn't recognize him, strangely, but maybe it was because of what he'd been through. I don't know.

Luke: So, let me get this straight. According to you, who got your info as hearsay, and them, he went back and returned to his former life, as if his murder didn't affect him? Like people who fail at suicide and find life to be really worth living? I'll bet that everyone who heard about him wanted to know what it was like to be dead and come back to life. This fantastic event couldn't help but spread like wildfire throughout the region, and thousands of people would come to visit him to see for themselves!

Matt: Well, that didn't happen. From what I heard, and believe, he just left us soon after, and was never seen again.

Luke: I'm confused. You’re saying that because we didn't find this particular body in the first place, it’s because the body got up and walked away? Was there really a murder? This implies there wasn’t, because the body wasn't dead after all. But, it's possible that the person ran away or was kidnapped and was never seen again and isn't dead. The rule of proof states, “No body, no murder. No body, no conviction.” A unique event, though, everyone claims?

Matt: Now that you mention it - no, not so unusual, I guess. There are OTHERS whose bodies were not found. They had already been buried, in fact. They clawed their way out from underground. They were seen by many, walking around. Maybe they went home for awhile to assure their families; maybe not. We don’t know, because they also didn't stay around; they mysteriously disappeared. Come to think of it - the one whose death you were investigating - he floated up through the clouds, and THAT'S why he was never seen again. I can believe that. And so, that's what happened to those others back from the dead; they floated up too. And some day, anyone who dies will float away alive, into the heaven above. It makes sense.

Luke: Except that everything you're saying tells me that there is no evidence: that ALL the evidence VANISHED for major events that happened in your lifetime. Your “proof” went “poof!“ Now I suppose that those un-dead ones you mentioned went somewhere where they lived happily ever after?

Matt: You're not getting it. It's obvious, isn't it? Up, up and away into the sky!

Luke: What's obvious to me is that people DO see things that aren't real. What you've been told by these so-called witnesses usually starts with, “Once upon a time...”

Matt: Well, I believe it. It's obvious to me.

Luke: Obviously. Something else is obvious to me. Unlike you, I can read and write. For three decades now I've written down the testimonies. I've been coming around in my travels and asking the same questions of the same people, and each time they tell different, more and more elaborate stories about what happened, starting from the very beginning when I began to record them. And now, it’s reached the point where the “memories” they have are VERY different from the confused stories they initially came up with. Don't you think it's time you found someone to write them down for you?

Matt: Obviously, it's too late. Who would believe them?

Notice how evidence disappears even in the lifetimes of those “explaining” such evidence - evidence such as a crucified body, the body of Jesus’ mother, Mary, Mohammed's body, the ten commandment tablets, Joseph Smith's golden tablets, etc.?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Are You an Atheist Success Story?

By Avangelism Project ~ F acts don’t spread. Stories do. It’s how (good) marketing works, it’s how elections (unfortunately) are won and lost, and it’s how (all) religion spreads. Proselytization isn’t accomplished with better arguments. It’s accomplished with better stories and it’s time we atheists catch up. It’s not like atheists don’t love a good story. Head over to the atheist reddit and take a look if you don’t believe me. We’re all over stories painting religion in a bad light. Nothing wrong with that, but we ignore the value of a story or a testimonial when we’re dealing with Christians. We can’t be so proud to argue the semantics of whether atheism is a belief or deconversion is actually proselytization. When we become more interested in defining our terms than in affecting people, we’ve relegated ourselves to irrelevance preferring to be smug in our minority, but semantically correct, nonbelief. Results Determine Reality The thing is when we opt to bury our

So Just How Dumb Were Jesus’ Disciples? The Resurrection, Part VII.

By Robert Conner ~ T he first mention of Jesus’ resurrection comes from a letter written by Paul of Tarsus. Paul appears to have had no interest whatsoever in the “historical” Jesus: “even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, we know him so no longer.” ( 2 Corinthians 5:16 ) Paul’s surviving letters never once mention any of Jesus’ many exorcisms and healings, the raising of Lazarus, or Jesus’ virgin birth, and barely allude to Jesus’ teaching. For Paul, Jesus only gets interesting after he’s dead, but even here Paul’s attention to detail is sketchy at best. For instance, Paul says Jesus “was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” ( 1 Corinthians 15:4 ), but there are no scriptures that foretell the Jewish Messiah would at long last appear only to die at the hands of Gentiles, much less that the Messiah would then be raised from the dead after three days. After his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus—an event Paul never mentions in his lette

Christian TV presenter reads out Star Wars plot as story of salvation

An email prankster tricked the host of a Christian TV show into reading out the plots of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Star Wars in the belief they were stories of personal salvation. The unsuspecting host read out most of the opening rap to The Fresh Prince, a 1990s US sitcom starring Will Smith , apparently unaware that it was not a genuine testimony of faith. The prankster had slightly adapted the lyrics but the references to a misspent youth playing basketball in West Philadelphia would have been instantly familiar to most viewers. The lines read out by the DJ included: "One day a couple of guys who were up to no good starting making trouble in my living area. I ended up getting into a fight, which terrified my mother." The presenter on Genesis TV , a British Christian channel, eventually realised that he was being pranked and cut the story short – only to move on to another spoof email based on the plot of the Star Wars films. It began: &quo

ACTS OF GOD

By David Andrew Dugle ~   S ettle down now children, here's the story from the Book of David called The Parable of the Bent Cross. In the land Southeast of Eden –  Eden, Minnesota that is – between two rivers called the Big Miami and the Little Miami, in the name of Saint Gertrude there was once built a church. Here next to it was also built a fine parochial school. The congregation thrived and after a multitude of years, a new, bigger church was erected, well made with clean straight lines and a high steeple topped with a tall, thin cross of gold. The faithful felt proud, but now very low was their money. Their Sunday offerings and school fees did not suffice. Anon, they decided to raise money in an unclean way. One fine summer day the faithful erected tents in the chariot lot between the two buildings. In the tents they set up all manner of games – ring toss, bingo, little mechanical racing horses and roulette wheels – then all who lived in the land between the two rivers we

Morality is not a Good Argument for Christianity

By austinrohm ~ I wrote this article as I was deconverting in my own head: I never talked with anyone about it, but it was a letter I wrote as if I was writing to all the Christians in my life who constantly brought up how morality was the best argument for Christianity. No Christian has read this so far, but it is written from the point of view of a frustrated closeted atheist whose only outlet was organizing his thoughts on the keyboard. A common phrase used with non-Christians is: “Well without God, there isn’t a foundation of morality. If God is not real, then you could go around killing and raping.” There are a few things which must be addressed. 1. Show me objective morality. Define it and show me an example. Different Christians have different moral standards depending on how they interpret the Bible. Often times, they will just find what they believe, then go back into scripture and find a way to validate it. Conversely, many feel a particular action is not

On Living Virtuously

By Webmdave ~  A s a Christian, living virtuously meant living in a manner that pleased God. Pleasing god (or living virtuously) was explained as: Praying for forgiveness for sins  Accepting Christ as Savior  Frequently reading the Bible  Memorizing Bible verses Being baptized (subject to church rules)  Attending church services  Partaking of the Lord’s Supper  Tithing  Resisting temptations to lie, steal, smoke, drink, party, have lustful thoughts, have sex (outside of marriage) masturbate, etc.  Boldly sharing the Gospel of Salvation with unbelievers The list of virtuous values and expectations grew over time. Once the initial foundational values were safely under the belt, “more virtues'' were introduced. Newer introductions included (among others) harsh condemnation of “worldly” music, homosexuality and abortion Eventually the list of values grew ponderous, and these ideals were not just personal for us Christians. These virtues were used to condemn and disrespect fro