A Three-Day Death Sentence: The Absurdity of the Jesus Story in Modern Times

I magine, for a moment, that someone told you today that a man was executed, stayed dead for three days, then got up, dusted himself off, and walked out of his grave like a guy waking up from a nap. You’d assume they were joking—or that they had been taken in by some fringe internet conspiracy. Yet, this is the foundational claim of Christianity, a belief held by billions, despite being the sort of thing that, if it happened now, would be filed under "bizarre hoax" on Snopes within hours. To make it even stranger, the story doesn’t end there. After a few weeks of post-death appearances—appearing to his disciples, having breakfast, and showing off his spear wound like a party trick—Jesus decides to leave Earth by ascending into heaven. This was before we knew about outer space, of course, because "going up" in those days just meant "going where God lives." Today, we know better. If a man literally ascended into the sky, he wouldn’t be transported to some...