The Alleynian 704 2016

Illustration by William Cook (Year 10)

their death, new life: resurrection. Philosophy can be even-handed, even favourable. Eminent philosophers as resolutely atheist as Antony Flew (1923-2010), the Dawkins of his day, moved in later life towards some sort of theism, and claimed that ‘the evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion’. We return, as John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, reminded an audience at Alleyn’s earlier this term, to these points: Jesus died and was buried; the tomb was found empty; On this, the majority of biblical scholars, Christian and non-Christian alike, agree – despite the apparently impossible implications, and the reductive attempts to explain it dozens of eyewitnesses claim to have seen him alive afterwards.

away as a group-hallucination of depressed and feverish imaginations. It may seem impossible for someone to rise from the dead. If, like Dawkins, you chose unscientifically to view the question with the presupposition that it is impossible for God to exist and for miracles to happen, it will continue to seem impossible. But the body of evidence should check scientific dogmas. What happened to Jesus? This is a question that matters deeply to me, and to my Christian brothers and sisters. It is the kernel of our faith. It is probably the most significant question differentiating the otherwise-similar Abrahamic religions. And it is a litmus test of what we moderns mean when we look for ‘evidence’ and argue ‘rationally’.

FOR ME, EASTER IS ABOUT MUCH MORE THAN EATING OUR FILL OF CHOCOLATE; IT CONCERNS THE EVENTS AROUND WHICH I TRY TO BASE ALL MY ACTIONS

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