LETTER: Jesus and Easter
In his Sunday column, Victor Joecks opines that there is good evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. His support for this claim, if read carefully, amounts to “because the Bible says so.” Then he states that there is also a “staggering amount of historical evidence” for the existence of Jesus, and cites historical references by non-Christian writers such as Josephus and Tacitus.
Note his implication that the so-called evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is just as good as the much more substantial evidence for the existence of Jesus. But the former claim obviously requires far better evidence than the latter. As the late scientist Carl Sagan pointed out, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
Anyone is free to believe that Jesus was a god who died and was resurrected. But they are not free to claim that we have compelling evidence for that belief. That’s why so many people, including Jewish scholars, don’t believe it.