I appreciate the kind and respectful words you prefaced your argument with. Forgive me for taking a long time to respond, but I hope we can continue to have this civil discourse
:)
I clearly understand the points you make and I would agree. My argument implies many things. For instance, absolute truth. It's simply a fact that Christianity is an exclusive religion by nature because there are many things that Jesus says that exclude every other religion as being the truth / answer. Thus, in my argument I'm assuming that IF it is the case that the apostles believed in the physical resurrection of Christ, then it must be that Christ actually rose from the dead or he didn't and there's some alternative explanation for their (intense) belief. In the case that Christ did NOT rise from the dead and the apostles experienced a hallucination, lied, or what have you, then it is possible that one (or many) religion(s) are true. However, in the case that Christ did physically resurrect, Christianity is the only religion that can be true. The reason I say this is because of the claims Christ made before his crucifixion that predicted his resurrection, which is a completely preposterous thing for someone to claim. I will revise my argument to be more specific to the case of the apostles:
Argument for the Apostles belief as rational:
1. The apostles of Jesus Christ believed that Jesus Christ physically resurrected from the dead.
2. If the Apostles had no evidence to base their belief off of, then their belief is irrational.
3. There is evidence on which the Apostles based their belief.
4. Therefore, the Apostles’ belief is rational.
The next logical question is to ask about the sufficiency of the evidence. Simply because the Apostles had evidence backing up their belief, doesn’t constitute the evidence as sufficient and therefore doesn’t advance the reasoning for their belief. This is where we can analyze the rest of the hypothesis or theories for why the Apostles believed Jesus Christ to have resurrected form the dead.
Argument for the physical resurrection as the most rational explanation for the Apostle’s belief:
1. Jesus Christ either physically resurrected from the dead or he did not.
2. If Jesus Christ didn’t physically resurrect, then there must be alternate hypotheses / theories that
explain the Apostles belief
3. All other alternate hypotheses / theories fail in comparison to the physical resurrection hypothesis
4. Therefore, the explanation for the Apostle’s rational belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that
Jesus Christ physically resurrected
The reason this excludes ALL other religions, such as Islam, are completely due to the claims that Jesus made in the gospels. In John 14:6, Christ never said “I am
a way,
a truth, and
a life” he said “I am
the way,
the truth, and
the life”. A Christian author, Randy Alcorn, put’s it very well in his article
Christ’s Exclusive Truth-Claims Make Believing “All Religions Are Basically the Same” Impossible:
“Christianity rises or falls on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If this event is historically true, it makes all other religions false, because Jesus Christ claimed to be the one and only way to God the Father. To prove this, He predicted He would come out of the grave alive three days after He was executed. And He did.”
This is the reason for which I am trying to make my argument. If Jesus Christ did not resurrect from the dead, then “[Christians] are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19).
Looking forward to your response!