A very nice person sent me a list of fifty-five questions he wanted me to answer. I may not get to all of them, but those who do not try have already failed. Here is a second try!
M asks:
- Assuming for the sake of argument that Jesus had a miraculous birth, resurrected from the dead, and ascended into heaven (i.e., flew into outerspace. . .) how does that prove that Jesus is God incarnate?
The short answer is: it does not.
One could do all those things and not be God incarnate.
In fact, more than one Biblical character had a miraculous birth (example: Samuel), came back from the dead (example: Lazarus), and ascended into Heaven (example: Elijah) and nobody thinks Samuel, Lazarus, or Elijah are part of the Trinity. Doing all three is remarkable, but remarkable beings would not be God.
One confusion folk atheism has (though not you!) is that gods are God. I am often told: “I don’t believe in Zeus or any of the other gods you think false. Just get rid of the last one and join me. . . ” This is simply a confusion caused by the unfortunate fact that English uses “god” for super-beings and God for the greatest-possible-being. Zeus has more in common with both of us than with God! All of the historical facts you cite could be true and Jesus just be a “super being.”
That would be the sensible conclusion in the ancient and even Jewish world. It also would not have gotten Jesus killed by the religious leaders of His time.
The case of Jesus is more complicated than any of the rest. Jesus is good and Jesus claimed to be equal to God and called Himself “I AM”. This is something Samuel, Lazarus, and Elijah did not do. If Jesus was taken into Heaven, as you concede for the purpose of the question, then we know God did not agree with the religious leaders of His time. Jesus claimed to be more than Abraham. He had an Elijah (John the Baptist) and so was greater than Elijah.
So merely living a good and miraculous life would not be sufficient to believe Jesus divine, though it does help! We must add Jesus’ own testimony combined with God’s approval of that testimony. Jesus lived the sort of life that would make Him a god and opens the possibility that Jesus is God. We need more than miracles to get to full divinity!
By the way, when you say Jesus “flew into outer space” I assume you are being puckish! All good fun, but in case someone would take you seriously, Jesus’ ascension cannot be a matter of just “going up.” Dante knew the universe was too vast for mere speed to get to Paradise! Jesus moved from one dimension to another. The cosmos is a complicated place! One reason I am not an atheist is that numbers, ideas, and other non-physical beings are hard to account for on the overly simplistic materialism that undergirds most (thought not quite all) atheism.
Let’s keep exploring the many dimensions of truth, goodness, and beauty together M!
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*M has asked that I not reveal his or her name. I will write as if “he” is a male, but this is for convenience. Here are questions 37 , 54 , and 55.
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