With regularity, I find that sceptics and others who are eager to debunk Christianity will find something that from a human point of view is highly improbable and use it to support their ongoing unbelief and in some cases outright hostility against Jesus Christ and His teachings.
The objection that has been getting a lot of mileage ever since Tom Harpur’s book, The Pagan Christ hit the bookstores has to do with the alleged similarities between a lot of the older mythical gods of the Greeks and Jesus Christ. “Because some of the events are similar, and because there isn’t a whole lot of evidence of Christ's existence,” they say, “the existence of Christ must be placed in the same category of myth.”
Aside from the upside down logic of this thinking, it needs to be pointed out that improbability does not make a very good case. Let me show you an example out of our more recent history.
Let us say that in 1000 years from today, someone finds records of a George Bush, President of the USA in the late 20th century. Someone else on the other side of the country finds records indicating that there was a George Bush, President of the USA in the early part of the 21st century. It seems someone is getting their wires crossed.
Further to that, one discovers that George Bush fought a war with Iraq, but stopped at the Kuwait border, and that Saddam Hussein survived the war and continue to persecute his own people. The other archaeologist disputes those findings, saying that George Bush did indeed invade Iraq, and that Saddam’s atrocities were stopped, and that he was unceremoniously hung on the gallows and died like the dog he was.
Whom to believe?
The fact is that both claims were correct. Father and son were both presidents. And of course, we know the rest of the story because we were there. We were all eyewitnesses, through our TV’s, of the events that transpired.
But had we seen this kind of story out of Biblical history, the critics would all shake their heads. “Copycat history.. highly improbable thast there were 2 George Bushes, and even more unbelievable that they both wagewd wars on the same person and country, with different outcomes... can’t happen!” And books would be written, seminars would be held, debates would ensue.
Improbability does not a proof make. We know that now.
