Hey —
Most religions can survive if their founder’s tomb stayed full.
Christianity can’t.
Paul puts it bluntly: if Christ has not been raised, Christian faith is futile. So “Is Christianity true?” is not mainly a vibe check about whether church feels meaningful. It largely comes down to a historical question: Did Jesus rise from the dead?
The short answer
Historians across a wide spectrum — including many who are not Christians — widely accept a cluster of facts around the first Easter:
Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
His tomb was found empty by women among his followers.
Many individuals and groups became convinced they had encountered the risen Jesus.
Hard cases changed: James (Jesus’ skeptical brother) and Paul (a hostile opponent) became believers.
The early disciples were willing to suffer for the claim.
Stolen-body theories, pure legend, and “they hallucinated” each struggle to cover all of that at once. The resurrection explains the set. It only gets ruled out in advance if miracles are ruled out in advance.
Christianity also paints a coherent picture of the world: human dignity and human brokenness, justice and grace. But the hinge remains historical. The Gospels present themselves as testimony to be weighed, not slogans to be swallowed.
Strongest objection (and a brief reply)
“Miracles are impossible. Dead people stay dead.”
Only if God doesn’t exist. If God does exist, a resurrection is not a magic trick thrown into a closed system — it’s a live possibility to be judged on the evidence, the way you’d judge any surprising historical claim. The prior question (“Is there a God?”) and the historical question (“What best explains these facts?”) belong together.
Other common pushbacks — late Gospels, grief hallucinations, pagan copycat myths — each have serious replies. The full page walks through them without pretending the debate is easy.
Go deeper
Read the full page:
If a friend has asked you “how do you know?” — that page is built for sharing: short answer up top, objections mapped, books ranked with a plain “why read this.”
One ask
Reply to this email with the big question you’re actually stuck on right now. Suffering, meaning, science and faith, life after death — whatever it is. Future issues will follow the questions people are really asking.
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— Big Question Index