Introduction: AMan, aFriendship and an Argument . . . .
J.P. M0REiAND, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, and coauthor of In Search of a Confident Faith
"As a reader of Did the Resurrection Happen? A Conversation with Gary Habermas and Antony Flew, I experienced the rare pleasure of eavesdropping on a rigorous discussion between close friends. While they persist in their strong disagreement over a variety of substantive issues, Habermas and Flew never fail to argue with charity and humor. This posture gives the book a warm and congenial flavor. It is a great read for anyone interested in philosophy, in the resurrection or in how best to engage in significant debate."
GREGORY E. GANSSLE, Rivendell Institute, department of philosophy, Yale University
"This book is a dialogue between the leading expert on Jesus' resurrection and the most influential atheist philosopher of the late twentieth century. No fluff. No insults. This is an intelligent and friendly exchange of ideas among two giants in their field who have arrived at radically different views of what happened to Jesus 2,000 years ago."
MICHAEL R. LicoNA, director of apologetics, North American Mission Board
"This book offers not only a lively exchange on Jesus' resurrection between Habermas and Flew. The section on Flew's pilgrimage to belief in God and the excellent analysis by Baggett help both round out the dialogue as well as provide much food for philosophical and theological thought. A superb resource on the resurrection!"
PAUL COPAN, professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics, Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, Florida
"A lively conversation about the most important question in the history, and for the future, of the world. Habermas's compelling answers to Flew's questions awaken hope within me. The resurrection and vindication of Christ frees us from the fear of death, and for true life, now and forever. I wish this book for all of us, especially skeptics who are also thinkers."
KELLY MONROE KULLBERG, founder and director of project development, The Veritas Forum, author of Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas, and editor of Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Thinking Christians
"David Baggett has skillfully edited an engaging and warm-hearted debate between Gary Habermas and Antony Flew, two of the world's foremost philosophers and thinkers, the former a Christian and apologist and the latter a well-known atheist who recently has embraced deism. Their debate centers on the very essence of Christian faith-the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a great book. I recommend it enthusiastically."
CRAIG A. EVANS, Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Acadia Divinity College
"The conversation between Habermas and Flew has been a fascinating one at the highest levels of philosophical reflection. This book beautifully chronicles that dialogue in a way that is clear for those not versed in philosophy. The book will cause you to sit and ponder. That is a compliment enough, but more than that you will learn how two competing worldviews should interact with each other-and that is a real gift."
DARRELL BOCK, Dallas Theological Seminary
EDITED BY DAVIDBAGGETT
To Jerry Walls,
teacher, colleague, mentor, friend
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Daniel Cho, Executive Director, The Veritas Forum
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Introduction: A Man, a Friendship and an Argument . . . . . . . . 13
David Baggett
PART ONE: 2003 RESURRECTION DEBATE BETWEEN ANTONY FLEW AND GARY HABERMAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Assessing the Claims of the Resurrection . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Considering the Resurrection Appearances . . . . . . . . . . . 38
What Counts as Evidence? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Is Belief justifiable? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Questions from the Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
1. Did the followers of Jesus move the body? And does Jesus' divinity depend on the resurrection? . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
2. Are Paul's sources verifiable? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3. What constitutes evidence in ancient documents? . . . . . . . . 56
4. How does evidence for Jesus compare to evidence for Buddha or the Dalai Lama? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
5. What was your motivation for arguing against Christianity?.
6. When we die, we simply cease to exist, right? Why not consider Pascal's wager? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, what happened to the body? . . 62
8. If Jesus was the Son of God, should his resurrection be considered a miracle? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
10. What sort of resurrection were the followers of Jesus expecting?.
11. How much value does ancient evidence carry today? . . . . . . 66
PART II: ANTONY FLEW'S JOURNEY TO THEISM
My Pilgrimage from Atheism to Theism: A Discussion Between Antony Flew and Gary Habermas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Gary R. Habermas
PART III: RESURRECTION MATTERS: ASSESSING THE HABERMAS/FLEW DISCUSSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
David Baggett
The Historical Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
The Resurrection inference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Some Skeptical Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Ten Philosophical Concerns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Where Flew is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Why Flew Should Become a Christian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Appendix: Bayes's Theorem and the Resurrection . . . . . . . . . . 167
A Select Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
THE VERITAS FORUM EXISTS TO CREATE discussions exploring life's hardest questions and the relevance of Jesus Christ to all of life. The conversation which forms the basis of this book is an inspiring example of just that-not a debate or a dialogue where one side seeks to triumph over another, but instead a joint exploration of one of the ultimate questions of humanity-the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When I first saw the video of this Veritas Forum event held at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2003, it felt as if I were eavesdropping on a private chat between old friends. In Antony Flew and Gary Habermas we see two men driven not by ideologies or agendas but by a shared passion for truth and a common respect for the response the truth demands. It was our honor to host such a winsome, open, articulate encounter embodying what a search for truth looks like.
Moreover, although this dialogue about ultimate truth was in the university setting, their search for meaning is one that draws us together in every stage of life. Many students and other seekers of truth will find in Dr. Flew a brilliant and humble once-atheist scholar whose journey and outlook resonates with their own. His position is in stark contrast to the often hostile, alienating polemics of recent years which unfortunately all but monopolize the discussion. And those of us who are followers of Jesus should also remember that this one night's conversation emerged from an eighteen-year friendship.
That said, many envisioned and labored to create the occasion for this event, and we owe them our gratitude. In particular, Jamey Pappas, longtime advisor for The Veritas Forum at Cal Poly and director of SLOCrusade, led a team of students and staff in planning this and many other Veritas events. Mike Swanson was the student planning team director that year. And Ted and Ashley Callahan led the Veritas national movement that supported Jamey and other teams around the country from 2003-2005. And of course, special thanks to Dr. Flew and Dr. Habermas for allowing us to invite many more participants into their conversation in print.
May the pages that follow lead you on your own exploration of true life in the person and story of Jesus Christ.
Daniel Cho
Executive Director
The Veritas Forum
IT'S OUR PLEASURE TO THANK the various people who helped us with this book. We are deeply appreciative of Daniel Cho and The Veritas Forum for conferring permission to publish this dialogue, and not just permission, but also their enthusiastic support. Thanks to Dan as well for writing the preface. The project owes much to Craig Hazen and Joe Gorra and Philosophia Christi for giving their permission to reprint two of Gary's articles and providing us electronic copies of them to facilitate publication. The work these philosophers are doing at Philosophia Christi is top-notch and of great benefit to the church today. Many thanks to Al Hsu and the good folks at InterVarsity Press for believing in this project and seeing it through to completion. And special thanks to various colleagues and friends for their support and help, including their critiques and challenges: John Azar, Greg Bassham, Mark Foreman, Don Fowler, Bill Irwin, Tim McGrew, Tom Morris, Thom Provenzola, Bruce Russell and especially Jerry Walls. Many thanks to a terrific research assistant, Steve Hudson, who transcribed most of the debate, and to Wesley Grubb for doing the remaining portion.