Starmaker: For instance, the word "supernatural" describes things that are not found in nature by any reputable sources and appear to be entirely imaginary. If, for example, ESP is ever confirmed to be real, is would stop being "supernatural" and become
natural; and it wouldn't even be
extrasensory - it would be yet another sense to add to the 20+ we already know we possess. But it might keep its legacy name anyway, like it does in roleplaying games.
I agree that "supernatural" an artificial designation.
Starmaker: Now, I think arguing with people who believe in magic is pointless as it is, but if you do anyway, it would do well to remember you shouldn't appeal to definitions, because the definitions for things that don't exist aren't yet implemented.
There are hundreds of millions of miracle claims, some of which are medically documented, and while I'm sure many of them are false, I can't maintain my intellectual integrity by claiming they are all false without first looking at the evidence. You're free to blindly doubt them, but it's pointless to argue with people who refuse to look at the evidence. Even if all of the claims were false, the most you could claim was miracles were beyond your experience, and therefore highly unlikely. To assume that resurrections are impossible is begging the question.
So "resurrections don't exist by definition" isn't really a rebuttal of Soyeong's belief in events featuring magical space zombies. His factual belief is as follows: "2000 years ago, there was a Middle Eastern dude who was subjected to torture, after which he ceased moving and talking and his body looked similar to those of other humans when they permanently cease moving and talking to later decompose. Three days later, the dude started moving and talking again, and later still, rose into the air and flew away. He still lives and has magical abilities." Soyeong chooses to call the described events "death" and "resurrection" to highlight how unusual the events are. Making him implement the definition so that said dude ends up "mistaken for dead" doesn't actually challenge the substance of his claim.
It would be great if you wouldn't make up what you think I believe.
The Romans were experienced soldiers who knew how to kill condemned criminals. There are no recorded instances where someone survived a crucifixion due to incompetence of a Roman executioner. The torture that proceeded a crucifixion was often very brutal. Through the end of the 1st century AD, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Livy, Philo, and Josephus reported people being tortured with whips, fire, and other means. Josephus reported that a man was whipped to the bone and that another group was whipped until their intestines were exposed.
Crucified people were hung in such a way where they had pressure on their chest that forced them to push their body up in order to exhale, which meant the most common cause of death was asphyxiation. This made it easy to tell when someone has died and after they are taken down from the cross they were stabbed in the heart with a spear to confirm it.
Even if he survived, a half-dead Jesus would not have been able to roll away the heavy stone that in front of his tomb, avoid the guards (who would be executed for failing their duty), and make it to where the disciples were hiding with wounded feet. Furthermore, he would not have convinced his disciples that he rose victoriously from the dead to life an immortality if his wounds were still fresh and he would not have transformed their sorrow into enthusiasm. None of this accounts for Paul's dramatic conversion either.
There are multiply attested Christian and non-Christian accounts that Jesus died by crucifixion (the four Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, 1 Peter, Revelation, Ignatius’ letters, the Epistle of Barnabas, many Gnostic sources, Josephus, Tacitus, Lucian, Mara bar Serapion, and the Talmud) and there is no evidence in any contemporary accounts that Jesus survived it. Some of the accounts are also very early, such as 1 Corinthians 15 creed that dates to within eight years of his crucifixion.
“Jesus’ death as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable.” - Lüdemann
“That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be.” - Crossan
There are good reasons why the vast majority of modern scholars, including skeptical ones, have rejected the swoon hypothesis.
