Jonathan MS Pearce’s new book The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story is due out imminently, and it has garnered some great endorsements, as follows:
“Hitchens’s Razor, not Bayes’s Theorem, is the proper tool to use against the “absolute baselessness” of the resurrection belief (per David F. Strauss, as quoted in this book). There’s no objective evidence for it. The testimonial evidence is abysmally poor. We should therefore dismiss this superstitious belief for what it is (per Hitchens). However, if you want to take such a belief seriously, read this thoroughly documented terminal case against the resurrection based on the latest research! This is the only book you’ll need. Pearce is your expert guide on all the essential issues.”
– John W. Loftus, author of Unapologetic: Why Philosophy of Religion Must End, and editor of The Case against Miracles.
“Jonathan MS Pearce puts the resurrection genie back in the bottle (and the body back in the grave). If you are digging for truth, this book is a goldmine!”
– Dan Barker, author of Godless
“This book is the definitive starting point for anyone intent on questioning or defending the resurrection of Jesus. Introductory and aimed at a broad audience, but thoroughly researched, all the key works are here cited and arguments addressed, and with sound reasoning. If this book cannot be answered, belief in the resurrection cannot be defended.”
– Dr. Richard Carrier, author of Jesus from Outer Space: What the Earliest Christians Really Believed about Christ.
“This is a detailed, clear, and very readable survey of the evidence for the Resurrection, and it makes an overwhelming case for the conclusion that the Resurrection did not happen. It’s an extraordinary fact that so many smart, educated people have managed to convince themselves that the historical case for the Resurrection is strong, when it is, patently, ludicrously weak.”
– Dr. Stephen Law, author of Humanism: A Very Short Introduction and Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked into an Intellectual Black Hole
“An informative, enjoyable and even entertaining read. The Resurrection is clearly written and an especially helpful entry into philosophical questions surround the stories of Jesus’ resurrection. Pearce’s critiques of some of the unfortunately popular apologetic arguments are devastating and it is hoped his book will bury them for good.”
– Dr. James G. Crossley, New Testament scholar and author of Jesus and the Chaos of History: Redirecting the Life of the Historical Jesus
“For too long, Christian evangelists have been able to get away with the outrageous claim that the resurrection of Jesus is one of the ‘best-attested facts in history’. In this erudite and highly readable account, Jonathan MS Pearce demonstrates with devastating logic and clarity why this claim should be rejected.”
– David Warden, Chairman of Dorset Humanists and
Honorary Member of Humanists UK
“You’d think that a refutation of mythology wouldn’t be necessary in the 21st century. But it is, and Pearce’s corrective is both complete and approachable. Fascinating!”
– Bob Seidensticker, author at Cross Examined,
Patheos Nonreligious
“No rational and honest scholar of religion or theologian who asserts that the resurrection of Jesus was an actual event would be able to do so without addressing the compelling counterarguments presented by Jonathan Pearce’s The Resurrection. Drawing upon an array of sources and scholarly disciplines, Pearce offers a masterful analysis of the central miracle of Christianity, Jesus’s purported return from death. He examines the events leading to the crucifixion, burial by Joseph of Arimathea, women visitors to the tomb, and the post-mortem appearances to demonstrate the irresolvable inconsistencies and contradictions in the gospels where these occurrences are described. All of this makes it difficult to refute the central argument presented in this book: that the entire narrative upon which the Christian faith is anchored is a fiction contrived by others long after the purported date of the crucifixion and related events.”
– Dr. H. Sidky, Professor of Anthropology, Miami University, and author of Religion, Supernaturalism, the Paranormal and Pseudoscience: An Anthropological Critique
“Covering subjects as diverse as epistemology, archaeology, theology, metaphysics, and of course historical analysis, oceans of ink have been spilled to answer one question: is Jesus dead? Fortunately, in one place these various issues can be considered, sometimes just under the surface, but in the end getting to the bottom of the question. The final conclusions about what we can be confident about, what must remain uncertain, and what is just out-of-this-world, are well-addressed to help both a skeptic and a believer alike see why it just isn’t likely that Jesus returned from the dead. The attempts to exhume him by this time stinketh, and Pearce shows why that is so.”
– Dr. Aaron Adair, author of The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View
