WHERE WE ARE

In a series of posts about the Hallucination Theory (the view that Jesus’ disciples had experiences of the risen Jesus because they had hallucinations of Jesus), one key point that I argued for is that eyewitness testimony is unreliable.

This point is also of general relevance to the question: Did God raise Jesus from the dead? That is because the evidence for the claim that God raised Jesus from the dead comes mainly from the Gospels, and the historical reliability of the Gospels is usually supported by the claim that the Gospels contain, or are based upon, eyewitness testimony. So, if eyewitness testimony is unreliable, then this common argument for the historical reliability of the Gospels FAILS.

SUMMARIES OF THE RELEVANT POSTS

In some of my posts about the Hallucination Theory, I have provided empirical evidence in support of two important factual claims:

1. Human memory is unreliable.
2. Humans are dishonest.

• In Part 13 of this series, I provided evidence showing that human memory is UNRELIABLE.
• In Part 14 of this series, I provided evidence that very young children (ages 2 to 3 years old), and young children (ages 4 to 10 years old) are DISHONEST and that teenagers are also DISHONEST.
• In Part 15 of this series, I provided evidence that college students are DISHONEST.,
• In Part 16 of this series, I provided evidence that adults in general are DISHONEST.

Part 13 provides evidence that human memory is unreliable, and thus that claim (1) above is true.

Taken together, Parts 14, 15, and 16 provide solid evidence showing that humans are in general DISHONEST, and thus that claim (2) above is true.

These empirical FACTS about human memory and human behavior provide good reasons for skepticism and doubt about the reliability of eyewitness testimony.