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Resurrection Claims in Non-Christian Religions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
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While Christian beliefs are presumably much more widely known, especially in the Western world, some adherents to the major non-Christian religions also make claims that some of their historical rabbis, prophets, gurus or ‘messiahs’ rose from the dead. Judging from the relevant religious literature, it appears that such non-Christian claims are often ignored, perhaps because there is little awareness of them. Even if the existence of such beliefs is recognized, almost never is there any in-depth answer to the question of whether such claims could possibly be grounded in supernatural events of history.
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References
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page 176 note 2 The simply incredible nature of the claim to have seen Krishna above a nearby building, I dare say, would bother many researchers. But beyond even that (because again, we ought not to reject claims in a priori manner), how could Yogananda recognize and identify Krishna, for instance, even if he had seen him? And if there is a problem here, what about in the next instance (with Yukteswar) ? In other words, if Yogananda presumably cannot positively identify Krishna for sure (at least in any evidential sense), what can be said about the next appearance claim, which was also quite subjective? In fact, this writer, at least, would say that Yogananda has hereby seriously compromised his testimony as a reporter.
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page 176 note 4 Generally speaking, I think it is often true that persons require more evidence to believe an extraordinary event than to accept a regular occurrence. While I disagree with David Hume's position that virtually no evidence can ever establish a miracle, I think it is correct that we ought to have strong evidence for one. (For Hume's position at this point see ‘Of Miracles’, section 10, part I of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.)
page 176 note 5 Strangely enough, even though Price is quite critical of Christian claims, he concludes his discussion of Jesus' resurrection with the intriguing comment: ‘ … one need not assume that there was no resurrection. Indeed it was precisely because of experiences of some kind … that anyone cared to glorify Jesus’ (p. 20).