Article April 13, 1987 Issue

The scientific significance of the resurrection

Is the resurrection just a historical event that's over and done with? or does it have meaning in our lives today?

Steven L. Fair

Did you ever wonder what the most important event in human history was? If you were to ask twenty historians, you'd probably get twenty different answers. Some might point to breakthroughs such as agriculture, metallurgy, the advent of written language, or the invention of various tools. Others might point to political, economic, or human rights advances. Still others might emphasize the rise and fall of various empires or the importance of certain military battles.

But this article would like to show that all of these events, as significant as some of them are to the progress of mankind, would ultimately be meaningless if—if—something utterly astounding had not taken place in a remote province of the ancient Roman Empire. This event was the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Now, even secular historians might agree that Christ Jesus, as the founder of Christianity, has had enormous impact on history—perhaps the greatest impact of any person who has lived. But in considering Jesus' life and the factuality of his resurrection, we are considering something that transcends all mundane historical considerations. What we are considering, in the final analysis, is the one great question that faces every human being: Does my individual existence come to an end with death, or does conscious being go on?

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