Incredible Events of the Past

In an old book, I ran across an account of the Chase Vault in the cemetery of Christ Church, on the island of Barbados. It seems that, beginning in 1807, recently deceased people began to be interred in that vault. At first nothing unusual happened. But then a young woman committed suicide, and her remains were interred in the vault. The next time the vault was opened, all the coffins had been thrown around as if by an incredible force, even though the island had experienced no earthquakes and there was no sign of damage on the inner walls, the outer walls, or the surrounding part of the cemetery. The cemetery workers put the coffins back in their places, and interred the next coffin. The next time the vault was opened, the coffins were again found strewn about. This time, after the coffins were rearranged and the new coffin interred, the workers placed sand and ashes carefully and smoothly on the floor. The next time the vault was opened, and the coffins were again strewn about, there was no disturbance in the ashes. Superstitious people believed that ghosts, who leave no footprints, had thrown the coffins around, perhaps the uneasy ghost of the woman who took her own life. The church ordered the coffins to be buried elsewhere and the crypt left open.

The evidence for the ghost tantrum seemed good. The ashes on the floor would have revealed the activity of marauding humans or animals. This was, in fact, the same trick that Daniel used in the apocryphal book Bel and the Dragon to prove that the pagan priests had used a secret trap door to sneak into the altar and eat the food, pretending that the god Bel had eaten it. Daniel threw some flour on the floor, and the priests left footprints in the flour, which they could not see in the dark.

But there is one flaw to the story of the tantrum ghosts of Barbados. There is no primary documentation of it. The vault began to be used in 1807, and has been empty for over a century. The priest supposedly wrote a record of the events, but this putative record burned in a church fire. The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society carried an account of the marauding ghost in May, 1945, over a century after the supposed events. Quite simply, today, nobody can be sure if the stories were real. No other accounts of the marauding ghost have survived, if they ever existed.

The reason I am writing this essay is to draw a comparison with the gospel accounts of the Resurrection of Jesus. The evidence for the Resurrection seemed pretty good. A stone was rolled over the opening of Jesus’ tomb, and Roman guards kept watch over it. Supposedly angels made the guards faint and then rolled the stone away, and Jesus came walking out. The stone and the guards gave considerable credibility to the account.

The problem is that the Resurrection account seems to have first been written down long after the supposed event. It is not found in the earliest Christian writings. For example, the earliest version of the earliest gospel (Mark) did not contain it. Mark 16: 9-20 were added later, at a time when any eyewitnesses would have been dead. Quite simply, as with the marauding ghosts, nobody today can be sure if the stories were real. No other accounts of the resurrection have survived, if they ever existed. One might have expected a Roman military record of it, since it would have been a major breach of military control if it happened.

It is clear that the earliest Christians believed that Jesus was alive. They said so. But that does not mean that his body actually came forth from the tomb. They may have believed Jesus’ continued existence to be a spiritual one. Disciples walked on the Emmaus Road with a man whom they did not recognize until after he had left, and then they decided it must have been Jesus. Jesus appeared inside a locked room. None of these sound like a physical resurrection, but may have been visions or delusions that reflected a deeper faith rather than evidence that would convince a skeptic.

You can believe Jesus is alive if you want to, but do not call me a liar for disbelieving the supposed evidence of the resurrection just as I disbelieve the evidence for the tantrum ghost of Barbados. Whether Jesus is alive or not is, to me, a spiritual question.

What Christianity Needs Is another Daniel

Many Christian churches encourage their members to just accept what the preacher says and to not ask inconvenient questions. This is not, however, the attitude that is praised by some parts of the Bible. There are parts of the Bible that encourage critical thinking and an experimental approach.

The best example is from a portion of the Bible that is no longer part of the Protestant canon (although it was included in the original King James Bible of 1611). The Catholic Bible usually includes it as a separate fragment, Bel and the Dragon. With a name like that, how could you not want to read it? Part of this fragment is the story of Bel.

Daniel is one of a few Hebrews in the court of a pagan king, and the king is not pleased by the fact that Daniel refuses to believe in pagan gods. Daniel tells the king that the great god Bel is nothing more than bronze and clay. Rather than simply to condemn Daniel for disagreeing with him, the king cites evidence for the divinity of Bel. He points out that Bel eats twelve measures of flour, forty sheep, and six vessels of wine every day. How could a mere statue do this? Furthermore, the king agrees to put the divinity of Bel to an experimental test. (Note: if you do not want your religious beliefs put in danger of being discredited, you had better not agree to such a thing.)

The hypothesis was that if Bel is a god, then he is capable of eating food, as his priests claim. The king had his servants place a day’s food in Bel’s temple, and then shut it, to make sure that Bel, and only Bel, was inside. The king sealed the temple shut with his own ring. He also placed a high standard of compliance: if Bel does not consume the offerings, the priests were to die, but if Bel did consume the offerings, Daniel was to die.

After the priests had left but before the temple was sealed shut, Daniel scattered ashes on the floor. He was convinced that there was a secret door, through which the priests entered and carried off the food for themselves and their families. This was his alternative hypothesis.

The next morning, the food was gone, and the priests claimed that they had been vindicated. Then Daniel pointed out the footprints on the floor. Daniel had done what four teenagers and a big dog in a van would have done. The king had the priests arrested. They confessed what they had done and showed the king the secret passage that they had used. The king put the priests and their families to death, and allowed Daniel to destroy the temple.

Numerous studies of the Near Death Experience and of intercessory prayer have shown that there is no clear evidence for miracles or an afterlife (more on this later). This is not an intrusion of science into a place where it is not welcome. Scientific hypothesis testing of a spiritual claim was, at least in this fragment of a Biblical book, praised.