If you had a chance to witness the resurrection or other religious event , would you?

In My Humble Opinion
1

And are you a devout Christian? Why or why would you not witness it?
The question is limited in scope to "make - or - break " religious moments . However much you would want to witness the trial of Socrates or something, that is not an option.

I realize that the resurrection takes place after a few days, and nobody claims to witness it, only its after effects (namely, an alive Jesus ), so the trip wouldn’t just be to a point in time, but would have to encompass several things: Jesus dying on the cross, and proof that it’s really the famed preacher and that he’s really dead, Jesus coming back and having dinner with the Apostles (again, with proof it’s the same guy), and his ascendancy into heaven. Or I guess you could just set up a nanny-cam in the tomb or something.
I’m kind of curious to see if any devout Christians or Atheists (or members of another religion ) would opt not to go on the basis of "I already know, so why waste my time? ".
Personally, I’m not very religious, but I would choose to go just based on curiosity.

To open it up a bit: to members of another religion, is there some seminal moment you would chose to see/ not see? Mohammed 's rise to heaven, the burning bush, Xenu?

2

Any of the apocryphal moments would be interesting to witness and would go a long way towards changing my opinion. Water into wine, parting of the red sea, resurrection, etc.

However, I would be more interested to see a modern day miracle. A worldwide simultaneous proclamation on all electronic devices followed by day turning into night and the moon turning green for one minute. Have those twenty kids from Newtown walk onto the floor of Congress. Newspaper headlines that all cancer will be cured instantly and then having it happen.

It just seems odd to me that an all-powerful being hasn’t realized that performing a miracle in front of a couple of French schoolgirls is less effective than turning all the doubledecker buses in Picadilly Square into hippos. The guy’s had 2000 years to think up a stunt; is he that dense?

3

I think that cave would be far too crowded with Time Travelers.

4

One of the most honest passages in the Bible is in Corinthians and goes…“And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins…If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

If you saw that Christ was not risen then you could safely and conclusively put Christianity out of your mind entirely, whereas right now you can’t conclusively prove any religion is 100% false. So that’s some knowledge worth having.

Saying that, I’d go back and see a nondescript Sunday afternoon in Jerusalem, 147 A.D. just to see what it was like. The presence of messiahs is not the only draw in the past.

5

Hey I read that book. Ends with me nailed to the cross. No thanks.

6

Im not “religious” but Im spiritual. I know there is a higher “something” out there. I think of it as a life force, which always got me in trouble with Catechism classes all throughout my parochial school education.

Anyway, Im open for miracles! Id love to time travel and see them and meet Jesus.

A miracle can happen anytime you know and you can make one happen. A miracle is simply a shift in perceptions. (A Course in Miracles explains).

7

147 AD? That’s just 11 years after the end of the Bar Kochva Revolt. Definitely not the best time to visit Jerusalem - the city had been ravaged by the war, and was being rebuilt as the Roman garrison town of Aela Capitolina, to which Jews were forbidden entry. The whole country was in a sorry state, with over half a million people killed; the population wouldn’t reach pre-Revolt levels until the 20th Century.

8

I would wait til around 1170 AD, pretty calm then :eek:
Capt

9

HA! It’s like that cartoon where Hitler’s guards are like “man, that’s the third time traveller that’s tried to kill him today!”
ETA - In response to the assertion that the cave would be full

10

But that’s not an option, the original premise was resurrection or nothing, but you could see some other moment that is the center of a religion (e.g. - Joseph Smith 's visit from the angel Moroni)

11

I suspect for some who think like I do that it might not even matter that much.

WARNING - WALL OF RAMBLING PERSONAL SHIT BELOW, SKIP TO END IF NOT INTERESTED.

I respect parts of the teachings of many religions such as being kind to others, helping the less fortunate, not stealing from or murdering people, not cheating on your spouse / partner, not lying, generally being a good person (e.g. “rule number one: Don’t be a jerk!” - Church of SDMB) etc. I try to follow these rules irrespective of any religious motivations/fears bc I strive to be a good person and not jerk.

The reason I wouldn’t steal somebody’s purse isn’t because a religion says it’s bad, or that it’s illegal, or fear of reprisals by the owner /the law/ God. I wouldn’t do it bc that would be an asshole move and I’m not a jerk like that. After over dozen relationships over the last decade, I haven’t and wouldn’t wouldn’t cheat on someone for the same reason.

These beliefs could be part of Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, etc. It’s the supernatural aspects of the religions that I don’t really go for. That, and what I consider some of the more odious teachings of some religions, e.g. gays / adulterers / heretics are bad and should be killed, women are inferior, etc.

Unfortunately, religions tend to frown upon members picking and choosing which of their beliefs they adhere to (“Cafeteria Catholics”, for one example, being explicitly frowned upon.) This was one of the many reasons I am no longer religious. As a lapsed, but confirmed, Catholic, I’m not even sure if I’m supposed to take communion when I do go to church (also a Christmas Easter Only Catholic now, but went every Sunday for 17 years growing up. ) bc I’m in favor of same sex marriage, abortion, et alia.

TL:DR
ANYWAY for many the religion may be more about a codification of how they already feel about living life. Also, religions can be more about the community, tradition, and heritage they provide for some people. Belief in the miracles may be secondary.

12

I’m an atheist; I’d be interested just for historical reasons, not that I’d expect to see any magic. I’d probably pick an event with more people than the “Resurrection” though, preferably something in the middle of a town or city; more to see there. And besides, I rather doubt that there was a Resurrection, so I’d be left staring at an empty hillside or something.

13

How about the wedding at Cana? Even if you didn’t see anything miraculous, the wine was supposedly pretty good.

14

I don’t drink, but yeah that would probably be interesting.

15

How do you go witness something not happening? It’s not like we have a definite location and date for the alleged resurrection of Jesus. I suppose if there really was a Jesus with most of the non-miraculous characteristics of the biblical Jesus, I could go watch him die and then watch the body decompose for more then three days, but I doubt there ever was such a figure. (I don’t think Jesus was made up out of whole cloth, but I don’t think there was anyone we could recognize as Jesus just by observing him.)

16

Well, the idea is that you witness whether or not it happens, part of the premise supposes there was an historical figure by the name of Jesus who was crucified on the Sunday after Passover 33 years after 6 (or 4, I forget ) BC .

17

If you contend that there was no historical Jesus then I suppose your answer would be “no.”

What about Mohammed 's ascendancy into heaven?

18

Also, the premise presupposes that you are actually watching the historical figure, not just some random guy.
FTR - backwards time travel in such a manner is also impossible, suspend your disbelief. It is a fanciful hypothetical. The point isn’t whether time travel or the historical figure or even if the miracles took place, it’s whether you’d choose to find out, given the option.

19

My disbelief is suspended just fine! I wasn’t questioning the premise, just misunderstanding it, I suppose. You seemed to be asking the question without presupposing that the event in question actually happened, so it wasn’t (and isn’t) clear to me what the premise is exactly. I’d love to go back and see whether the Resurrection happened or not (even though I’m positive the answer would be that it did not), but I was asking what that means. If the resurrection didn’t happen, how would I know I wasn’t just watching the wrong tomb? Why wouldn’t I think it was just some random guy? If Jesus wasn’t resurrected, then isn’t some random guy exactly what he was? Especially if he didn’t do any miracles either?

Again, it’s not that I don’t want to watch it; sign me up! I just want to know what my ticket is good for, exactly. Mohammed almost certainly did exist, and was a distinct and recognizable individual, so there might be more to see by watching him die and not go anywhere than by watching one of a large number of unmarked tombs not open.

And to be clear, it’s not my contention that there was no historical Jesus, but that the historical Jesus likely had so little in common with the Biblical Jesus that it would be hard to know I was watching the right guy without also seeing the decades-long process by which the various miracles and stories of the Bible became associated with him after he died. And we don’t know exactly when he was born or even when he was supposed to have been crucified relative to Passover (the Gospel of John differs from the others on that point). Four BC is a common best guess for his birth, but it’s just that, a best guess, based on the assumption that even though all the details the Bible gives to establish the date can’t be true, the date that matches the greatest number of details is probably correct.

20

“This is horrible!”
“But at least it’s not boring!” /Futurama

I’d see them all if I could. I’m fairly certain all you’d see is an epileptic seizure or something but imagine what you could learn about the 19th century.