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Churchwork
04-28-2006, 07:33 PM
The disciples had experiences which they believed were literal appearances of the risen Jesus

Antony Flew lost the debate 15 years prior to Gary Habermas. He has had 15 years to find his better arguments. Flew’s best guess for the conversion of Paul seeing Jesus in Person is that it was either “conversion psychosis disorder” (Jack Kent coined this phrase) and the disciples experienced grief hallucination like when seeing a 3rd person may be seen the house who had passed away.

Habermas explains for Paul to have a Conversion Disorder (and Paul does not disclose a disorder in his words or conduct) we have multiple problems with the facts:

1. There is nothing in the diagnostic literature about hallucinations. It’s short lived and goes away. The DSM-3 and DSM-4 are the standard diagnostic tools for psychiatry.

2. You would also have to have an auditory hallucination (of hearing!).

3. You would have to have a visual hallucination (of sight!).

4. A great psychosis – often called Messiah Complex. Paul, instead, says what he receives is from God, not from himself.


Characteristics of Conversion Disorder (Does this sound like Paul to you?)
(Kaplan)

1. Up to 5 to 1 it happens to women.

2. It happens mostly to adolescents.

3. It happens mostly to people of low economic status.

4. It happens to people with low IQ.

5. It happens to military persons in battle.

These are the most common circumstances. Not a single one of them applies to Paul. This adds up to 9 items. Moreover, there is not a speck of evidence Paul ever wanted to convert from Judaism to Christianity.


Grief Hallucination


There is no such thing as Grief Hallucination in the DSM-4, the most standard diagnostic tool for psychiatry…nothing. However, hallucinations do occur in someone who is alone. But in the Bible the various settings were of different group sizes seeing the resurrection of Jesus in different places; men and women; indoors and outdoors; walking, sitting, standing; and an empty tomb. Hallucinations do not come out of despair necessarily, but when you believe something so strongly, you make the image. Studies have shown that such hallucinations are talked out of eventually.

Antony Flew had nothing to say other than he felt there was an “enormous shortage of evidence”. In return, Gary cites 129 facts in 49 sources from various sources as the crux of the matter to back the 4 key historical facts. Though there is a great many things we don’t know, what we do know militates these two problems cited by Kent and Flew.

Flew depends on self-declaration one of these two conditions, but given the evidence, it not likely the case, which the burden of the proof lies on him. The visuals seen by the disciples, Flew is convinced requires no external referent, but as we continue to read, there is no question the believers believed there was an external referent in Christ Jesus, the 2nd Person of the Godhead. If the disciples are not good candidates for hallucinations and Paul is not a victim of conversion disorder, then there really is no other possibility than God’s divine providence at work in the physically resurrected Jesus Christ.