Can an Atheist Believe in Miracles? (Ehrman's "Did Jesus Exist?" Part 6)

In the final part of this series examining Bart Ehrman's book "Did Jesus Exist?", Adam discusses how claims of miraculous events can be considered by historians. History is a measure of how certain we are about events in the past; having absolute certainty about historical claims is impossible. However, historians have developed many criteria for evaluating how certain we can be that something actually happened, and these criteria are how facts about Jesus are evaluated. Using Ehrman's writings, Adam argues that Jesus' miracles claims, including His resurrection, meet the criteria that Ehrman lays out for something to be considered historically reliable, although Ehrman himself does not accept this conclusion. While Ehrman would say that it is outside the historian's purview to evaluate miracle claims, Adam thinks that miracles can be evaluated in the same way as any other historical claims—by looking at the evidence. At the very least, we can conclude, along with Ehrman, that reports of Jesus' miracles are not simply legends that developed many years later. Rather, they were proclaimed by Jesus' earliest followers.

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Contents
0:00 Introduction: The Miracle Test
2:25 Bart Ehrman's Book "Did Jesus Exist?"
3:58 The CSI Effect: Is Absolute Certainty Possible?
9:18 Criteria that Increase Certainty
11:37 All the Sources About Jesus
17:32 What Facts Do All Scholars Affirm About Jesus?
20:28 What Does It Mean That "All Scholars" Agree?
23:55 Do Jesus' Miracles Meet Ehrman's Criteria?
26:16 Speeches in the Book of Acts Mention Miracles
30:10 Material in Paul's Letters Talks About Miracles
33:28 So, Why Doesn't Ehrman Believe in Jesus?
39:55 Ehrman Doesn't Believe God Exists
41:58 Can Historians Evaluate Miracle Claims?
47:24 Should We Ever Believe in Miracles?
51:00 Conclusion: Jesus' Miracles Aren't Simply Legends