In order to discredit the resurrection appearances of Jesus, skeptics often try to say that they were group hallucinations. In order to argue this point, they need to show an example of this happening in human history. One major example they try to use is when people claim that the virgin Mary has appeared to them. Since this happens to many people, they argue these are cases of group hallucinations. In this episode we deal with this counter.

For more from Jon Topping, check out www.jontopping.com for his blog, podcast, articles, and videos.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!), "Big Adventure" by Paul Yudin.

Audio of the Ultimate Questions Podcast is found anywhere podcasts are available.

To argue the resurrection appearances of Jesus are merely hallucinations, the skeptic must provide examples of group hallucinations. In this episode we look at some of the best examples, and show they cannot work as examples of group hallucinations, and that they are incredibly dissimilar to the resurrection appearances. In other words, even the best examples from skeptics still fail.

For more from Jon Topping, check out www.jontopping.com for his blog, podcast, articles, and videos.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!), "Big Adventure" by Paul Yudin.

Audio of the Ultimate Questions Podcast is found anywhere podcasts are available.

One way skeptics argue against the resurrection is that they say the people during the time of Jesus didn't understand hallucinations, so they misunderstood their hallucinations as real-world experiences. In this episode we look at different sources to get a good understanding of how the ancients understood mental phenomena.

For more from Jon Topping, check out www.jontopping.com for his blog, podcast, articles, and videos.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!), "Big Adventure" by Paul Yudin.

Audio of the Ultimate Questions Podcast is found anywhere podcasts are available.

In order to thoroughly evaluate the possibility of the disciples hallucinating the risen Christ, we should begin by getting a good definition of what hallucinations are, and how exactly they work. In this episode we take a psychological approach to understanding the nature of hallucinations, so that in future episodes we can see whether this can be applied to the disciples experiencing the resurrection of Jesus.

For more from Jon Topping, check out www.jontopping.com for his blog, podcast, articles, and videos.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!), "Big Adventure" by Paul Yudin.

Audio of the Ultimate Questions Podcast is found anywhere podcasts are available.

One of the main counters against the resurrection of Jesus is the claim that the disciples were merely hallucinating the risen Christ. This explains why they claimed to have seen Jesus after His crucifixion, and it explains why they had such passion. In this episode, we'll go into the reasoning behind this argument, and we'll also look at its origins. This will be the first in a series of episodes dealing with the hallucination theory.

For more from Jon Topping, check out www.jontopping.com for his blog, podcast, articles, and videos.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!), "Big Adventure" by Paul Yudin.

Audio of the Ultimate Questions Podcast is found anywhere podcasts are available.

Here we go into what is probably the best secular explanation for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the idea that the disciples stole Jesus' body, and then spread the lie that Jesus had risen. We'll go into where this theory comes from, why it's probably the best secular explanation available, and then we'll look at the flaws the theory falls prey to.

For more from Jon Topping, check out www.jontopping.com for his blog, podcast, articles, and videos.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!)

Audio of the Ultimate Questions Podcast is found anywhere podcasts are available.

The empty tomb is a difficult historical fact to make sense of. There are a few different ways to try and explain why Jesus' tomb was found empty, and in this episode we go into each theory in detail. For example, maybe the women simply went to the wrong tomb, or the Roman or Jewish authorities moved Jesus' body, or perhaps someone stole the body. In this episode we show that each of these explanations ends up having quite serious problems.

For more from Jon Topping, check out www.jontopping.com for his blog, podcast, articles, and videos.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!)

Audio of the Ultimate Questions Podcast is found anywhere podcasts are available.

There is a group of secular arguments against the resurrection that all try to claim that Jesus' body went missing. They state that it was either stolen or lost somehow. These kind of theories are an attempt to explain the empty tomb. In this episode we go into the common problems that all these theories share.

For more from Jon Topping, check out www.jontopping.com for his blog, podcast, articles, and videos.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!)

Audio of the Ultimate Questions Podcast is found anywhere podcasts are available.

What kills a person when they are crucified? The answer is probably quite different than you imagine. To wrap up the Swoon Theory, we will look at what exactly killed Jesus by examining the medicine and science behind crucifixion. After showing exactly what kills a person in crucifixion, we'll be able to definitively say that, yes, Jesus did in fact die on that cross two thousand years ago.

For more from Jon Topping, check out www.jontopping.com for his blog, podcast, articles, and other videos.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!)

Audio of the Ultimate Questions Podcast is found anywhere podcasts are available.

Here we'll look at one of the best arguments for the idea that Jesus never died on the cross, so there was no resurrection. Two researchers published an article that uses modern medical science to explain how it could have been possible for someone to be crucified, and yet still live.

For more from Jon Topping, check out www.jontopping.com for his blog, podcast, articles, and other videos.

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!)

Audio of the Ultimate Questions Podcast is found anywhere podcasts are available.