Up next, David brings up Allison's apparently favorite example of non-Christian miracles that allegedly have comparable historical support.

Rainbow Bodies. Clip number four. As for his statement about rainbow bodies, his mentioning

them gives me an opportunity to discuss what some might regard is one of Allison's more

unique contributions to the resurrection debate.

Allison claims that the evidence for the Buddhist phenomenon of so-called rainbow bodies is comparable to the evidence for the resurrection.

It is a somewhat common strategy in replying to resurrection arguments that some other religion has miracles, which are attested as well or better.

Rainbow bodies are Allison's preferred example, as he goes on for the entirety of chapter 12 of his book,

explaining why, if you think that the evidence for Jesus' resurrection is rationally compelling,

then you should similarly find yourself rationally compelled to believe in rainbow bodies. The phenomenon of rainbow bodies involves a body, typically after death,

rapidly shrinking or dissolving over a period of days until it disappears.

This is supposed to indicate that one has achieved a profound state or level of spiritual realization. Allison believes that this example

should give Christian apologists pause to think, as he explains, what would follow if every single

one of the stories from Tibet is a hagiographical

fabrication or the product of pious hocus pocus. A Christian, wanting to defend the uniqueness of

Jesus' resurrection, might think this the obvious view to back. Yet to my mind, the apologists should here be ill at ease.

Would not rejection of all the non-Christian stories reinforce the skeptic's repeated insistence,

that religious sincerity and eyewitness testimony do not ensure historical truth? If Tibetanian

bodies never mysteriously dissipate in a few days,

but rather, against the multiple testimonies,

some of it indisputably firsthand,

invariably succumbed to the usual phases of biological decay,

then some must be, if not liars, then deluded victims of someone's

...