As C.S. Lewis says somewhere, the first generation of Christians spread all over the Roman empire with one doctrine–that the Lord has risen.
Assume it’s all a lie. (A mistake seems to me out of the question, at least for the first believers. You don’t go to the stake or the lions because Cousin Gaius passed a rumor on to you.) So assume that it’s a lie–what an odd lie. It’s a crime without a motive. A suicide pact whose participants aren’t bitter and sick of the world, but full of joy and charity for others. A conspiracy with no plan for seizing power. A Ponzi scheme that promises poverty.
Good.
Yes, good word.
Playing Devil’s Advocate here. How would you explain the fortitude under suffering of at least the first generation of Mormons?
My argument is not that the suffering of the early Christians proves the truth of their doctrine. My argument is that their willingness to suffer argues strongly that the historical event they affirmed (the Resurrection) actually took place as they reported.
Nobody doubts the historical events of Joseph Smith’s public ministry, or of his death. We do doubt his revelations, but those are not matters to which there are witnesses.