The National Catholic Register has a couple of good articles about how faith in the resurrection has made it back into mainstream Bible scholarship and the top ten reasons why you should believe in the resurrection. Both articles are worth a read and you can find them here and here. In the list of top ten reasons I wish to share my thoughts on number 2:

2. Testimony of the Twelve. Cowardly apostles fleeing became courageous Christians preaching, and they unanimously said it was because they saw Christ alive.

This is always the clincher for me. When you realize that these, uh, for lack of a better word dopes, went to the four corners of the world preaching and dying for the truth of the good news, there is no way I can deny it. When you read the gospels you can’t help but realize that these guys are really dense. Jesus repeatedly had to hit them over the head to get message through their thick skulls (metaphorically of course, but that would have been cool too. Can you imagine if Jesus had done a stooges eye poke…. nevermind). The Apostles are illiterate, petty, and sometimes cowardly. The fact that these guys did what they did with the gift of the Holy Spirit is always the thing that seals the deal for me. Additionally, it holds out the promise that there might still be hope for me as I too am often petty, cowardly, and for those who have read this far can attest close to illiterate as well.