It's good to remind myself now and again that belief in the death and resurrection of Christ (on which everything hinges) doesn't require blind faith. The story's 2000 years old at this point - tucked off in a far away corner (Acts 26:26). Except we have preserved for us reliable accounts which speak of eyewitness testimony to these events.
There are numerous mentions of eyewitness account, but the most clear and obvious is found in I Corinthians 15:3-6. I Corinthians was written from Ephesus between AD 53-55, 20 years after Christ's death and resurrection. This sounds like a lot of time between the events and the writing. However, it's little enough time that there were people still around to deny the claims. 20 years ago, I was about to graduate from A&M. If I decided to write a letter today claiming some crazy, outlandish event that happened on the middle of campus, and further claim that 500 people saw it, people would be coming out of the woodwork to deny it, and there certainly wouldn't be 500 people behind me supporting my claim.
I Cor 15:3-6 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
