I was listening to a debate between Michael Shermer and John Lennox.
At approximately the 53 minute mark John Lennox relates how the truth of the death and resurrection of Christ gave "a bedrock of hope" to his family when they passed through a tragic experience. At about the 56 minute mark Michael Shermer responded by giving another example of someone who had been through a terrible experience and he found comfort in a completely different religion, so finding comfort proves nothing.
Shermer hit the target, but it was the wrong target! He was aiming at an argument Lennox didn't make. Lennox wasn't saying that the death and resurrection of Christ merely give a subjective hope (i.e. they make one feel hopeful) in trial, the point was the death and resurrection of Christ give an objective hope, and the reason for that is that the death and resurrection of Christ actually happened! It is historically demonstrable that Jesus is the Son of God, that means His death is the supreme proof of His love for us that no circumstance in life can refute. It's historically demonstrable that He rose from the dead, and that means that there is hope beyond the grave.
Lennox completely agrees that we need more than feel-good stories. We need the truth, and that's what he found in the one who died and rose again.
