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Ancient history in general is bound to be murky in the first place since we do not have as many sources of information as we would like. But saying that a number of things comparable to Christ's crucifixion and resurrection doesn't hinder it's truthfulness in the slightest. The truth about Alexander the Great can be found by looking at his own history and stories, none of which have anything to do with Jesus. Just because there is talk of divinity in all kinds of men, doesn't prove that any of them are wrong. Each has it's own evidence.
The task of historical investigation gives the benefit of the doubt to stories of antiquity that give the most plausible explanation, and when no other theories account for the evidence. No one can prove with 100% assurance that something in history occurred or not. Historians must make there assumptions on the historical event's probability, based on the evidence.
The only way to show that the events are not true, is by confronting the events themselves and showing why they indeed are not true. Not by relying on other similar stories to prove that all of these stories are false. Which doesn't work.
Plenty of people claim that the supernatural is possible nowadays. You've heard the stories of ghosts, Near Death Experiences (NED), and miracles of our day. All of which claim to have no help from natural causes. You could confront all of them individually and show that they are not true. But then again, why do that when I'm only bringing up the miracle of the resurrection?
Since we're touching on whether James or the disciples were lying or not, I'll go a little bit into my second point of evidence for the resurrection: that the disciples believed Jesus rose from the dead.
There is a virtual consensus among scholars who study Jesus' resurrection that, subsequent to Jesus' death by crucifixion, his disciples really believed that he appeared to them risen from the dead. This conclusion has been reached by data that suggest that (1) the disciples themselves claimed that the risen Jesus had appeared to them, and (2) subsequent to Jesus' death by crucifixion, his disciples were radically transformed from fearful, cowering individuals who denied and abandoned him at his arrest and execution into bold proclaimers of the gospel of the risen Lord. This only could have happened if an event such as the resurrection did indeed occur. People don't willingly expose embarrassing information about themselves (such as their abandoning Christ) unless it was true. This embarrassing information gives credibility to the disciples claim. They remained steadfast in the face of imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom. Even though this doesn't prove the ressurection in itself, it shows that it is very clear that they sincerely believed that Jesus rose from the dead and that they were not lying.
"All statements are false. The last statement is false.--One of these statements is true."
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Bravo
