Another interpretation of the Easter story

"I think the Easter story has meanings even for an agnostic like me. I accept that it is a Christian takeover of pagan spring festivals. But it is different, because it combines spring renewal with the Crucifixion, and what the Crucifixion teaches is that the sufferer is superior to those who inflict suffering. Merely by willingly submitting to torment, and dying, he triumphs because he remains innocent - and his triumph is, for me, not affected by whether he comes back to life again as Christians believe he does. It is just his pain, his helplessness and his endurance that make him superior.

I know it is irrational to believe this (as irrational as to believe in the Resurrection) but I believe it all the same. I connect it with the innocence of nature which can be crushed by brute force but will always return. As D. H. Lawrence said: 'The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy'."

John Carey, author and Oxford academic, quoted in The Times, 14 April 2006.