The early Church is hard to explain if Christianity was just a useful social myth. The apostles and early martyrs did not gain worldly power by preaching Christ crucified and risen. They gained exile, torture, poverty, and death. A person may die for a lie he sincerely believes, but whole communities do not usually endure persecution for a religion they know they invented yesterday. The argument is not like “martyrs exist, therefore Catholicism is true.” Its more that the early Christian witness