William Craig's Case for the Resurrection of Jesus - Part 4: The Conclusion of the Core Argument

THE FINAL INFERENCE OF THE CORE ARGUMENT 

According to my analysis of the core argument in William Craig's case for the resurrection of Jesus (in Part 3 of this series), the final inference of that argument is this:

3a. IF IT IS NOT THE CASE THAT the resurrection hypothesis (i.e. God raised Jesus from the dead) has been shown to be more implausible than the alternative naturalistic explanations for Craig's three key historical claims concerning Jesus' final fate, THEN the preferred explanation for Craig's three key historical claims concerning Jesus' final fate ought to be the resurrection hypothesis (i.e., God raised Jesus from the dead).

4a. IT IS NOT THE CASE THAT the resurrection hypothesis (i.e. God raised Jesus from the dead) has been shown to be more implausible than the alternative naturalistic explanations for Craig's three key historical claims concerning Jesus' final fate.

THEREFORE: 

5a. The preferred explanation for Craig's three key historical claims concerning Jesus' final fate ought to be the resurrection hypothesis (i.e., God raised Jesus from the dead).

However, this conclusion seems somewhat anti-climactic and unimpressive.  This is especially the case given my previously mentioned concerns about the potential problem of confirmation bias in Craig's selection of his three key historical claims.  Since Craig, a devout Christian believer, is the person who selected the three historical claims, it might be the case that those three claims leave important historical facts out of the picture.  In that case, even if the resurrection hypothesis were the best explanation of those historical claims (or historical facts), it might well NOT be the best explanation for a more complete set of relevant historical facts.

In short, claim (5a) seems to be a weaker claim than what Craig actually wants to establish. Furthermore, Craig makes a different claim at the beginning of the key paragraph where he lays out a summary of his core argument, and that claim is a bolder and stronger claim than (5a):

In my estimation the hypothesis "God raised Jesus from the dead" furnishes the best explanation of the historical data relevant to Jesus' final fate. (Reasonable Faith, 3rd ed., p.360) 

Note that Craig here is talking about the best explanation of "the historical data relevant to Jesus' final fate."