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Math Proves Christ's Resurrection?

Posted almost 5 years ago
It is faith, not proof, that makes Christians believe in Jesus Christ's resurrection, the central tenet of the religion. Until now.Oxford University professor Richard Swinburne, a leading philosopher of religion, has seemingly done the impossible. Using logic and mathematics, he has created a formula that he says shows a 97 percent certainty that Jesus Christ was resurrected by God the Father, report The Age and Catholic News.This stunning conclusion was made based on a series of complex calculations grounded in the following logic:The probably of God's existence is one in two. That is, God either exists or doesn't.The probability that God became incarnate, that is embodied in human form, is also one in two.The evidence for God's existence is an argument for the resurrection. The chance of Christ's resurrection not being reported by the gospels has a probability of one in 10.Considering all these factors together, there is a one in 1,000 chance that the resurrection is not true."New Testament scholars say the only evidences are witnesses in the four gospels. That's only five percent of the evidence," Swinburne said in a lecture he gave at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. "We can't judge the question of the resurrection unless we ask first whether there's reason to suppose there is a God. Secondly, if we have reason to suppose he would become incarnate, and thirdly, if he did, whether he would live the sort of life Jesus did." He says that even Jesus' life is not enough proof. However, the resurrection is "God's signature," which shows "his approval of Jesus' teaching." The calculations that Swinburne says prove the resurrection are detailed in his book, "The Resurrection of God Incarnate."
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Comments (19)

  1. tybees
    tybees says Well, there you go!
    Permalink posted 04/08/2007
  2. RGM
    RGM says The funny thing tybee I'm one who holds to the general revelation view point, but the Bible itself does talk of evidence's. At the same time the Christian does not do the saving...
    Permalink posted 04/08/2007
  3. tybees
    tybees says What do you mean by "general revelation view point"? The Bible says that God proves His existence by what has been made (all of creation). And you're right, Christians don't save people nor do they save themselves...ultimately it's God who draws people to Him.
    Permalink posted 04/08/2007
  4. Dale
    Dale says Interesting, but I much prefer the witness of the Holy Ghost to the witness of the mathematician.
    Permalink posted 04/08/2007
  5. RGM
    RGM says That is General revelation...it's just a term Tybee's...I think it came from systematic theology for the layman like you & I...it's a help & just makes it easy to remember that's all...at least for me.. :)
    Permalink posted 04/08/2007
  6. Spike
    Spike says The collision between faith and logic has a 50% chance of leading to an interesting paradox. For instance, I could either exist or not exist. Therefore there is a 50% chance that I exist. I could either be the Son of God, or I could not be the Son of God. Therefore there's a 50% chance that I'm the Son of God. The odds of my Resurrection, were it to happen, not being reported in the news is one in ten. Considering all these factors together, there's a 99.9% chance of my Resurrection being true. Well, there you go!
    Permalink posted 04/08/2007
  7. dermahrk
    dermahrk says Hey Spike, thanks. I needed a new religion.
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  8. Rawkkiddoh
    Rawkkiddoh says Christ = pi r squared?
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  9. RGM
    RGM says Spike your taking it out of context of the argument, but in the end it's to up to you to decide...
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  10. kristiana
    kristiana says dear dear, gods bless the literally-minded! Under law at the time of Jesus, excommunication was regarded as a spiritual "execution", and it took 4 days to implement. In the meantime, the excommunicatee was dressed in a shroud, shut away and regarded as "dead". If an excommincatee was not reprieved ("raised") by the 3rd day, their soul was forever condemned. Was Jesus ever excommunicated, by chance? Funny you should ask! And the New Testament is shaky ground for someone looking for something other than faith to sustain them - the books of the NT were hand-picked by SOMEONE, don't forget. Lots of interesting stuff was left out. Some stuff distorted in translation. Not to mention the books contradict each other at times. Best for Xtians to stick with their faith. God forbid one pick up a history book (as biased as historical records can be, of course). But then, didn't Jesus say something to the effect of "they who seek Truth will find me"? ;)
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  11. celtichris
    celtichris says The absurdity of the math involved in this leaves me breathless! In order for his math to work, all of the relevant possibilities within a given question would have to be equally probable. This is like saying, "If I let go of this bowling ball from 12 inches above your head, it will either hurt you or it will float away harmlessly into the sky," and saying there's a 50% chance of either one happening. It's beyond ludicrous. Faith is sufficient to itself; trying to 'prove' it with statistics does it a disservice. Trying to prove it with really BAD statistics just makes him look silly.
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  12. RGM
    RGM says Good point Kris... :)
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  13. RGM
    RGM says Wow this stuff really gets people’s Butt Stains in a Bunch…
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  14. Sturgell
    Sturgell says Jesus can make snow into lemonaide
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  15. kristiana
    kristiana says nah, no bunching here. Jesus had a good message, what with the ideals of harmony, unity and service to others. "Christianity" could have been a beautiful thing, that is the sad part. Well, the Catholic church f'ed that up pretty good. And just about everyone since. And the Puritans - wow, they took things to a whole other level. Burning their own women folk. Now those guys knew how to party!
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  16. Augusts1
    Augusts1 says What Kristiana said. Lol@ "Burning their own women folk. Now those guys knew how to party!"
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  17. BarrieSutcliffe
    BarrieSutcliffe says This professor's convenient math is just another pathetic attempt to sex-up this already dead religion. Totally ridiculous, and insulting to anyone who has an ounce of logic. Why must desperate theologians attempt to contemporize religion by attaching lame pseudo-science to their logic-less faith arguments? It does nothing but throw mud in their own faces. Like I said, pathetic. People don't need bullshit mathematics to be convinced that Jesus said good things.
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  18. capndad
    capndad says I'm of the opinion that the main reason more people don't grasp Christianity is because of what "Christians" have made it become these days. As a boy, my Christian parents wouldn't let me go to movies, dances or parties. Smoking was taboo (for the wrong reason) and if I was ever found to have been playing cards, well..... Those are innocent enough examples of my point, which is that the freedom and good news Christ taught has become so smothered with one form or another of legalistic error, it can take years of "faith living" to finally and really see what he was advocating. Which was simple - believe in me and what I teach, and do what you want. Does that sound radical enough? Following that teaching would have us being much more sympathetic towards the poor; much more giving and less greedy; more willing to help in many ways; and overall less self serving. All of that without boundaries of where you can go and what you can do, because if you believe and act out on those teachings, you'll want to live otherwise in ways that compliment those actions. And to top it all off, we'd gain a better understanding that because Christ taught that he loves us, we have nothing to worry about in the after life if we accept that teaching. Sheesh. Sounds like a no brainer to me. Except for the rules that have been piled on top of it all that make it quite unattractive.
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007
  19. RGM
    RGM says Sorry Kristiana...just kidding around :)...I really dig what you say here capndad reffering to the freedom in Christ... "which is that the freedom and good news Christ taught has become so smothered with one form or another of legalistic error, it can take years of “faith living” to finally and really see what he was advocating. Which was simple – believe in me and what I teach, and do what you want. Does that sound radical enough?" I think the main problem is that a lot of the concept's that Jesus taught and that Paul talk's about conflict's with what he call's the natural man meaning our sin nature...One thing that seem's prevelant that God hate's more than sexual sin and this is what the Church is really guilty of and has really has been is Legalizism...That's what Christ's was reffering to the Pharassee's when he called them white washed Tomb's...
    Permalink posted 04/09/2007

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