My response to Netscape article "proving" the Resurrection

(The story in question appeared in Netscape.com's "What's New" today. Find it here.

You've run this story a number of times now; today's appearance on "What's New" is only the latest.

The problem is, the story is fundamentally flawed. The mathematics are all wrong!

If the odds of God existing are 1 in 2, then there is automatically at least a 50% chance that God does NOT exist, and without God existing, the rest of the arguments cannot be true automatically.

Next, if the odds of God becoming incarnate are also 1 in 2, then the odds of God existing AND becoming incarnate are only 25%. There is a 50% chance of God existing, and 50% of 50% that he became incarnate. The preacher you wrote about assumed that the odds at that point were 75%, which is a gross misunderstanding of probability.

If we now accept the next argument, that the likelihood of the resurrection not being reported by the Gospels is 10% (although I have no idea where he came up with that number), then the odds become 22.5% (90% of 25%, since if God does not exist, or exists and did not incarnate, then there is no likelihood of the Gospels being accurate.)

In short, Professor Swinburne has actually posited an argument AGAINST the resurrection of Christ, giving it (at best) odds of 4 to 1 against. Someone in Vegas might take those odds, but I won't.

The great thing about Faith is that it defies all proof. We do not need numbers in our favor to believe that God became incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, died on the cross, and rose from the dead three days later. Putting forward articles like this one which are rife with bad math and bad science only bolsters the arguments of those who do not believe in God and Christ. Please research your story selection a little better.

Yours,
Paul L. Sungenis,
Vineland NJ.

...actual experience is better. I am just sayin' that it is important not to believe in any old thing, because that is where right wing nuts come into the picture.

I am a Christian. But I have come to the conclusion that whether or not the Resurrection happened is immaterial to me. I know, I know, the miracle is the centerpiece of this religion ~ to many. To me the centerpiece has more to do with the the fact this man was willing to suffer great pain and die in order to show us about justice and karma. And I take physics as the main theme here: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction..." As a believer in reincarnation (and I have had an actual experience related to this) I have come to the conclusion, "resurrection" is far more about other kinds of coming back than one that happens in this life, but I digress...

I do not see "an equal and opposite reaction" happening to many people in their present lives. One of the most poignant examples is Bush and all his neocon friends who never stop using the name of Jesus to justify their corruption, actions that lead to massive murder, and greed. They seem to forget the rampage Jesus went on just before his condemnation and crucifixion when he went through the synagogue overturning tables and screaming about the open avarice he saw there. I am sure most of the people responsible for Jesus' death continued to live comfortable lives with all the comforts around them. Yet Jesus knew it was greed for money and power that leads to much, if not most of the misery in this world by the people in power. He also taught that the lack of greed was one of the greatest qualities got you into paradise.


A dear friend of Peter (the Rock) who was the third pope, believed also in reincarnation. His name was "Polycarp" meaning "many bodies" from the Greek. There are letters written by Polycarp online anyone can read. As Polycarp accepted and Jesus tried to teach, it is love that changes hearts, it is love that creates miracles in this universe, it is love that is the basis of creation that never stops making things new.

See here is the dichotomy to me as well as a cosmic joke: While it is important to make sure your faith is based on actual happenings, this world is an illusion, a classroom, and to take seriously all the crap you see here as fact is folly. Therefore it is folly to spend your entire life accumulating wealth, for example. Because wasting your life on making having more than you need does not teach you a damn thing except that you will spend most of your short time in this life accumulating more and worse, managing, hoarding, and counting that wealth. Meanwhile your loved ones languish without you and what you and they need to learn, which is what you are really on this earth to learn about. Wealth has little to do with Love or God. The trick is to find the things that actually ARE Truth and discard the rest as merely the way you survive it with your good soul intact.

So who cares if there is a resurrection of a man? More important is to listen to the message, experience it, and then use what you have learned in a way that enhances creation, not destroy it. And it is in creating the good things in this world, IMO that is where you will find true resurrection, like the "resurrection" we witness every spring...



My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle <---amateur theologian and one that would horrify most ministers except my own minister, lol.

and a totally non-mathematical person, could see that argument was flawed.

My proof is not with numbers and logic. It is from answers within my life..questions I have asked and had answered immediately in very interesting way. Past coincidence.

"<Insert event here> either is true or false, so the odds are 50%" pegs my bullshit detector.

It will either rain or it won't on any particular day, so does that mean the odds are 50% every day that it will rain? Even in the Death Valley?

Ugh, the "logic" of some.

It is either true or not. So the odds are 50/50 that I have a dragon in my garage. Anybody want to put money on that one? I bet I know which side you will be on. I'll cover all bets for those that think it is true. I'll even pay 10:1. Some people love to spout absolute shit and call it logic.

...unless it's Schrodinger's Dragon, in which cases the odds are 100/100.

to kill my dragon. He is too special.