NaClhv

Theology, philosophy, math, science, and random other things
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
2016-08-29
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 24)

Puhua (known as Fuke in Japan) was a Chinese Buddhist monk, who supposedly lived around 800AD. He, too, is said to have not really died. He may or may not have been a real individual. If real, he was a student of Linji (known as Rinzai in Japan), who was another Chinese Buddhist monk, who founded the Linji […]
2016-08-22
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 23)

Let us now turn to some figures from Buddhism who are said to have appeared after their deaths. Bodhidharma is the Buddhist monk credited with bringing Chan Buddhism to China, some time around the 5th century AD. Here is Wikipedia's summary of the legend surrounding his death: Three years after Bodhidharma's death, Ambassador Sòngyún of […]
2016-08-15
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 22)

We now come to Hinduism's Krishna, who's another god that's sometimes compared with Jesus. He's said to be have been the incarnation of Vishnu, who is either the supreme god, or one of three or five most important gods, depending on the specific tradition in Hinduism. Krishna has perhaps a greater claim to a real, […]
2016-08-08
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 21)

How about we look at some ancient gods? Jesus is often compared to the gods in other religions, but can any of them actually serve in our comparison of historical evidence for a resurrection? Mithra, for instance, is a god in the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, who then inspired a Roman mystery religion. He often […]
2016-08-01
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 20)

Next, let us consider Zalmoxis, whom Herodotus writes about in his "Histories" as a divinity in the religion of the Getae. Herodotus wrote that Zalmoxis's followers believed they have a form of immortality in him, and performed a kind of human sacrifice to communicate with him through death. According to Herodotus, he was told by […]
2016-07-25
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 19)

Fortunately, skeptics of Christ's resurrection often do some of the early leg work for us, in that they compile lists of purported people who have been said to be like Christ for one reason or another. We'll look at a representative sample from such lists. First, let us consider Apollonius of Tyana, who is sometimes […]
2016-07-18
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 18)

We are interested in quantifying the Bayes' factor for the testimonies concerning Christ's resurrection. We will do so by comparing the level of evidence for Christ's resurrection against the level of evidence we find in world history through a naturalistic process and outlook. Here is how the procedure will work: As a conservative estimate, let […]
2016-03-07
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The want of a mate

"I hate this", said Adam, to his empty dining room. It was late at night. He was alone. His only company at his table were several bottles of wine and his glass. He was just a drunk man, talking to himself out of the anguish of his latest break-up. So it was with mild surprise […]
2016-02-29
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The want of a mate (Part 5)

Humanity was inescapably doomed. There was simply no way to increase the population. And every time a couple failed to produce two children, humans would lose another sliver of hope, take one more step towards extinction. Mara was an elder in her tribe, which was one of the larger tribes remaining in the world. It […]
2016-02-22
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The want of a mate (Part 4)

(Read part 3 of the story) Rose felt torn - she understood the arguments from those talking heads, but she also could not deny the feelings in her heart. The vast majority of the human population had the gift now. They were, for the most part, happy with their lot in life. There was the […]
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