NaClhv

Theology, philosophy, math, science, and random other things
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
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 […]
2016-07-11
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 17)

So, our previous Bayesian analysis of the resurrection compels us to believe that Jesus really rose from the dead. But, as an additional layer of verification, let's approach the problem from a slightly different angle, and see if we come to the same conclusion. In our Bayesian analysis, the odds for Jesus's resurrection went from […]
2016-07-04
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 16)

Let us summarize our investigation into the Bayes' factor for a human testimony. At the beginning of this series, we began by examining our gut feelings on how much credit we would give to someone who claims to have won the lottery or been struck by lightning. From this initial calculation, using just some intuition, […]
2016-06-27
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 15)

Here is yet another example from which we can empirically derive the Bayes' factor for a human testimony. The September 11 terrorist attacks killed about 3000 people. It is the worst terrorist attack in world history to date. As such, it caused a great deal of shared grief and an outpouring of sympathy for the […]
2016-06-20
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 14)

We are calculating empirical values for the Bayes' factor of a sincere, personal human testimony. Several lines of calculations have all converged around 1e8 as a typical value. In the last post, I gave some real-life examples that I have personally lived through and verified - and they validate the 1e8 value. But perhaps you're […]
2016-06-14
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Bayesian evaluation for the likelihood of Christ's resurrection (Part 13)

Here are some more examples from which you can estimate the Bayes' factors for an earnest, personal human testimony. Imagine that you've promised to meet me on a particular date, but I don't show up to the appointment. You're understandably peeved, but then you get a phone call from me saying, "I just got into […]
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