Reminds me of the Prof of Statistics several years ago who took eight prophecies relating to the life of Jesus. All were from OT writings where there is general agreement that they dated back at least 400 years before Christ. He then gave his senior class an exercise to calculate the probability of all eight being fulfilled in one person. They came up with a figure of 1:10^17. So perhaps another seven prophecies from you would be in order.
The results were published in a respected journal. So clearly his methodology was considered acceptable.
There were of course over 30 prophecies fulfilled in the last week of Christ's life alone.
29 comments
1) that not how statistic work.
What exactly were these prophecies?
And, 1:1017? Is that really One to One Thousand And Seventeen or is it supposed to be 1:10^17, One to Ten To The Seventeenth Power?
Well, when you tell us that an unnamed professor at an unnamed university an unspecified number of years ago had his unnamed students use unnamed methods to calculate the probability of eight unnamed OT prophecies, with the results even published in an unnamed journal, what other choice do we have to accept your clear and irrefutable victory?
"The results were published in a respected journal. So clearly his methodology was considered acceptable. "
What journal was that? The journal of evangelical bible gospel holy spirit moved confirmation bias is not respectable.
There were of course over 30 prophecies fulfilled in the last week of Christ's life alone.
No, people - long afterwards - chose to see those prophecies as fulfilled. There's a huge difference. You could easily take the biographies of hundreds or thousands of random individuals and interpret episodes of their lives as fulfilling those prophecies. The socalled prophecies are so vague and ambiguous, they could fit almost anything, including me getting my car fixed.
That statistic proved only the odds of the prophecies being fulfilled on one person. Nothing else. Now you have to prove, without any doubt, that Jesus was that person. That one person. That those prophecies were fulfilled on him, him alone, and completely and unambiguously. Have fun.
Wait until November 2016. These messianic prophecies could fit Donald Trump:
Messiah would be born of a woman.
Oops, but not these:
Messiah would be silent before his accusers.
It wouild be a lot more convincing to say: In October 1987, Prof. Jones asked his class at Major University to calculate the odds of 8 specific OT prophesies being fulfilled by one person. His results were published in Peer-reviewed Journal of Statistics, 27:3, 117-35.
I realize it's easier to say "some unnamed source proves my point," but something on a site called Religion and Ethics shouldn't involve lying.
Imagine that, prophecies in the first part of a book came true in the later parts of the same book. It's astounding! I've never, ever seen that happen before, except every time I've seen foreshadowing. In fact, it's got it's own name, "Chekhov's gun." AKA "gun in the first act, body in the third."
Oi folks, missed the number was 1:10^17 not 1:1017. Just corrected it, so folks above me in comments aren't insane, it's been changed since.
First of all, I'm an engineer, and there's no way to calculate such a probability because there are way too many variables involved.
Second, would you be wanting to identify those prophecies?
Which came first, the events or the prophesies? Doesn't matter, the bible is all what any court would call "hearsay", that is, not to be relied upon.
They came up with a figure of 1:10^17
Ok, let's look at this.
First you would have to understand a prophecy as an event that is 1) absolutely unambiguous, i.e. detailed and unmistakable, 2) totaly improbable and absolutely unique, 3) in no way related to any other event, 4) independent of the person involved. E.g. Somebody getting hit by lightning on a Thursday afternoon in August while eating salami pizza in a park in Chicago.
Then, if you have eight such events and want to calculate the odds of all of them happening to one single person in the course of 33 years, I suppose you could come up with 1:10^17.
But those are just odds.
As far as Jesus is concerned, you have to show really unique events. "They didn't break his bones" isn't enough. That's true for 99,999% of the population. Then you have to prove beyond a doubt that they really happened, to him and to him alone.
Sorry folks, having a flaky statistic about probability doesn't prove a goddam thing.
OMG I TOTALLY BELIEVE IN JESUS NOW!
Oh wait, no I don't. Your reasoning and math is dumb and wrong. :( I'm so sad for you.
@Kuno : And Boom , Kuno wins the internet
“Reminds me of the Prof of Statistics several years ago who took eight prophecies relating to the life of Jesus.”
“All were from OT writings where there is general agreement that they dated back at least 400 years before Christ.”
"He then gave his senior class an exercise to calculate the probability of all eight being fulfilled in one person.”
"They came up with a figure of 1:10^17.”
“The results were published in a respected journal.”
“So clearly his methodology was considered acceptable.”
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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