And this person is a Professor??

[flexibeast]

i recently came across an article about an Oxford Professor (no less!) who claims to have a mathematical proof that Christ was resurrected by God. A proof is only as good as its starting premises, and so i was flabbergasted to read the following:

He said that the conclusion was arrived at after a series of complex calculations, which began with the probability of God's existence as one in two, that is either God existed or did not, adding that it was also one in two that God became incarnate.

Er, what??? A possibility space limited to two possibilities does not automatically imply an equal probability for both of those possibilities - the sun may or may not rise tomorrow, but does that mean there's a 50% chance that it won't? :-P The assignation of probability to a given event is not necessarily a trivial task; and particularly so when we're talking about the existence of God! A Bayesian approach, which is based on examining previous occurences of an event, can sometimes help; but there is hardly an abundance of 'previous occurences' of the existence of God. :-P

It's really sad to see an Oxford Professor making a mockery of both spirituality and mathematics like this. If he so strongly felt the need to discuss links between spirituality and mathematics, perhaps he should have examined the plethora of instances of the Golden Ratio in the pentagram. :-)

Comments

[ruth-lawrence.livejournal.com]

Everyone in England will be pointing and laughing at him, too...aren't yuz fed up with maths being used spuriously in the support of toxic piffle?

Well *I* am!!!

:::mutter mutter:::

I think I'll get over it by going to Abode, then.

[porcineflight.livejournal.com]

'Tis the season for Academic Nutters - if further evidence is required, see that Canadian-Australian law professor claiming that Africans, Asians and Lebanese are by definition purpetrators of crime etc, and therefore we need to bring back the White Austalia Policy to protect Australia from 'undesirable' foreigners, as opposed to himself, who he believes has a right to be here because he is from a "white" culture and coming to another "white" culture. Urgh!

[ms-le-fey.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

These people should be myths, like chimeras or mermaids. I remember getting into a discussion with someone who looked down her nose at research done at, using her words, 'third-rate universities' in reference to findings on the matriarchal/gynocentric past. I countered saying that 'first-rate' universities produce more than their fair share of shit and that being 'third-rate' doesn't mean good, sound scholarship isn't being done. In the end she agreed with me and I see here that my point just keeps getting proven.

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Yes, i read about him - there was an article (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200507/s1422785.htm) on ABC about Macquarie Uni asking him to retire early . . . .

[cheshire-bitten.livejournal.com]

I read that story, I just looked away, I can't belive that this kind of thing is still being claimed.

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Sadly, i imagine the continued existence of large numbers of ignorant and credulous people probably has something to do with it - cf., the plethora of rubbishy claims made in popular books about quantum physics and its implications. :-/