• Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more

The Incredible odds of fulfilled bible prophecy

Akhenaten said:
Excellent suggestion. Since the linked article simply asserts the probabilities without showing any working I think it behooves DOC to take us step-by-step through the calculations.
Click to expand...
Seconded!
 
Last edited:
Messages from Satan

DOC said:
For some reason the link in the first post in not working.

Here is the link regarding the article by Dr. Hugh Ross for those interested.

http://www.reasons.org/articles/art...ecy-evidence-for-the-reliability-of-the-bible
Click to expand...

Satan can tell the future he just lacks details.


God is not the only one, however, who uses forecasts of future events to get people's attention. Satan does, too. Through clairvoyants (such as Jeanne Dixon and Edgar Cayce), mediums, spiritists, and others, come remarkable predictions, though rarely with more than about 60 percent accuracy, never with total accuracy. Messages from Satan, furthermore, fail to match the detail of Bible prophecies, nor do they include a call to repentance.

ETA: apparently the Devil is not in the details.
 
Last edited:
Akhenaten said:
Excellent suggestion. Since the linked article simply asserts the probabilities without showing any working I think it behooves DOC to take us step-by-step through the calculations.
Click to expand...


Anyway, it ignores the fact that if the New Testament was deliberately written in such a way that it includes fulfilled prophecies (for example by inventing a bizarrely conducted census to make a Galilean family travel to Bethlehem) then the probablity of the OT prophecies being "fulfilled" in the NT is 1.
 
Last edited:
DOC said:
So you believe a PhD in Astrophysics doesn't understand probability.
Click to expand...

He's talking faith not probability:

(4) Some 400 years before crucifixion was invented, both Israel's King David and the prophet Zechariah described the Messiah's death in words that perfectly depict that mode of execution. Further, they said that the body would be pierced and that none of the bones would be broken, contrary to customary procedure in cases of crucifixion (Psalm 22 and 34:20; Zechariah 12:10). Again, historians and New Testament writers confirm the fulfillment: Jesus of Nazareth died on a Roman cross, and his extraordinarily quick death eliminated the need for the usual breaking of bones. A spear was thrust into his side to verify that he was, indeed, dead.

(Probability of chance fulfillment = 1 in 1013.)
 
joobz said:
yes.


ETA:
having reviewed countless manuscripts for science journals, I can state unequivocally that being holding a PhD in a hard science is no guarantee in understanding probability.
Click to expand...

What's the chance that any given individual would get a Phd? We know that not everyone will get one so we can say that the odds of getting one is so small that no one has ever done it.


therefore god.
 
Since the Messiah's ministry could conceivably begin in any one of about 5000 years, there is, then, one chance in about 5000 that his ministry could begin in 26 A.D.
Click to expand...

Sorry. I'm reasonably bright, yet I can't figure that one out at all. Can anyone explain it to me?

Since the Messiah is God in human form, the possibility of his being killed is considerably low, say less than one chance in 10.
Click to expand...

This seems totally made up, and the premise is just assumed.

I say the chances of the Messiah being God in human form are "say less than one chance in" 137,899,355,127,889,321.35.

So there.
 
Well Doc? Show us the maths. Or think carefully before you post another crackpot website.
 
Fast Eddie B said:
Sorry. I'm reasonably bright, yet I can't figure that one out at all. Can anyone explain it to me?



This seems totally made up, and the premise is just assumed.

I say the chances of the Messiah being God in human form are "say less than one chance in" 137,899,355,127,889,321.35.

So there.
Click to expand...
It's funnier than that.
I would argue that if god was man in human form, it stands to reason that he IS mortal. If he wasn't, then he wouldn't be in human form. as such, I'd put the probability of his body being able to die at 100%

Secondly, he has two probabilities that are (destruction of temple and start of ministry) that are not independent events. If he sets the start date of 26AD as a requirement for the prophecy, than it goes without saying that this happened before the temple was destroyed. Especially since the accounts of his time were all written AFTER the temple was destroyed. So we are back to

1 in 5000 chance that the Jesus story would have happened. (of course that number is bogus in it's creation, but will go with it).


Let's compare this with the odds of being struck by lightning, which are calculated at ~1 in 600,000.

This means that it is 120 times more likely that a story of Jesus would exist than it is for you to be struck by lightning.

All of this assumes that there is 1 and only 1 person that would fulfill the prophecy. If we consider the number of people born who could have fit the bill, we realize that the odds are much much better.

In the same way, when you look across the entire country, we can see people who get struck by lightning every year.


His odds work against him.
 
tsig said:
Satan can tell the future he just lacks details.


God is not the only one, however, who uses forecasts of future events to get people's attention. Satan does, too. Through clairvoyants (such as Jeanne Dixon and Edgar Cayce), mediums, spiritists, and others, come remarkable predictions, though rarely with more than about 60 percent accuracy, never with total accuracy. Messages from Satan, furthermore, fail to match the detail of Bible prophecies, nor do they include a call to repentance.

ETA: apparently the Devil is not in the details.
Click to expand...

:D
 
Mudcat said:
DOC, I admit I don't know the first thing about probability...
Click to expand...

Then you don't know if a classroom has 57 people in it then the probability that at least 2 people have the same birthday is 99%.
 
DOC said:
For some reason the link in the first post in not working.

Here is the link regarding the article by Dr. Hugh Ross for those interested.

http://www.reasons.org/articles/art...ecy-evidence-for-the-reliability-of-the-bible
Click to expand...

Why are you reposting a link to that article? Is this a ploy that we just restart the discussion from the begin of this thread, where Ross' article was already soundly debunked? That would certainly fit well within your SOP, what with rehashing failed arguments some time later.
 
DOC said:
Then you don't know if a classroom has 57 people in it then the probability that at least 2 people have the same birthday is 99%.
Click to expand...

That has nothing to do with the phoney probability in the crazy website that you linked to.
 
DOC said:
Then you don't know if a classroom has 57 people in it then the probability that at least 2 people have the same birthday is 99%.
Click to expand...

Don't you know that the probability of a dead guy coming back to life is zero?
 
ddt said:
Why are you reposting a link to that article? Is this a ploy that we just restart the discussion from the beginning of this thread, where Ross' article was already soundly debunked? That would certainly fit well within your SOP, what with rehashing failed arguments some time later.
Click to expand...


Anything to distract from the embarrassment of attempting to pursue a line of reasoning that would require half of the modern world to not exist in order for it to make any sense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

ISF - Join now!

Every member here is approved by hand. No bots, no spam, just people who care about evidence and honest debate.

Membership is free!

Create your free account

Back
Top Bottom