Mathematics, Christ was resurrected by God

Mathematics proves Christ was resurrected by God

Melbourne: An Oxford University professor has on the basis of logic and mathematics claimed that Jesus Christ was resurrected by God.

Professor Richard Swinburne has said that it was 97 percent certain that God had raised Christ from the dead.

Swinburne, while giving a public lecture at the Australian Catholic University said that probability calculus showed a probability of 97 percent that Christ was resurrected.

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.

Arguing that the evidence for God's existence was an argument for the resurrection, and any evidence against God's existence was an argument against the resurrection, he said that the chance of Christ's resurrection not being reported by the gospels had the probability of one in 10.

These factors, all coming together, if the resurrection was not true, were one in 1000, he said.

"New Testament scholars say the only evidences are witnesses in the four gospels: that's only five per cent of the evidence. We can't judge the question of the resurrection unless we ask first whether there's reason to suppose there is a God. Secondly, if we have reason to suppose he would become incarnate, and thirdly, if he did, whether he would live the sort of life Jesus did," The Age quoted Professor Swinburne, a leading philosopher of religion as saying.

"Does he have reason to become incarnate? Yes, to make atonement, identify with our suffering and to teach us things. Even Jesus' life is not enough proof, he said. God's signature was needed, which the resurrection was, showing his approval of Jesus' teaching," he added.

Dr Swinburne has even provided the detailed calculations in his book 'The Resurrection of God Incarnate".

Not everyone, however, are willing to buy the theory.

Colin Sutherland, a professor of mathematics at the University of New South Wales and an agnostic, said that he suspected the resurrection was something mathematics could not prove.

"In general, mathematics is able to tell you that if one thing is true, that something else is true. But you have to make your assumptions very clear. The conclusions you reach in this kind of discussion often simply reflect the assumptions that you put in at the beginning," said Professor Sutherland.