Strawmanning Naturalistic Explanations of the Alleged Resurrection | Part 1:

In this video, I respond to The Babylon Bee’s video: If Jesus’ Resurrection were a Hoax.

Video 1: A Babylon Bee video which, in my view, strawmans naturalist explanations of the alleged Resurrection.

Below is Part 1 of my video response:

Video 2: This is my video-response to the Babylon Bee’s video, above.

In video 2, I examine the claims that the Apostles were “brutally murdered” for professing belief in the Resurrection. The latest scholarship—indeed the latest Christian scholarship—suggests that they were not. At best, there is some historical evidence that Saint Peter and Saint Paul were martyred.

In video 2, I ponder whether or not stealing the body was even necessary for a belief in the Resurrection to crop up, naturalistically, amongst the Early Church. The latest Scholarship suggests that there was no empty tomb. Even Bart Ehrman^[1] has abandoned belief in the ‘honorable burial’ of Jesus. I suggest that—in the unlikely event that it ever even existed!—Jesus’s tomb was so luxurious, that it would have been reused after His death. If we ever did find Jesus’s tomb, there would, in all likelihood, be a corpse interred there. It would then be impossible for us to determine whether or not this corpse would be Jesus’s or the later tomb-occupant’s.

In video 2, I also stress that History is about ascertaining what probably happened in the past, and not about ascertaining what absolutely happened in the past. History has no way of ascertaining what absolutely happened in the past.

As Bart Ehrman stresses, given that History proceeds via methodological naturalism, the silliest and most ad hoc Naturalist explanation for the Resurrection is still going to be much much much more likely than a supernaturalist explanation that entails a man rising from the dead.

Ehrman posulates, for example, that Jesus might have had a twin, and whenever Jesus died, then Jesus’s twin came back on the scene, and began to tell everybody that he was the risen Jesus. This explanation is silly and absurd, and yet, according to Ehrman, it is much more likely than the postulation that a man rose from the dead.

Bart Ehrman does not say that miracles do not happen. As an ontological naturalist, this is, indeed what he privately believes, but this is not something that he can assert as an historical fact. However, what Ehrman does say is that if miracles do happen, then the Historical Method has no means of detecting them.

The Historical Method can only detect natural occurrences proceeding from natural causes. If miracles occur in the past, then the Historical Method is incapable of detecting them. Even then, the Historical method can only detect some natural events proceeding from some natural causes. The Historical Method is far from error-free. Sometimes it fails to detect phenomena that actually occurred in the past. Sometimes the Historical Method detects an occurrence that never occurred in the past.

I think that some Christian Apologists, like Frank Turek, have a hard time understanding this.

If there be an 80% chance that an event occurred in the past, then there is also a 20% chance that this same event did not occur in the past. Sometimes phenomena occur in the past—or, indeed, fail to occur—in the past, against the odds.

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^[1] The following quote is from Bart Ehrman Blog: ‘One of the most pressing historical questions surrounding the death of Jesus is whether Jesus really was given a decent burial, as the NT Gospels indicate in their story of Joseph of Arimathea. Even though the story that Joseph, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, received permission to bury Jesus is multiply attested in independent sources (see, e.g., Mark 15:43-47; John 19:38-42), scholars have long adduced reasons for suspecting that the account may have been invented by Christians who wanted to make sure that they could say with confidence that the tomb was empty on the third day. The logic is that if no one knew for sure where Jesus was buried, then no one could say that his tomb was empty; and if the tomb was not empty, then Jesus obviously was not physically raised from the dead. And so the story of the resurrection more or less required a story of a burial, in a known spot, by a known person. For some historians, that makes the story suspicious.

‘There are real grounds for the suspicion.’

The Elements of Euclid in Greek and Latin

I was trying to parse my way through an edition of The Elements in Greek and Latin:

https://archive.org/details/euclidisoperaomn01eucluoft/page/x

The name of The Elements in Ancient Greek is:

Στοιχει̃a

or, when transliterated:

Stoicheĩa

.

The Ancient-Greek word, τὰ στοιχει̃α or, when transliterated ‘tà stoicheĩa,’ is a plural form of the 2nd-declension neuter verb, τὸ στοιχει̃ον genitive: του̃ στοιχείου or, when transliterated: ‘tò stoicheĩon,’ genitive: ‘toũ stoicheíou.’

The Ancient-Greek word, ‘tò stoicheĩon,’ can mean ‘an element in a set.’

Figure 1: The elements of this set are alpha, beta, gamma and delta.

The Ancient-Greek word, ‘tò stoicheĩon,’ is formed from the Ancient-Greek masculine noun, ὁ στοι̃χος genitive: του̃ στοίχου or, when transliterated, ‘ho stoĩchos,’ genitive: ‘toũ stoíchou,’ which means ‘steps,’ or ‘a flight of stairs;’ and the Ancient-Greek 2nd-declension neuter nominal suffix, ‘-eĩon,’ genitive: ‘-eíou’ which denotes ‘a means (of),’ ‘an instrument of;’ etc.

Figure 2: a ‘stoĩchos’ or ‘series of steps.’

The term, ‘stoĩchos,’ according to Wiktionary, may be traced back to the indo-european word:

*steigʰ

, which means:

‘climb.’

Hence, etymologically, the Ancient-Greek term, ‘stoicheĩa,’ can be said to mean: ‘the means of climbing up;’ ‘the means of stepping up;’ ‘the means of ascent;’ etc.

This is highly instructive, as, in truth, Elements is a book that is a Jacob’s ladder, of sorts, by which one can ascend, element by element, into the heavens of mathematical knowledge.

Figure 3: With The Elements of Euclid, we advance in our mathematical knowledge element by element. Each element is, conceptually, like a rung, heaving us upwards to Mathematical prowess; to an implicit knowledge of Euclidean Geometry.

Operator Precedence in Arithmetic

The Microsoft Word version of this blogpost. (.docx)

The PDF version of this blogpost. (.pdf)

Introduction:

Conventional Arithmetic possesses rules for the order of operations. Which operations ought we to evaluate first? In what order ought we to evaluate operations? This is the topic that this chapter wishes to address. ‘Precedence,’ is also sometimes referred to as ‘the order of operations.’

Body:

The Etymological Definition of ‘Precedence:’

Our English noun, ‘precedence,’ is derived from the Latin substantive participle, ‘praecēdentia.’^[3] ‘Praecēdentia,’ in Latin, means ‘the abstract concept of which things go before [other things].’

Figure 2: The English arithmetical term, ‘precendence,’ is derived from a compund of the Latin verb ‘cēdēre,’ which means ‘to go.’ Go, or Golang, as a language, is—syntactically—very like the C Programming Language.

Within the context of Arithmetic, ‘precedence,’ etymologically, means ‘the science of determining which operations go before [other operations];’ ‘the science of determining which operations should be evaluated before [other operations].

The Acronym, ‘P.E.M.D.A.S:’

The acronym, ‘P.E.M.D.A.S.,’ stands for:

1. Parenthesis;
2. Exponentiation;
3. Multiplication and Division;
4. Addition and Subtraction.

The Acronym, ‘P.E.M.D.A.S.,’ can be easily remembered with the Mnemonic phrase:

‘Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.’^[4]

Levels of Precedence:

As we can observe from the above ordered list, some operations share the same level of precedence. For example, the operation, multiplication, and the operation, division, have the same level of precedence. Multiplication and Division share the third level of precedence, in the above list. When we are confronted with an expression or an equation that contains operations at the same level of precedence, seeing that in Anglophone countries, we read from left to right, then we evaluate operations that possess the same level of precedence from left to right. Hence, when two or more operations—within an equation or an expression—share the same level of precedence, then we evaluate them from left to right. Concerning operations at the same level of precedence, we evaluate from beginning at the leftmost operation, and work our way rightwards.

An Example of Precedence:

In the expression:

2 ÷ 1 + 3 × 4² – 5 + ( 3 – 2 )

, we first evaluate the operation in parenthesis, i.e.:

( 3 – 2 )

. When we evaluate:

( 3 – 2 )

, then we obtain the difference:

1

.

This renders the original expression as:

2 ÷ 1 + 3 × 4² – 5 + ( 1 )

or as:

2 ÷ 1 + 3 × 4² – 5 + 1

.

Second, we evaluate the exponentiation operation i.e.:

4²

. When we evaluate:

4²

, then this obtains for us the power:

16

. This renders our original expression as:

2 ÷ 1 + 3 × 16 – 5 + 1

.

The operations, Multiplication and Division, share the same level of precedence. However, given that the division operation is further to the left, on the page, than the multiplication operation, then we evaluate the division operation before we evaluate the multiplication operation.

Given that the division operation:

2 ÷ 1

is further to the left, on our page than the multiplication operation:

3 × 16

, then we evaluate:

2 ÷ 1

before we evaluate:

3 × 16

.

When we evaluate:

<!–

2\div1

–>

2 ÷ 1

, then we obtain the quotient:

2

. This renders our original expression as:

2 + 3 × 16 – 5 + 1

. Then we proceed to evaluate:

3 × 16

, and this obtains for us the product:

48

. This renders our original expression as:

2 + 48 – 5 + 1

.

The operations; addition, and subtraction; share the same level of precedence. In the above ordered list, they are at the 4^th level of precedence. We evaluate these operations as we should find them, beginning at the leftmost, and working our way rightward. Hence, we evaluate:

2 + 48

first. This obtains for us the sum:

50

. This renders our original expression as:

50 – 5 + 1

. We then proceed to evaluate the operation:

50 – 5

, which obtains for us the difference:

45

. This renders our original expression as:

45 + 1

. We then proceed to evaluate the expression:

45 + 1

. This obtains for us the sum:

46

.
This renders our original expression as:

46

. We have thus simplified the expression:

2 ÷ 1 + 3 × 4² – 5 + ( 3 – 2 )

to:

46

. We have observed mathematical precedence οr the order of operations in our simplification of the expression:

<!–

2 \div 1 + 3 \times 4² – 5 + \left ( 3 – 2 )

–>

2 ÷ 1 + 3 × 4² – 5 + ( 3 – 2 )

to:

46

.

Conclusion:

In this chapter, we have endeavoured to gain for ourselves an implicit understanding of precedence as it pertains to basic or conventional arithmetic. Boolean arithmetic, an arithmetic of logic employed in Computer Science, also possesses precedence or an order of operations, which we shall examine in a subsequent chapter. In the next chapter, we shall examine precedence or the order of operations as it specifically applies to the C programming language.

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Footnotes:

^[1] The Etymology of the English mathematical term, ‘arithmetic,’ is as follows. The English adjective, ‘arithmetic,’ is derived from the Latin 1^st-and-2^nd-declension adjective, ‘arithmētica, arithmēticus, arithmēticum.’ Further, the Latin adjective, ‘arithmēticus,’ is derived from the Ancient-Greek phrase, ἀριθμητικὴ τέξνη or, when transliterated, ‘arithmētikḕ téchne,’ which means ‘the art of counting;’ ‘the skill of counting;’ ‘the science of counting.’ ὁ ἀριθμός genitive: τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ, or—when transliterated: ‘ho arithmós,’ genitive: ‘toũ arithmoũ,’—is a 2nd-declension Ancient-Greek noun that means ‘number,’ ‘numeral,’ Cf. ‘ἀριθμός#Ancient_Greek,’ Wiktionary (last modified: 7^th September 2018, at 17:57.), https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ἀριθμός#Ancient_Greek , accessed 29th April 2019.^[2] Cf. ‘arithmetic,’ Wiktionary (last modified: 25th April 2019, at 04:45.), https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/arithmetic, accessed 29th April 2019.

^[3] ‘praecedēntia’ is the nominative neuter plural of the participle, ‘praecedēns,’ which means ‘going before.’ The form, ‘praecedēntia,’ means ‘those things going before;’ ‘the concept of things going before.’ We shall metamorphose ‘praecedēntia’ into a 1st-declension feminine noun that means ‘precedence.’ ‘praecedēntia’ genitive singular: ‘praecēdentiae,’ is a 1st-declension feminine noun that means ‘precedence.’ ‘praecēdentiae,’ can be further broken down into the preposition, ‘prae,’ which means ‘before;’ and the 3rd-conjugation verb, ‘cēdō, cēdere, cessī, cessum,’ which means ‘to go,’ and the Latin 1st-declension feminine nominative nominal suffix, ‘-ia,’ genitive: ‘-iae,’ which, in this instance, denotes ‘a noun formed from a present-participle stem.’ Hence, the etymological definition of ‘precedence’ is ‘the concept of things going before [other things].’ Within the context of arithmetic, the etymological definition of ‘precedence is ‘the concept of operations being evaluated before other operations.’ Cf. ‘praecedentia,’ Wiktionary (last modified on 9^th September 2013, at 02:28.), accessed on 1^st May 2019. Cf. ‘praecedens,’ Wiktionary (last modified on 11^th November 2016, at 16:40.) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/praecedens#Latin, accessed on 1^st May 2019.

^[4] Stapel, Elizabeth, ‘The Order of Operations: PEMDAS,’ Purple Math (2019), http://www.purplemath.com/modules/orderops.htm, accessed on the 1^st May 2019.

Wire-Framing Websites and Apps in Inkscape and Scripted SVG:

Figure 1: I drew this HTML logo in Scripted SVG. My development skills, especially my ability to develop web images through code, is really beginning to rise to a professional standard.

Figure 2: I mocked up this old website, phouka.com for an e-book that I am putting the finishing touches to, and hope to release upon Amazon, shortly. This website, developed in 2005, employs a pre-html-5 table layout which is now deprecated. Today, the downloading of fonts by a web-accessor is no longer required thanks to @fontface .

Figure 3: I drew this Swift Logo – the Programming Language employed by Apple – in Vector software such as Vector Magic and Inkscape. Apps can be mocked up in Inkscape so as to give the customer a sense of what his/her app’s user experience/ graphical user interface might look like, prior to the app’s development commencing in earnest.

If anyone should require mockups of apps or websites prior to taking this wireframe to a professional website-developer/app-programmer, let me know. Send me a direct message, or something. The advantage of doing this in SVG, is that one can then employ the SVG code and the CSS code generated by Inkscape in the website/app itself.

The Ancient-Greek word for ‘bone.’

Figure 1: I drew this bone in inkscape.

τὸ οστέον Genitive: τοῦ οστέου ‘tò ostéon’ Genitive: ‘toû ostéou.’ The Ancient-Greek word for ‘bone.’ We derive the medical prefix ‘osteo-‘ from this. ‘osteoarthritis’ for instance is an inflammation of the joints caused by an inflammation of the bones at the joint. Learning Greek makes one better able to understand and remember biological terms.

Irish Gaelic is Opulent and Elegant:

    Figure 1:  I drew this portrait of Reverend Eugene O’ Growney (1863-1899), a Roman Catholic priest who taught Irish Gaelic in Maynooth, and was very influential in the Gaelic League.

 

I Figure 2:  I drew this 1916 Rising flag in Inkscape.  The motto, ‘Erin go Bragh,’ means: ‘Ireland till [the Last] Judgement;’ ‘Ireland forever.’

Est quidem lingua Hibernica et ēlēgans cum prīmīs et opulenta.

James Ussher (Usher) 1581 1656 

Which means:

The Irish language is indeed both as elegant as the best [of languages] and [also] opulent.

James Usher was an Irish Anglican Bishop.

Latin allows one to read historical documents in their original form.

 

Esse est Perspicī: to be is to be perceived:

Figure 1:  “Of infinite scope.”  I drew this in Inkscape.

Figure 2:  ‘ho skopós’ in Ancient Greek is whence we derive the programming term, ‘scope.’

At present, I am writing an article on ‘scope’ as it pertains to programming.  I am going to try to explain it with Berkeley’s:

“esse est perspicī;”

which means:

“to be is to be percieved.”

, which some suggest to be a foreshadow of  the scientific phenomenon known as:

“quantum observation.”

How far can the quantum observer, as regards the world or universe of the program see, as regards a variable’s declaration and initialisation?

If the quantum observer can see all things; perceive all things; like the omnivident ^[1] “watcher” portrayed in Figure 1, then the variable is said to be of global scope.

However, as regards the world or universe of the program; should the quantum observer be a little myopic; should his field of perception be limited to a function or an object or some other code block, then the variable in question is said to be of local scope.

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^[1]  I invented this theological term, as it is convenient.  It describes the ability of a deity to see all things.  From the Latin adjective, ‘omnis,’ which means ‘all;’ and the Latin 2nd-conjugation verb, ‘videō,’ which means ‘I see.’  Incidentally, Goerge Berkely (1685 – 1753) was an Irish Anglican Clergyman.

The Straight Edge:

The better that I know plane and cartesian Geometry, the better that I can both script, and draw (using a free open-source suite like Inkscape) computer Graphics.

In Plane Geometry, a straight edge is used.  A straight edge differs from a ruler, in that:

• whereas rulers possess gradated markings that indicate standard units of measurement, there are no gradated markings that indicate standard units of measurement – such as millimeters centimeters, etc. – on a straight edge.
• the width of the straight edge is deemed infinite, whereas real-life rulers are, it is needless to say, of finite width.

Figure 1:  A collapsible compass and straight edge.  These two instruments are employed in the construction of figures in Euclidean Geometry.  The span of a collapsible compass is deemed to collapse, should both the metallic point, and the graphite point of the compass be removed at the same time from the page.

See the Pen Collapsible Compass and Straight Edge Inkscape SVG by Ciaran Mc Ardle (@Valerius_de_Hib) on CodePen.

 

Bookcover Design in SVG and Inkscape:

Figure 1: I drew this book-cover in Scripted SVG and Inkscape. You may observe the vector file at my codepen account.

When it comes to the Kindle Store: prospective purchasers really do judge a book by its cover!

That is why a book cover requires its being extremely stylish and appealing to the eye, employing gradients, fonts, contrasting/complementary colours, etc. to this effect.

The Triplet as an Analogy to Ancient-Greek pronunciation.

Figure 1: A triplet that I scripted in SVG. I can import these svg “primitives” into Inkscape, and then write music, therewith. You may view the SVG code for this at my codepen account.

A triplet symbol that I drew in SVG. I need this so as to visually explain how to pronounce syllables marked with the circumflex accent, or the:

περισπωμένη

, or – when transliterated:

perispōménē

, to give it its Greek name. I am writing a chapter on this.  I should like to write an e-book entitled My First One-Hundred Ancient-Greek Words.

In music theory, the triplet denotes three notes sounded with the length, or duration, of two.  For instance, 3 crotchets, that, together, only possess the duration of two crotchets.

The circumflex, or perispōménē denotes – as regards the tonality of the syllable marked with it – a beginning on middle C, a rise to G, and then a falling of tone back to Middle C, and all of this occurs within 2 morae… which is like a minim in duration.

Some Greek primers on the market today downplay the significance of the polytonic pronunciation.

They inform the reader to simply stress the syllable accented, or – worse still! – to ignore the accents altogether, and to apply the penult-antepenult pronunciation rules of Latin to Ancient-Greek words!

However, I find that learning both the rhythm and pitch of Greek words makes them a lot more memorable.  We, native English speakers, do not have a tonal language however, other cultures, such as the Chinese, do.  A Chinese person would have zero difficulty with learning the polytonic pronunciation of Ancient Greek. There are more fluent English speakers in China than there are in the United States of America…[1] so it is important to bear them in mind when writing a book such as this.

Figure 2: The polytonic nature of Ancient-Greek is a thing of beauty. To learn it need not be a chore.

For a Chinese person to develop an interest in Western Culture – such as learning Ancient Greek, say – is to project affluence, education and refinement.

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[1]. I fact-checked this on Wikipedia. The United States has more fluent speakers of English, than does China, however, China has more people learning English than what the United States does.

Addendum

Below is the SVG code wherewith I scripted the triplet image depicted in Figure 1.

https://ideone.com/e.js/PUdPZ2