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Topic:	Sociology > Education
User:	"Dominic Torrazzi"
Date:	13 Apr 2006 05:43:24 PM
Object:	You Have Got To Read This Wingnut Column

If you need any evidence that the theocrats don't understand science,
statistics, or logic - have a read.
You bet your life
Posted: April 13, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
� 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
When Judas Iscariot agreed to deliver Jesus to the chief priests on Maundy
Thursday some 2,000 years ago, he was betting that Jesus was not who He
claimed to be - the son of God. Judas' payoff was 30 pieces of silver.
However, that betrayal cost Judas his life. History has shown this wager was
against impossible odds.
Today, many are going against the odds and making that same wager.
Just what are the odds that Jesus was God's son?
Although, we will not know with absolute certainty until we die and are
confronted by our Maker, overwhelming statistical probability is considered
proof by the scientific community. For example, DNA evidence is often the
proof needed to get a crime conviction, even though the probability of a
match may be 1 in a quintillion (1 with 18 zeros after it) or one in 10 to
the 29th power if using a full profile.
Consider the proof in the Bible that Jesus was who He said He was.
The Hebrew Scriptures pointed the way to the promised Messiah and went into
great detail about His birth, life and death through prophecy. These
prophecies were made many years before Jesus' birth and the Dead Sea Scrolls
confirm that they remained unchanged.
Oxford scholar Alfred Edersheim compiled a list of 456 identifying
characteristics of the Messiah from these prophecies that were fulfilled by
Jesus.
Dr. Peter Stoner, professor emeritus of science at Westmont College,
calculated the probability of one man fulfilling just the major prophecies
with the help of 12 different classes of 600 college students. Then, he took
more conservative figures to the Committee of the American Scientific
Affiliation and had them verified using the data supplied in the Bible.
Stoner looked at these eight prophecies:
Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).
A messenger was sent to prepare the way (Malachi 3:1).
Made a triumphant entry into Jerusalem as a king riding on a lowly donkey
(Zechariah 9:9).
Betrayed by a friend that resulted in wounds in the hands (Zechariah 13:6).
Price of betrayal was 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12).
The blood money was used to buy a potter's field (Zechariah 11:13).
Offered no defense at his trial (Isaiah 53:7).
His hands and feet were pierced (Psalm 22:16).
The estimate of one man fulfilling all eight of these prophecies was a
staggering 10 to the 17th power, a number with 17 zeroes after it.
In another calculation, he used 48 prophecies and came up with a probability
of 10 to the 157th power, an impossible figure to achieve without Divine
intervention.
Exactly what do these numbers mean?
Stoner gave us this example. Ten to the 17th power would be the number of
silver dollars needed to cover the entire state of Texas, two feet deep.
To help us visualize 10 to the 157th power, Stoner chose one of the smallest
known objects, the electron. An electron is so small that it would take 2.5
x 1,000,000,000,000,000 of them laid side by side to make a line, single
file, one inch long.
Space, according to some estimates, extends in all directions to a distance
of 6 million light-years. Dr. Stoner asked us to imagine a solid ball of
electrons the size of space. Now fit that space-size ball of electrons, into
a ball of electrons 10 to the 157th power. How big of a dent would our
space-size ball make? It would make a hole so small that it would not be
noticeable.
Remember, that number 10 to the 157th power represents the probability of
one man fulfilling just 48 of these prophesies and there were 456 that Dr.
Stoner and his mathematicians could have used.
Let us go back to the odds that one man could have fulfilled just those
first eight prophecies. Imagine that one of the silver dollars covering the
state of Texas, two feet thick, was marked in red fingernail polish. You are
given the task of walking throughout Texas, reaching down and selecting the
right one on the first try. Suppose your very life was on the line. Could
you do it?
Would you bet your life on that?
Of course you would not, but that is, in effect, what you are doing when
you, like Judas, decide to reject the tremendous amount of evidence that
Jesus Christ was the son of God and the only way to the Father.
Christ willingly laid down His life to pay the price for our sins in order
to give us the gift of eternal life. It is a free gift - yours to accept or
reject.
.

User: "Cary Kittrell"
Title: Re: You Have Got To Read This Wingnut Column	02 May 2006 05:54:17 PM

In article <1146609373.450846.212130@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com> "rbwinn" <rbwinn3@juno.com> writes:

Cary Kittrell wrote:

In article <1146605222.799700.145030@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com> "rbwinn" <rbwinn3@juno.com> writes:

Cary Kittrell wrote:

In article <1146598393.917167.301030@j73g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> "rbwinn" <rbwinn3@juno.com> writes:

Cary Kittrell wrote:

In article <1146574735.990178.42620@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com> "rbwinn" <rbwinn3@juno.com> writes:

Bill Shatzer wrote:

gatt wrote:

"rbwinn" <rbwinn3@juno.com> wrote in message
news:1146525098.298191.167400@j73g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Well, the problem I see with your idea is that you do not think
anything should be done to prevent the spread of AIDS. If people lived
moral lives, the disease would disappear

Yeah. Like breast cancer, parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, anthrax
and birth defects.
God must LOVE those diseases. Even the POPE got Parkinson's.

"One thing we can be sure of About God Is that he loves beetles. He made
so many of them."

Well, when Jesus Christ returns to judge this earth, why don't you take
an opportunity to tell him all the things that you think were mistakes?
Robert B. Winn

I'm not sure He'll have that kind of time for us atheists, small
potatoes that we are. I suspect He'll have his hands full explaining
things to the much larger number of Christians who were just sure they
were heaven-bound, but forgot about:

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels
with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate
them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the
goats:
.
.
.
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye
gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not:
sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an
hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison,
and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as
ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous
into life eternal.

Well, the unrighteous Christians will be put with the atheists. That
will be their punishment.
Robert B. Winn

If failing what Jesus demands of you, above, is unrighteousness, then
all but a handful of the Christians I've known will be on the bus
with us athiests.

How about you? Will you pass Jesus' requirements; have you succored
the poor and the disadvantaged? Or will you and I perhaps have
the chance to continue this dialog eternally, because you have not?

Well, I will let Jesus Christ be the judge of what is going to happen.

According to what I quoted, above, that may well turn out to be
a disasterous idea.

The safer approach would be to make an effort to do what He requires
of you, wouldn't you say?

Now you are getting the idea. So, see you in church next Sunday?

See you visiting prisoners next Monday?
-- cary
.

User: "rbwinn"
Title: Re: You Have Got To Read This Wingnut Column	02 May 2006 07:00:01 PM