Torley Presents Alter's Case Against the Resurrection

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

@Djordje

Alter claims that a crucified criminal would be thrown in a hole with other criminals and,in most cases, I’d agree with him, but we do have archeological evidence of at least one crucified man (not Jesus) buried in his family’s tomb, so that point is more or less moot.

Likewise with nails in crucifixion.

The logic appears to be: we know that horses are the animal of choice to ride, so we should doubt Jesus actually rode a donkey into Jerusalem. By this logic, every detail of a story decreases its likelihood, independent of the evidence of what explanation is most likely given all the evidence.

The fallacy is mistaking P( Story1 ) for P(Story1 | Evidence) vs. P(Story2 | Evidence). The P( Story1 ) will always be low for just about every true story. P(Story1 | Evidence) vs. P(Story2 | Evidence), on the other hand, can point to clear winners and losers.