Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams frivolously suggested mathematical arguments could make God disappear in a puff of logic.
But an Oxford don is prepared to show Sydneysiders how probability formulas can prove Jesus was almost certainly his son.
World renowned British philosopher Professor Richard Swinburne will be presenting his calculations next week at the University of New South Wales.
Professor Swineburne says probability arguments using Bayes's Theorem can show university students how they can be 97% certain of the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
His use of complex mathematics and historical evidence to transform matters of faith into fact have ignited a storm of controversy, and provided the central themes to his recent book The Resurrection of God Incarnate.
Over the past 25 years Professor Swinburne has published a series of books addressing the major questions in the philosophy of religion.
He is in Australia at the invitation of the Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education (CASE).
CASE director Dr Greg Clarke says the Professor has been described as ‘the premier rational apologist of our era’.
"This fellow is the top of his field, so it's hard to deny his logic," Dr Clarke says.
"By putting together a series of if-then statements he comes up with the result that it's much more likely that God would have become human and that he would care enough to save us from our sins and that he would do it in a way that the Gospels describe," he says.
Dr Clarke says CASE is throwing the lecture open to all comers, saying Professor Swinburne's arguments will prove interesting to anyone with a mind for the meaning of life, the universe and everything.
"This is employing logic as best we can to understand history and theology, and when we do that we come up with the Christian faith being far more believable than people think it is," Dr Clarke says.
Professor Swinburne will be speaking at New College, the University of New South Wales, on June 30 at 7.30 PM.
People interested in attending should RSVP to Greg Clarke at New College.
