Sunday, February 25, 2007

'Tis the Season for Debunking ... Sigh

Hold onto your hat. We have entered the season of Lent ... It must time for the Christianity debunkers to come out of the woodwork! This time, James Cameron (Terminator, Titanic, Aliens of the Deep) and pulp documentary maker, Simcha Jacobovic (Quest for the Lost Tribes) are about to unveil their new project.

At a press conference on Monday, February 26th, they will reveal three ossuaries purported to be those of Jesus and his relatives. DNA samples will show conclusively the family ties, the tissue remains proved by carbon-13 testing to be precisely mid-first century, and the names on said ossuaries are authentic, not latter-day fakes.

Most if not all their "research" comes from James Tabor, chairman of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and author of The Jesus Dynasty.

The presuppositions employed by Tabor, Cameron, Jacobovic, and all materialists interested in sinking the Catholic Church, her creeds and faith, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and all who rely on the Christian faith are the usual suspects: no God, no miracles, nothing beyond the reach of the empirical method of scientific research, and no hope of help from beyond our meager human existences in a vast, cold, dark, and largely empty universe.

Grabbing at what archaeologists tell us were hugely commonplace and popular names in the first century (Joseph, James, Jeshua, Mary, et al), Tabor in particular makes enormous leaps of faith himself in postulating his argument that these were the graves and remains of Jesus, "his wife," and other family members. It IS more interesting than "The DaVinci Code" in my book, because of the locale, the archaeological work, and the themes. But the logical presuppositions of Prof. Tabor sink this titanic spoof -- they just won't hold water.

So, viewers of the upcoming documentary "The Burial Cave of Jesus" will enjoy the idea that we can have a good laugh at the believing dunderheads and kiss two thousand years of Christian faith goodbye once and for all. But those "dunderheads" -- I count myself among them -- will recall that when Saint Helena came to Jerusalem, Bishop Makarius knew precisely where the tomb of Our Lord was, over which the Church of the Holy Sepulcre stands to this day.

The Church, her bishops, and her people had never left Jerusalem where Jesus said to the apostles after his resurrection,
Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have. [Lk 24, 38b-40]
A blessed and faith-filled Lent. +

6 comments:

Porthos said...

Groan. Good catch, and nice scripture choice to top that one off with, Athos.

First it was the "historical Jesus," then Jesus Christ, Superstar, then the "gnostic gospels," then Another Roadside Attraction, then Holy Blood, Holy Grail, then "the Jesus Seminar," then The DaVinci Code, then "The Gospel of (fill in the blank)," and now it's The Burial Cave of Jesus. This is oddly like Cameron's Terminator series, wherein the remorseless android assassins keep getting sent back in time time to kill the savior of humankind and try to make him stay dead! You can crush these androids, run over them with a truck, melt them with systematic rebuttals, but they just keep ressurrecting themselves. They. Just. Keep. Coming. Back. ("Iiiiii'll be baaaaaaack.")

Athos said...

Yes, and I took Cameron's The Abyss off the favorite movies on my profile. So there! That'll show'im! Not that he knows I'm alive ..

Porthos said...

Though our lives are hidden, our role is most vital. It has fallen to us to pray desperately for the soul of the man who directed Titanic.

Seven Star Hand said...

Lying about the name Jesus, again and again...

Hello Athos and all,

The most interesting aspect of this Jesus Tomb story revolves around the actual names on the bone boxes compared to what is being asserted in the effort to make a profit. Pay special attention to the tortured explanations of how names like Jesus, Mary, Matthew, and others were translated from inscriptions that actually say otherwise. As Christians rally to "prove" that this archeological find can't be the "Jesus" and "Mary" of the New Testament, they too must answer the questions about why it is correct to translate those names in a special way to support the veracity of the most profitable story in history. Christians must truthfully answer the question of why it is wrong to use their own methodology to arrive at the names now being asserted as appearing on those bone boxes.

A pivotal component of the strong delusion of Christianity revolves around the name/title Jesus Christ. Christians and others have rallied around the weak and blatantly deceptive assertions surrounding the source of the name Jesus, among others in the so-called New Testament. All of the purported uses of this name in ancient settings are actually the Hebrew and Aramaic names that we call Joshua, in all other instances. Why then all of the tortured explanations to convince people that the Hebrew name translated in all other instances as Joshua should in some special cases become the dubious name/title Jesus Christ? If these stories were the truth, why has so much deception accompanied them and those who have profited from them throughout most of the last two millennia?

Ever consider that the New Testament and the stories of Jesus Christ are the great deceptions that the original Hebrew texts warned about? Isn't it odd that the New Testament is full of Greco-Roman names from Europe, not from Judea? Isn't it odd that all of the purported authors of New Testament books have European names and made numerous geographical and factual errors. For example, the proven fact that there was no town named Nazareth during the Second-Temple period. What then does the term Nazarene truly allude to and why did the Vatican and its predecessors go to such lengths to obscure the truth about it and much else? Why have the Vatican, Papacy, and Christianity been characterized by such extreme duplicity and deception for their entire existence if they were truly representatives of the Creator?

You do understand that Gog from Magog actually refers to Greeks and Romans (Greco-Romans) who invaded, subjugated, and scattered the children of Israel? Isn't it at all worrisome that the Vatican and Christianity have "whitewashed" the names, images, and activities of all of the purported Judean characters in the long-dubious New Testament that history proves would have been dark-skinned, dark-haired locals, not blue-eyed European invaders, had they truly existed? Consequently, billions of people have long been deceived into worshipping a false god with a name and image that never could have existed in ancient Second Temple Period Judea!

Ever heard of strong lies and strong delusion? Read 2 Thessalonians 2:11 again.

Can you say woe, woe, woe?

Here is Wisdom !!

Gayle Miller said...

I didn't know James Cameron was still alive, and maybe THAT is the whole point of this nonsense!

That and making a buck - he does have serious alimony obligations, doesn't he?

God's Weaver said...

Better late than never, I guess. Here's a response to the whole bone broohaha:

http://www.denverseminary.edu/dialogue/jesusbones