New Jesus Documentary Criticized
“The Lost Tomb of Christ,” which the Discovery Channel will run on March 4, argues that 10 ancient ossuaries – small caskets used to store bones – discovered in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1980 may have contained the bones of Jesus and his family, according to a press release issued by the Discovery Channel.
One of the caskets even bears the title, “Judah, son of Jesus,” hinting that Jesus may have had a son. And the very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven.
Cameron told NBC’S “Today” show that statisticians found “in the range of a couple of million to one in favor of it being them.” Simcha Jacobovici, the Toronto filmmaker who directed the documentary, said the implications “are huge.”
I like the quote from another story on this:
Local residents said they were pleased with the attention the tomb has drawn.
“It will mean our house prices will go up because Christians will want to live here,” one woman said.
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Here’s the original story posted yesterday:
Brace yourself. James Cameron, the man who brought you ‘The Titanic’ is back with another blockbuster. This time, the ship he’s sinking is Christianity.
In a new documentary, Producer Cameron and his director, Simcha Jacobovici, make the starting claim that Jesus wasn’t resurrected –the cornerstone of Christian faith– and that his burial cave was discovered near Jerusalem. And, get this, Jesus sired a son with Mary Magdelene.
No, it’s not a re-make of “The Da Vinci Codes’. It’s supposed to be true.
Cameron is holding a New York press conference on Monday at which he will reveal three coffins, supposedly those of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene.
Sounds like a great publicity stunt to me.
Good. Glad to see some debate on the issue instead of the blind faith position of the church. Knowledge is power.
Also not a very controversial matter. (only to the public)
If you ever have the chance of being friend of some more enlightened members of clergy, they’ll will say to you that 90% of what the church says is folklore. Matters like the these are completely relativised by scholar clerics.
Now, if he can just find the body of Mohammed we can put this whole thing to rest.
These fellows seem to be making stranger and stranger documentaries.
Stranger than Oliver Stone in their quest for ideas to research and hunt for and present strange perspectives in a story tale manner.
What is it about creative genius that pushes these people over the edge?
Next, James Cameron will also sponsor the first mission to Mars and the whole world will be saved.
How dare you challenge peoples beliefs! If they wanna have an invisible friend that does nothing but impose guilt and shame on how they live their lives with the promise of a greater glory when they die…..heck, I say lets help them achieve their greater glory……soon.
Oh no # 2, this stuff NEVER GETS DEBATED.
Knowledge is power, all the librarians I know are such influential figures.
Cameron is shameless, not in the subject he chose, but he could have been a little more creative for his publicity stunt.That stuff is for Madonna.
“This time, the ship he’s sinking is Christianity.”
About time this happened! I know this will happen, it was just a matter of time. Glad to see the first steps being taken. And who cares who sparks it, this is just a voice of many to come.
Peace and love for all. The end of christianty doesn’t mean a world without love and care for others.
Jeepers, if Cameron isn’t careful, he’s going to give Hollywood a bad reputation amongst religious folks!
#12: When Mohammed’s tomb is found, maybe Islam will get off its high horse also.
Jeepers, if Cameron isn’t careful, he’s going to give Hollywood a bad reputation amongst religious folks!
Like Hollywood cares. Hell, half of them are Scientologists anyway.
“If true” and verifiable, this corpus delicti would indeed blow the lid off Christianity. The Resurrection and Ascension are not among the 80% of the Bible that is open to interpretation among Roman Catholics, for example.
Snippets from: http://tinyurl.com/yu6y2w
[Editor: please use tinyurl.com for long urls]
Director James Cameron is the latest of a string of gold-diggers cashing in on the contemporary rise of revisionist Christian history.
The only problem to their (James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici) elaborate hoax is that the original Jewish professor who worked on the site, Amos Kloner, has already come forward to expose the claims as sheer nonsense.
I can hardly see how a DNA test would help. As with the “world-renowned archeologists,” I would see why a second-hand archeologist would compromise his scholarship to make a buck.
This is nothing new – read The Jesus Dynasty by James D Tabor.
Another Al Capone safe openings.
What I find very disappointing is that all the debate around this is whether or not this will cause a religious backlash. But what about the far more important question of whether this is good archeology? As the claims are highly sensationalistic, all the research must be solid. Otherwise, it is just a bunch of inflammatory garbage.
Yes, it is good to continually reexamine our history. But when it is done with pseudo-scientific principles, everyone loses.
Jesus was not resurrected… his followers bribed the Roman guards and moved the body to another grave, so that the great fraud could be carried on for millennia to come.
As science has proven numerous times, nothing is going to “blow the lid off” christianity. You could give people absolute proof that everything in their precious book is nonsense and 99% of them would go on believing a book that most of them have never read cover to cover.
Empty coffins:
So, he’s got a coffin labeled “Fred Mertz”…. This proves only that a guy with that name was once buried in it. (Actually, if memory serves, “bone boxes”, like the so-called “James Ossuary”, were more common in that time period. That one is clearly marked, but, while unusual, really only shows that a guy named James may have been buried in it.)
A filled coffin (or ossuary) would be of more interest, but still prove nothing. Christianity didn’t really exist until thirty to seventy years after the crucifixion. No contemporary markings besides a name would be unquestionably correct because nobody would have known what was going to happen. Later identification markings have to be highly suspect.
(Most “Church of ‘whatever'” sites in Israel were identified by some Roman Emperor’s mother who wandered around asking locals – mostly Jewish and uninterested – where Jesus had done this or that. Getting the right “city” would be half-miraculous….)
Gonna be fun to watch the fur fly, if it’s not just a yawner.
Regards,
Stu.
If I were even really interested, I’d reserve my opinion until I saw what Fox News had to say about it. They’re quite a reliable guide to fact, in the sense that a negative correlation is as informative as a positive one.
But if James Cameron comes out later with a big-budget movie about the fall of Christianity after new facts are discovered, I might rent it later from Netflix when I’m in the mood to watch a fantasy. Religion is a social phenomenon, subject to the principles of cultural bias and social interaction. A virally spread meme, if you prefer a more negative metaphor. Facts have nothing to do with it.
If this comes out and is played in theaters…
How many tHINK its the end of someones ACTING career??
I dunno, ECA. I mean, bringing a sadistic Jesus snuff movie to theaters didn’t end Mel Gibson’s career, it just minted money. Might be simply a question of how it’s marketed.
GREAT IDEA: Let’s send Oliver Stone and James Cameron to Mars. Maybe they will also find Elvis and the South Carolina swamp thing.
I’m still waiting for “Satanic Verses: The Musical.”
Whatever happened to Salman Rushdie? I love the coincidence of that name and how big a “rush” he was in to do it. That was our wakeup call to how seriously radical Muslims take any criticism of their religion.
#27 I bet he’s still in hiding from the death squads. That was a great book.
Itd be great if this “doccumentary” did sink christianity, but religions dont work that way. It’ll be great for the christian bashing posts! Bring em on!
What a bunch of cynics every which way.
Most christians think aspiring to the economic/social/political level of bourgeois is all the religion they need to follow. It’s nice to see another religious “given” debunked. In a way it should be a load off the little minds of those alleged christians; it’s one less spiritual impediment to get in the way of their pompous and greedy life styles.
Actually, Salman Rushdie is a guest of Bill Maher frequently. He has also written several books since the blow up over the first one.
All I can say is that it won’t mean anything to people who feel they have the ‘right’ religion. Religion is a faith based, mind numbing process that strips away the person’s independence and replaces it with “feel good goo”.
A friend once asked me what it would hurt if I believed, with a phrase of “If I am wrong, oh well….but if I am right, you’re screwed..” Not realizing the same can be said back to him. Plus, I get my Sundays, Wednesdays and Saturdays OFF, and I also have the joy of not having to fake what I believe so others think I am a part of their group.
Besides, if the purpose of Heaven is to stand and shout how great a creator is all day everyday for ever…….I think I would appreciate the randomness of Hell…