The big news of the past few days is James Cameron’s soon-to-be-aired film in which he claims to have debunked the ressurection of Jesus. I haven’t seen it, of course, since the release is not until Sunday this coming (of course), but if news articles discussing it are anywhere near to truthful, its only appeal will be to people so ignorant and unable to reason that it’s likely to appeal to the huge numbers of sheeple our so-called public education’s been hatching for years. Let’s let the film’s publicity flacks lead with its strong cards:
Archaeologists and clergymen in the Holy Land derided claims in a new documentary produced by James Cameron that contradict major Christian tenets, but the Oscar-winning director said the evidence was based on sound statistics [emphasis added]…
…One of the caskets even bears the title, “Judah, son of Jesus,” hinting that Jesus may have had a son, according to the documentary. 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.”
Who can spot at least one unwarranted assumption? Any hands waving in the back of the class? Hint: Jesus, or Yeshua, was long a popular name for Jewish boys. A little elemental biblical knowledge would reveal why. So, the “evidence… based on sound statistics” is B.S. Silly people. One would think that Jacobovici, an Israeli Jew who has spent much of his life attempting, without much success among literate people, to “debunk” Jewish history would know when he’s talking nonsense. I suspect, in fact, that he does and is simply being disingenuous to sell his product to cultural and historical illiterates.
As Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site that the film claims to be the burial of the Jesus of the New Testament says, “It was an ordinary middle-class Jerusalem burial cave. The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time.”
Oh, watch the thing if you want. The poor guy, Simcha Jacobovici, hasn’t been able to sell many copies of his tinfoil hatted book, The Jesus Family Tomb, and even con men have to make a living somehow, right? Heck, he and his lk have been pushing this story since 1996. All he had to do was keep pushing his story until he found a dummy like James Cameron to buy it. OK, “dummy” may be a little is too harsh. Guliible, certainly. Operating in waters above the level of his cultural literacy, absolutely. But “dummy” is a bit much… Just one more data point added to my observations of smart people doing stupid things and falling for the most outrageous cons.
Of course, one of the points of being culturally literate is that it aids in spotting such obvious chicanery. Doesn’t assure infallibility, but it sure does go a long way toward spotting the obvious cons.
Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Adam’s Blog, stikNstein… has no mercy, basil’s blog, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, The Amboy Times, Dumb Ox Daily News, Jo’s Cafe, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.