James Cameron To Terminate Christianity

the point is this many people try to exploit christianity as a comercial empire. making people pay to see relics that are considered holy but the very archeologist whom study the relics as a career and historians will tell you the dates of the so called holy stone caskest that hold the remains of a guy name jesus,mary etc. are hundreds of years apart from the times of jesus christ. the very study of civilization and their burial practices are always consistant with the times there of. if it doesnt match then itis not real and it was popular to use holy names and they became quite common. ofcourse many of the names were common names ofthe times anyway. so i say with great pride thanks for the intrest in this subjest and i hope it brings you closer to god . i look forward to seeing the outcome of this endeavor. i will keep watching with great intrest

It's very faith affirming to realize that after more than 2000 years this is the best the enemy's of the Gospel can come up with.

When I first heard about the documentary in March, I thought it was wonderful to see historical and archaeological evidence being provided to show that Jesus indeed was historical and was real.

What I found instead in the documentary and in the supplemental book, was a significant amount of conjectures and very little evidence supporting the conclusion. So much so, that upon further reading, I've found only one scholar supporting the conclusion publicly. This creates a problem, out of thousands of scholars, why is it the only scholar that believes in the hypothesis is the hired consultant for the film? Recent books released by academia like "The Jesus Tomb: Is It Fact or Fiction" where both secular and Christian scholars review the film, have found some glaring issues:

1. The authors deny the validity of the Bible when it does not support the conclusion, but uses the Bible if it supports the conclusion (double standard).

2. The DNA evidence shows that Mariamne and Jesus were not related by the mother side. They use this to conclude they were married, but in actuality, the scientists that did the DNA evidence stated there were other possibilities: father and daughter, paternal cousins, half brother and sister, or grandparent and grandchild. To jump that they were married means they already assume on the onset that this was Jesus' tomb rather than look at the facts objectively.

3. Mariamne is assumed to be Mary Magdalene yet no historical work suggests this connection. They utilize a Harvard scholar, Dr. Bovon, and suggested that his work on Acts of Philip is proof that you can connect Mariamne as Mary Magdalene. Yet Acts of Philip does not even mention Mary Magdalene at all. In fact, Acts of Philip is a fourth century work; hence, it was created hundreds of years after the historical Mary Magdalene died. Dr. Bovon himself stated his opinion on the Mary Magdalene connection should not be taken historically and he considers the documentary's conclusion as science fiction.

4. The statistical analysis so dependent on the Magdalene connection that once it is taken out, everything in the statistical probabilities falls apart.

5. The authors suggested that the Talpiot tomb was 'hidden' or have fallen off the cracks in the world of archaeology. Yet numerous scholarly discussions and publications in 1981, 1994, 1996, 2003 already have reviewed the tomb and considered the hypothesis as unlikely. The only reason, it seems, to claim it wasn't heard of before would be to create a media hype.

In short, I wished that this documentary was researched better. What seemed like at first an interesting archaeological find is actually recycled speculation from the 1990's.

This thread has I noticed died, but anyway-Justin if you are still around- hmm-have you perchance been reading Marshall J.Gauvin?
I have also read his works.He has some good points but also makes mistakes in dates and often only gives us insight into his own thought-process and opinions, yet all the while claiming he is factual and scientific!

Paul BTW was writing to already established churches. The Christians would have already been aware of the life and teachings of Jesus. He was
not evangelising in the Epistles.

Anyway, Christianity would have to be seen as even more of a miracle if it was based on a mythical person! Also, the personality and sayings of Jesus are amazingly in character throughout all Gospels .His parables being the most amazing of all.Huh, 'someone' just thought these up and decided to attribute them to a mythical non-existant person for-well ?the sheer fun of it ?! To fabricate a religion for no gain ?? -only torture , imprisonment and death -! This is what you believe obviously (it is one or the other ) so at least give praise where it is due to these clever mythical writers for having been instrumental in giving birth to Christianity.!


You also make assumptions about me that clearly belong to your own experiences , as you know nothing about me at all apart from the fact I am a Christian as I have given no further info. about myself. So the 'we have to be very careful....' cannot necessarily apply to me or others but seemingly to yourself.
Congrats on your BA and your rewarding life as an athiest-I am not trying to destroy this for you....-smile-Each unto his own.

Annmarie, your mention of Herodotus and Livy are very eye opening. True, they were historians, but not modern historians. Most of their accounts border on mythological and numbers, places and events are either exaggerated or made up from second hand sources. Just because an ancient document says it does not mean that it happened (like Herod's massacre of the babies or Noah's Flood, or the Trojan War). Historiography has advanced today where scholars can accept that historians from antiquity were no accurate or even truthful in their recollection of events, usually for personal or political gain (and that would never happen today, right?)

Second I thought it would be implied that the apostles, for the most part were handed down legends and oral traditions like their mentor. If the apostles existed in their small close-knit group described in the NT they certainly would not have thought it a lie or died proving themselves correct. Mystical followers of cults and personalities were rampant and believed that their person or god was correct without even questioning historical accuracy. Even Paul, who ministered only a few decades after the supposed death of Christ, makes no mention of Jesus of Nazareth. Paul's Christ resembled the cult figures that developed out of lore. Don't you find it odd that Paul never mentions any of Jesus' actual minitstry recorded in the NT. We could assume that Paul would at least have been familiar with some of Jesus' most popular and wide spread maxims (like love your enemies as yourself and the sermon on the mount) especially when these sayings would have been extremely valuable in his arguments in Romans and Corinthians?

All I am saying is that our modern standards of history are very different from that of antiquity. This can cause some confusion and even discomfort when we realize that our religious beliefs might not be based on actual historical events but legends and traditions. This is not to say religion and faith are irrelevant or useless but we must be very careful in assuming that certain things that we have believed our whole life are correct when they may not be. I am not trying to destroy your faith, I have two B.A. in Biblical Studies and History from a conservative Christian college, and I have had to struggle with this too. I hope you are inclined to question and doubt what you believe because it is very rewarding.

James is just preaching to the crowd...his crowd. The only people who will believe he found Jesus' bones are the ones who *want* to believe, and *already* believed that Jesus was just some legendary but human dude. And the ones who *didn't* believe aren't going to stop believing because Mr. Titanic found some name matches on a gravesite. Either way, the publicity makes him a ton of money, which he needs if he wants to have the independence to make films about whatever he wants. In the end, everybody gets what they want.

Christians will benefit from this as much as atheists, just like they benefited from the Da Vinci Code. It will drive as many people to church looking for answers as it will drive people away from church. In the end, it's probably a net win for church, because at the end of the day, religion is all about psychosocial health, and being in a religious community has more benefits than not being in some meta-community.

Atheists will benefit from this by having "evidence" to point to when someone is trying to convert them, so they can say "Aha! But it's all lies! Don't you see?!?!?" And, of course, nobody will really "see", because A) everybody has already made up their minds on both sides, and B) it isn't really ironclad evidence to begin with. But it will make them feel good, and build solidarity within their areligious clique (which is just as important as religious circles, except for the fact that atheists tend not to build communities around atheism, and so miss out on much of the benefits of being religious).

At the end of the day, we all get to talk more about religion, but it will blow over the same way the Da Vinci Code and The Last Temptation of Christ and the 16 Jesuses all blew over.

There were more Roman writingsof Jesus , Justin.
Tacitus and seuphineus I believe , and if I am not mistaken a Phlineus.
Furthermore there are more documentation of the NT (thousands in Greek and Latin alone) than there are of other historical recorders such as herodutus ,Tacitus and Livy
etc. yet no-one doubts their historial authenticity do they ?

To me the very idea that the apostles were willing to die for a lie they KNEW to be a lie whilst spreading the Gosples based on their experiences (their fervour mainly based upon the resurrection of Jesus from the dead)is ludicrous to say the least. WHo in their right minds would be martyrd for such??

The story of Jesus is just another telling of the story of the cosmos and the great cycle, aka the precession of the equinox.

Know your onion.

My MIND, AND SOUL were healed, not just my body & only the God of Abraham, Issac & Jacob can heal the mind and soul.

There was certainly no mistake on behalf of 7 doctors about my diagnosis or the prognosis. It was a base-ball sized Glioblastoma (GBM) Stage IV Brain Tumor. All are welcome to do the research for themselves on the prognosis for a GBM Brain Tumor.

Futher on the prognosis-there are at least 50 people in just the last two years since my diagnosis that I know of that have died of GBM including Jonnie Cochran. It proves deadly to more than 50% of it's victims in 3-12 months.

As for the healing of an non-believer. God is not a respector of persons according to Romans 2:11. For God does not show favoritism. His ways and thoughts are higher than ours. What does or doesn't happen to us, regardless of our beliefs doesn't change who He is!

If I am wrong about God you have nothing to loose. If I am right you have everything to loose for eternity. As for me that's not a chance I am willing to take, the stakes are too high!

HEALED:

I AM AN ATHEIST. I WAS ALSO DIAGNOSED WITH TERMINAL CANCER. I DIDN'T PRAY, I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD, AND NEVER WILL.
IT HAS NOW BEEN FOUR YEARS, I AM STILL ALIVE, AND CANCER FREE AFTER A LONG FIGHT. DOCTORS DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING. THAT IS NOT PROOF OF GOD, IT'S PROOF THAT DOCTORS CAN MAKE MISTAKES.

Well I am not a Theologian, but I do know this. I was diagnosed with Terminal (and incurable) Brain Cancer and given 3-12 months to live. I didn't grow up in church but I had always believed in God. After my diagnosis I prayed to Jesus many, many, many times and asked Him to heal my body, mind and spirit. I didn't call out to any other name. It is now over two years later and there is no still no sign of cancer and I have zero deficits even after two major brain operations including the removal of an entire lobe of my brain. Now there are 7 of the best doctors in the US all shaking their heads in amazement. I believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that God has specific laws governing where we will spend eternity. If I am wrong those that don't believe the same have nothing to loose (there are no religions that I am aware of that speak of condemnation for such beliefs) BUT if I am right those that don't believe may have everything to loose eternally! May your spiritual eyes be opened, tomorrow isn't guarenteed to any of us. May God continue to bless even those that don't believe.

By the way Annamarie, there is no documented proof, Roman or otherwise of Jesus the man. The amount of executions performed by the empire was too much and of too little importance, especially in the remote land of Judea, to be recorded. I am assuming you a referring to Josephus' passage in the"Antiquities of the Jews" (XVIII iii sec.3) about Jesus. This has been shown by every scholar to be a forgery, Josephus, being a devout Jew, would never refer to Jesus as a son of God or the messiah how was wrongly executed. Plus there dozens of Jewish and Roman historians who we know lived in the area and time before, during and after Christ was supposedly on earth. Justus of Tiberius was in Galilee when Christ was supposedly ministering but makes no mention. Philo lived in Jerusalem around the supposed time of Jesus' execution at the hands of the Roman authorities but makes no mention of earthquakes, the dead rising up and walking or a resurrection of any kind and Jesus, once again is not mentioned. I can give you a list of another two dozen historians with similar conditions. The image of Jesus in the New Testament is not a historical one but a combination of multiple savior-redeemer figures (which were plentiful at the time). If Jesus, as a person, ever existed all we could say is that he was part of a preaching group of prophets in the Galilean desert. The Jerusalem image of Christ has no historical basis, much less that the Galilean tradition. Hope this helps

When they get the DNA test results back they'll see that Jesus is related to AL SHARPTON AND STROM THURMOND. There's a story for ya!

There is a time ,when Satanic will decieve many!! And here we go, they have turn the body of our Christ the King into materialistism.Therefore, what this group of people are selling is a thrist of money.And that message was sent by Satanism. But, nevertheless, Christianity is the only religion with potential of all good, true living, and mercy which offer mankind a true divine .
Peter Barach Kuany .

Oh yes religion should be questioned. As a Christian I agree totally,but inspite of all the many attacks upon the faith in 2000 years there has never been any foolproof evidence proving the Gospels void.
Just as there have never been any missing links found in which to prove that one species evolved into another.Theories abound, oh yes, but foolproof evidence?

I am interested and curious Wayne Howard, in how Hinduistic the teachings of Jesus were presented. Please give some examples if you will
Thanks.

Blind faith in religion or science or anything is a road to nothing but trouble.

Blind faith in religion gives us suicide bombers and abortion clinic bombers and shit.
Blind faith in science gives us nuclear bombs and shit.

Woo! Go Humans!

*shrugs*

You can find articles ranging from liberal to conservative dismissing this 'find' as clearly bogus. What's most fascinating is to see the dogmatists of the science of religion who will zealously take up claims based on even the most shoddy scientific process.836187

I for one will only believe in Jesus no matter what I hear. In the Bible it says in the end of times many will be decieved by false missleading claims, and there will be all sorts of lies going around. So just hold on to your faith and don't be decieved by someone else.GOD BLESS you all.

No Bean is not wrong. I know perfectly well what the tomb says. I am well aware that it doesn't say "Jesus" but the Hewbrew meaning of Jesus which is very close. The point I am making is that the name is not the REAL name of our lord the savior, but the name that was given to him long after he was on this earth. And yes I am a Gentleman but a lady Gentleman. lol. Sorry, the name Bean is just my favorite character from my favorite book. Oh, and yes, James Cameron is a fool.

Perhaps. But Bean is also wrong.

"Fool" is too mild. Bean is a gentleman.

Perhaps you should read more carefully before throwing the word "fool" around. The name on the tomb is "Jesua" not "Jesus".

Its so easy to discard this that I can't but help to laugh. James Cameron obviously didn’t do his homework. Jesus is the name on his little tomb huh? Well guess what, Jesus was a Jew and his name wasn’t Jesus. His name was yehoshawa (meaning Joshua). Later the Greeks to separate him from others because his name was so common –as is Mary and Joseph, renamed him “Iesous�. The English name “Jesus,� which later employed the letter “J�.
This name “Jesus� commonly used in Christianity today did not exist and would not be spelled with the letter “J� until about 500 years ago. James Cameron is a fool.

There is some evidence that Jesus exsisted and the likelyhood is he did and was a self proclaimed teacher of the word of god. Paul didnt invent christianity, although he played a large hand in it.

The words of the bible and the preachings of Jesus do not repsresent the teachings or atitudes of Jews at that time. Jesus's teachings are very simular to that of Hinduism in the way they were presented.

The bible was written 200 years after the death of Jesus but from stories written by disciples, only the most popular were used.

Was Jesus the son of God, who knows, that's a matter of belief. Are these bones his remains could be. popular names but all the right names there.
What is amazing is the fact that you can't question religion without be demonised by the religious.

Everyone should have the right to question religiion.

The Reality of Jesus as the son of God and the Saviour of man kind is the only truth and the only way of Salvation. Satan who tries to destroy his purpose for man kind has raced to destroy Christianity and it faith, In Matthew:16:6. Says: But whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Jesus always had and has had enemies to deceives and mislead Christians, Mr. Cameron doesn't and will not have proof of this infamous lie, he might of found names and bones together but it doesn't prove nothing to me, but a well desing story, there is not DNA that can prove this antichrist lie.