"No, if you’re a Christian you shouldn’t run, whine, scream, or have a religious tantrum. Instead, you should be thanking the Discovery Channel for giving you the chance to step up to the plate and knock this soft ball out of the park."
Greg Koukl, Townhall columnist
Lots of Christians seem to be angry or dismissive about Cameron's docu-drama on the Discovery Channel The Lost Tomb Of Jesus. What a mistake.
Christians should view the Lost Tomb story as a gift wrapped with a bow. This baby is a softball. Right. Over. The. Plate.
Friends, stuff like this ... which comes out with such regularity around Easter ... is a wonderful opportunity to talk to friends and family about the historicity of the resurrection. The reality of the resurrection is the big story. Without it, Christianity crumbles. Because of it, Christianity is true.
We ought to be grateful when we get easy opportunities handed to us. My advice is take a big swing and knock it out of the park. And thank Dan Brown, James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici for their efforts to rehash old theories that have long since been debunked.
Here are some of my initial reactions.
I thought the film was well done. It was engaging and interesting. They did a good job presenting a statistical argument [note: even though there were problems with the statistics because of the assumptions]. I found it supremely ironic that Cameron and Jacobovici used a probabilistic argument to support their theory. In other words, they took a page from intelligent design theorists like Bill Dembski in drawing inferences based on probabilities against chance being a sufficient explanation. I thought Discovery Institute ought to hire these guys. They made the approach quite understanding and compelling ... well, compelling if you knew next to nothing about this topic.
Our culture largely accepts things uncritically, in my opinion. We are a culture moved by images and feelings and pictures. The fact that Cameron and Jacobovici dropped in film sequences of Jesus ostensibly talking to his son Judah from the cross and telling him to take care of his mother Mary Magdalene will persuade some that it really happened like that.
I would encourage you to not let that happen. Use this as another opportunity to engage others in setting the record straight. There is an absolute wealth of information already available. Don't wait for the books to come out. Just use Google and read the blogs of scholars.
They made the approach quite understanding and compelling ... well, compelling if you knew next to nothing about this topic.
You're right! The Discovery Institute should hire them! :)
Posted by: tgirsch | March 15, 2007 at 16:44
This was a blog well-said, and points well-made. The documentary was a great exercise in critical thinking, and the follow-up critical look was a good way to compare your critical thinking skills to (other) experts.
I love the point that this was actually an opportunity for Christians. I sometimes marvel at how scared of criticism some Christians are. If our faith is established, we should realize that it will stand up to scrutiny. As a matter of fact, I believe true faith should be a faith scrutinized. It only gets strong when it is allowed out of its cage.
Posted by: AJ | March 21, 2007 at 13:25