A Titanic Something

I steered clear of this story about James Cameron claiming to have discovered the grave of Jesus Christ, his wife Mary Magdalene and their son. It's very sensational. But it means nothing whatsoever. Anyone who swallows this story, by a man who directs fictional movies, is more interested in the agenda than the story. Cameron has zero – absolutely zero – proof of anything other than a few names that were common in that time period. All of the rest is speculation. But don't listen to me, listen to the scholars.

Dr. Gibson, who was one of the first people to examine the caskets 27 years ago, now says: "Entering the tomb in 1980 I didn't imagine this would become such an international focus.

"These are typical stone caskets from the first century. There are a lot of aspects that need to be looked at. A lot of new research has to be done. I'm sceptical."

Even Cameron, pushed to support his claims, said statisticians found "in the range of a couple of million to one in favor of it being them."

Most Christians believe Jesus' body spent three days at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City. The burial site identified in Cameron's documentary is in a southern Jerusalem neighborhood nowhere near the church.

Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by archaeological standards but makes for profitable television.

"They just want to get money for it," Kloner said. "It was an ordinary middle-class Jerusalem burial cave," he added. "The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time."

"The historical, religious and archaeological evidence show that the place where Christ was buried is the Church of the Resurrection," said Attallah Hana, a Greek Orthodox clergyman in Jerusalem.

Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said the film's hypothesis holds little weight.

"I don't think that Christians are going to buy into this," he said. "But sceptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear."

"How possible is it?" he added. "On a scale of one through ten, with ten being completely possible, it's probably a one, maybe a one and a half."

A lot of hype and nothing really behind it but speculation playing to the people who already want to debunk Christianity. I have a really great idea for Cameron's next project, since he's now a self-proclaimed documentary filmmaker. Why not debunk Islam next? These attempts to discredit Christianity are only a popular sport because it is fundamentally safe.

UPDATE: Others: One Hand Clapping, Macsmind, Neocon Express, The Strata-Sphere, Wizbang, Winds of Change,