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Thursday, March 29, 2012

"The Lost Tomb of Jesus"

Five years ago, James Cameron did a mockumentary about the alleged discovery of Jesus’ tomb (i.e. the Talpiot Tomb), only the tomb wasn’t empty after all! This contention was shot down by scholars like Richard Bauckham.

However, I’d like to make another point. The unbeliever is arguing that if we found a tomb containing the remains of Jesus, that would disprove the Resurrection of Christ, and thereby falsify the Christian faith.

In that ironic connection, atheist Jeff Lowder has argued that the corpse of Jesus would rapidly become unrecognizable, so that even if his tomb was occupied, it would be impossible to identify the remains. I myself have responded to that argument.

However, my immediate point is not to assess either one of these anti-Christian arguments, but to simply point out that they cancel each other out. And in that respect, the onus is not on Christians to refute mutually contradictory objections to the Christian faith–for the unbelievers are busy refuting each other. 

1 comment:

  1. I've noticed this pattern before, although I'm hard pressed to recall precise topics and arguments right now. But in general the pattern seems to be that two "experts" will bring seemingly compelling arguments that provide inductive arguments toward a common conclusion, but have conflicting premises. Challenge either one individually and they will easily contend that they don't hold to the argument that has premises which conflict with his. So what we have left is a sufficiently deluded group of bystanders who have bought both arguments because they like the resulting conclusion, but lack the wherewithal to see the underlying conflict.

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