Whatever. There are so many problems with this farce right on it's face that I have no interest whatsoever in watching it or hearing about it. So as to deal with this as objectively as possible, I'll even show how the crockumentary is wrong without invoking any religious theories. Of course, I doubt that will satisfy the anti-religionists who seek to destroy any and all mention of God, Christ, Jesus, or redemption in America, but I'll do it anyway.
First, history records that after the crucifixion of Jesus, Mary left Jerusalem and ended her days somewhere else. It's simple logic that they would not carry Mary's body hundreds of miles back to Jerusalem to put it in a tomb. She wasn't rich. She wasn't a high government official or priest. She was the wife of a carpenter. She died away from Jerusalem, and would have been buried close to where she died.
That's problem number one.
Joseph would not have been buried in Jerusalem either. He was from Nazareth, and he was a carpenter. Burying Joseph in an tomb in Jerusalem makes as much sense as Farmer Smith from Kansas being taken to New York City and buried. Second in this is that after Jesus reached adulthood, almost all mention of Joseph ends. Only Mary and an apostle were recorded as being present during the crucifixion. It's quite possible that Joseph was an older man, and died before the period of Jesus' life that attracted so much attention, and thus would have not accompanied either Jesus or Mary to Jerusalem. In any case, the chances of Joseph being buried in Jerusalem are slim to none.
That's problem number two.
During the early days of the Catholic Church, Catholics were hunted down and persecuted all over the Roman Empire. They were beaten, tortured, fed to lions in the coliseum, and hounded for over three centuries. Early churches were known to hold Mass in crypts in order to avoid being detected and arrested. Christianity at that time was in essence outlawed, and the Romans did everything they could to banish the religion from existance.
Knowing that, and also knowing that the Romans controlled that area of the Middle East, if Jesus was buried in plain sight with his family, why didn't the Romans unearth him and say "See? Your religion is founded on falsehoods"? As Captain Ed states:
Jesus was a well-known agitator whose crucifixion creates a cult following, in the eyes of the Romans and the leading Jews of the time. The basis of that cult formed around the notion that Jesus rose from the dead. If the Romans knew where his body was buried, why then did they not produce it as proof of his immutable death? In order to be placed in an ossuary, he would have to lie in the tomb for a year, decomposing to skeletal remains. During that time, the Romans could easily have produced the body -- or the cult followers could have stolen it and buried it elsewhere to prevent it.
That's problem number three.
And last but not least, when Cameron and his crew are unearthing caskets and exclaiming "LOOK! LOOK! IT SAYS 'JESUS' ON IT! AND LOOK! THAT SAYS 'MARY'!" I want you to keep one thing in mind. The name we use today, "Jesus", is not the real name that Jesus was known by. The closest approximation would be "Jeshua", or "Joshua" in modern lingo. The same with Mary and Joseph. Those names were translated from Aramaic, to Greek, to Latin, to German, to English, and they've changed a little bit each time. So when someone pulls out a box labeled "Jesus" and says that it's the coffin of Jesus, see right there, it's got his name on it and everything, the only response I have is outright laughter.
That's problem number four.
So, four major points of contention, without using religious dogma as points of arguments. If you still think that this crockumentary holds water, then I submit that your believe that Christianity is false is in fact your own personal religious belief, and requires as much faith, if not more, than my own religious beliefs.
If someone with more knowledge of Catholic history would like to correct any points I've made regarding church history (Perhaps the Anchoress or Mr. Poretto?) either leave a comment or email me.
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