Cameron to announce Jesus existed

He lived, according to James Cameron. He just didn't rise.

If this is his idea of a publicity stunt for Project 880 it's the worse one ever. We have to assume he's serious, which wouldn't be much better. Christmas is still a Federal holiday in this country.

Until more information arrives let's speculate wildly, shall we? First, the weirdest quote of the the Time article was probably this:

...film-makers Cameron and Jacobovici claim to have amassed evidence through DNA tests, archeological evidence and Biblical studies, that the 10 coffins belong to Jesus and his family.

Yes, but which Jesus? Supposedly DNA is controlled by the father, but what would we know about the Father who art in Heaven? Cameron will probably say the corpses labeled Jesus and Joseph were found to have similar DNA, not surprising for people buried close to each other, but that won't make them Biblical characters. He'll have to rely on other data to prove that. Having read "The Case for Christ" there doesn't seem to be mountains of information available other than what Tacitus and Josephus wrote. Maybe he'll claim someone returned from the future and told him.

This might be an interesting debate to watch since Cameron will in essence be saying Jesus did exist, a factoid that might produce heartburn to a few atheists once they stop laughing at the Christians long enough for it to sink in. The fundamentalists will in turn be busy heaping fresh charges of blasphemy on Hollyweird a mere 24 hours after what figures to be the Bush-bashing-est Academy Awards ever, a group of folks who largely believe George Bush is the president of Jesusland, not America.

Cameron's announcement won't shake the faith of believers, many of whom would probably claim he stole from Jesus the famous words attributed to the Terminator--"I'll be back". Additionally, don't expect any rioting, burning of cars, head-chopping or effigies. Christianity is not the religion of peace.

But aside from everything there's just something creepy and disturbing about such a thing, especially with the convergence we seem to be hurtling towards in the Middle East. Let's hope it's just a botched joke.

MORE 2/25/07

More information is beginning to filter out. Here's a Telegraph story that echoes many of the questions folks probably have:

"Tests prove the names are genetically of the same family and statistically, there is a one in 10 million chance this is a family other than the Holy Family," the pre-publication publicity for the book said.

Yes, but:

"It is just not possible that a family who came from Galilee, as the New Testament tells us of Joseph and Mary, would be buried over several generations in Jerusalem."

Makes sense. The writer then closed by calling this "the Dan Brown era", as if questioning the Passion was something entirely new.