James Cameron - Moron ?

Love his movies, but he just confirmed it doesn’t take brains to make them.

I saw him speaking on a podium last night on television stating that this is the ONLY pure archaeological evidence regarding Jesus. He was referring to the bones found in a small casket that had been dug up in Jerusalem in 1980. There was an inscription on the side saying “Judah, son of Jesus” which Cameron claims as evidence that Jesus may have had a son.

I’m not taking issue with people foisting a theory on evidence. It happens everyday, everywhere and is the legitimate process of arriving at the correct interpretation of events. My only caveat to that would be that you’re making a legitimate effort to incorporate all the evidence and that the theory it is supporting is not a complete fabrication with no reasonable correlation to the evidence (ie. it’s 82° today so global warming is true)

What stands out, and is the reason for this post, is Cameron’s statement that it is the only archaeological evidence related to Jesus. This tells me how badly Christians have mangled an accurate view of the New Testament documents. (Ryland fragment - John's gospel - at right) In their legitimate desire to defend the authenticity of the documents, they’ve cornered them off into iconic status where they’re no longer even regarded as archaeological. Frankly, I think the chapter/verse causes more serious problems than it ever solved. Like Entertainment Tonight, people use verses like the latest headline stripping it out of the context of the letters or narrative. It would have been much harder to do without each verse being numbered. Even just having Chapter only would have been much better.

Of course Cameron’s box is nothing more than just that without the inscription written on it. And how is that different than the inscriptions written on the pages of parchment making up the NT. Zip, zero, nadda. The difference lies in Cameron’s prejudice, not the archeology itself.

As F.F. Bruce summarizes in his book:

“The evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of classical authors, the authenticity of which none dreams of questioning. And if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt. It is a curious fact that historians have often been much readier to trust the New Testament records than have many theologians.”

Not only is Cameron denying the authenticity of those documents, (by implication) they’re not even on his radar. He attempts to defend his critics by stating "I'm not a theologist. I'm not an archaeologist. I'm a documentary filmmaker." Now a documentary is a form of expression that is meant to “document” reality. To claim you’re not qualified in the fields of archeology or theology is hardly a defence unless frivolity is what you are defending. And hopefully his ‘theologist’ is a sign of real ignorance (theologian) not a ploy to convince us of his lack of expertise in this area. I don’t get the logic. I’m qualified to make a documentary film but am ignorant of the subject matter?? Ignorant or idiotic?

So the New Testament is a boat load of documents written during the first century that describe the events the eyewitnesses beheld. Cameron finds a box with a spurious inscription on it then claims everything else is garbage. And I’m not even talking about the mountains of additional evidence let alone the Shroud of Turin.

It just shows where the world is at and what Christians are up against in this day and age.