Bones
Could these be the bones of Jesus and Mary Magdalene? And what ramifications would it have if they were?
posted by Joshua @ 4:38 PM
Could these be the bones of Jesus and Mary Magdalene? And what ramifications would it have if they were?
posted by Joshua @ 4:38 PM
2 Comments:
Either way, James Cameron risks being killed in his bed by fanatics, not to mention the inevitable Titanic DVD burning, but aside from that...?
It goes to what I was saying the other day. If one's faith is so important to one's life as to make one want to shield out all dissent, it should also be strong enough to handle that dissent. In my opinion, the resurrection isn't the most important thing to find from the Gospels, any more than the crucifixion is. To be possibly very offensive, though that's not my intent, these events are the hooks and gimmicks of Christianity. Regardless of their truth value (and I'm not about to try to weigh in on that) they are what separate the story from that of other faiths, myths, and religions. However, they're not the meat of it.
If science somehow proves that these are the bones of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Mary Magdalene, and their children, does the Sermon on the Mount become somehow less valuable? Does it make Christ's throwing the Moneychangers out of the temple less powerful? And what does it do to the image of a 12-year-old Jesus, at once rebellious and honorific, scaring the pants off of his mother as he spent all day in worship?
I'm about to start watching "Jesus Camp, " so I imagine I'll have a lot more to say in ninety minutes, but suffice it to say that literalists entirely miss the point. The Bible was written by man. That is why we have it, and why we have records of who wrote what, at least in the new testament. We also have records of the meetings when it was decided what would be kept in and what not. Paul, for instance, is very heavily represented, and as such his misogynistic views are made sacred, whereas the dozens of Gospels reporting of Christ's marriage to Mary Magdalene were not. This represented the common wisdom and morality of the time, though I'd argue absolutely does not today. The fever-dream of revelations was deemed fit for entry, for some reason, likely to give the book a fitting ending of some sort, and - miracle of miracles, the ending quote for Revelations that anything added or taken away from the dream would be an affront to God is taken to apply to the entire compilation. This leaves literalists to pick and choose while at the same time calling all those who disagree with them anti-Christian.
For all my beliefs, I love Jesus's message and preachings, and I do try to live by them, not because of any fear of damnation or belief in his resurrection, but because I just think they're some of the best words to live by that I've ever come across. So no bones will take that away from me. But for people who can only live by it if told that every word is true, and that all of those words somehow tell them what they already wanted to hear, and that God will revere them and damn those who disagree, well...
frankly...
Screw 'em. If you can't think for yourself, judge for yourself, or recognize wisdom for what it is without all the supernatural trappings, then I don't care about doing anything for you.
More to come.
I don't think that James Cameron needs to fear death in the same way that Theo van Gogh did. The people most apt to be upset by this news are the same people who believe that Satan put dinosaur bones on Earth to tempt mankind into doubting the Bible's account of creation. I'm sure that these people will attribute these ossuaries to the same sneaky source.
I don't know how to orient myself with a faith compass when I say that this news won't really shake up my beliefs. More to come on that after I think through why exactly I'm okay with the physical presences of Jesus's remains...
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