Truth in Tradition

Apparently Christianity is a sham. Jesus was married an had some wee lads of his own. Reality is not what it seems - history is not what we think it is:

"It's mind-boggling. It's an altered reality," Toronto documentary director Simcha Jacobovici told the Star. The burial box of Jesus and one said to belong to Mary Magdelene will be on display at a press conference in New York City this morning to announce the $4 million documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus. The location of the press conference is being kept secret to prevent a mob scene.

Jacobovici hits the nail on the head unknowingly about why the modern day "conspiracy theory" is so luring to most of the general population.

Inherently human beings in our post-industrial culture have bought into the "cult of the artificial." Virtual reality, virtual solutions, relativistic perspectives govern today's modern thought. Everything is about perspective we're told. It's all relative.

Unfortunately, it isn't all relative. Murder is not relative if I kill you. It's real. Life is no different. Apples when dropped fall. If I bash my head against the wall, it will never go through the wall I'll just split open my skull.

Technology that has made the artificial seem just as good as the real, has led us to question the very concept of reality itself. That reality is now considered no better than what we can produce artificially.

In such a culture, people inherently start sensing something is wrong. The world isn't the way people say it is.

As a consequence I believe, the modern day "conspiracy theory" feeds us exactly what we don't need: more lies bundled in a truth. The truth being that there is something wrong with the modern view of reality. The problem being that it aint relative at all.

Instead of confronting that fact a conspiracy theory tells all that the world really isn't as it seems, and then fabricates what the TRUE reality is.

The Davinci Code, Faked moon landing types - they all have fallen into that trap.

Jacobovici said the discovery should not shake anyone's belief in the resurrection of Jesus, saying he consulted several theologians in making the film.

"What convinced people in the New Testament of the resurrection was Jesus's appearances, not his disappearance from the tomb."

Actually, it was his physical resurrection that convinced people, his "spiritual" resurrection is a concept that should give comfort to know none. Either he was really resurrected in the flesh or it's all a sham. You can't have it both ways.

The doubting apostle Thomas refused to believe until he put his hands in Christ's side. That hardly seems like someone who was convinced merely by a spiritual phantom.

What's so sad in all of this is the complete negation of the concept of historical tradition.

Tradition contains truth. This is just something that we've completely erased from modern historical analysis.

For example, there are two traditions surrounding William Wallace. The first says he was born in one Scottish town, the other says something else. There is truth in those traditions, because those traditions represent the orally transmitted information that transversed the generations.

Now perhaps both traditions are true. Maybe Wallace was born in one and grew up in the other. We only know that he must have been born somewhere.

One would think, that if a tradition wasn't in conflict with another tradition, and that it was spoken of consistently by all who should know, then it would be a sure sign that that tradition is reality.

In the case of the man from Nazareth, it is clear that early Christians believed that he was divine, resurrected in the flesh, and was chaste going back to within 100 years of the actual events. The traditional teaching over those years and going all the way to today has not changed. In fact many other traditions exist in Christianity that no one follows today, mainly because they contradict with other traditions of the time. What most of Christianity believes in is what everyone could agree on actually happening.

So theorize all you want - until you take into account oral historical tradition you are always never going to get the full answer. There is truth in tradition. No one can change that reality.