"Experts" at large!

There is considerable time, money, and effort being put in by an innocuous-sounding group called "The Jesus Project" in order to scientifically "discover" who Jesus really was (because, after all, the eye-witness accounts from 2000 years ago certainly can't be trusted to be accurate! /sarcasm). The project is being funded, organized, and managed by a little group called the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER). Here is the self-description of this group from their website.

The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) is a research division of the Center for Inquiry. Since its 1983 founding in Washington, DC, the Committee has worked to encourage humanistic, critical and non-parochial approaches to the study of religious traditions and institutions and to develop programs that promote the public understanding of religion in an international context.

Let's disect that statement, shall we? "[E]ncourage humanistic, critical and non-parochial approaches to the study of religious traditions and institutions..." "[P]romote the public understanding of religion in an international context." Hmmm. Humanistic. Non-parochial. International context. Okay, I'm with you so far.

NOT AT ALL!!!!

Let's cut through the weasel-words and call this spade a spade: these are Important People With Advanced Degrees who are going to do everything in their power to make Jesus out to be "just another man", not "I AM", as He Himself claimed to be.

For what purpose would these people engage in such work? I mean, if they don't believe that Jesus is God, then why even waste the time researching Him? Obviously the point of this work is to undermine the faith of Christians by calling into question the historicity of Jesus. They aim to "prove" that the Jesus of Christianity is a myth.

How successful have they been? If the enthusiasm of the mainstream media is to be believed, quite. Among the group's claims: only about 18% of the "red letter" text in the New Testament was actually spoken by Jesus. How, exactly, did they determine this? Don't question them! They're Important People With Advanced Degrees.

Now a member of this group is publishing a new book. And it's not just any member - he's Paul Verhoeven, a famous Hollywood director. His book, Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait, makes these claims:

• Jesus might have been fathered by a Roman soldier who raped Mary, and
• Judas Iscariot was not responsible for Jesus' betrayal

Even people from his own group are distancing themselves from this guy's views.

The movie director’s claims were greeted with some skepticism among those who have dedicated their careers to studying the life of Jesus.

One issue is that there is very little information about the life of Jesus outside of the Gospels. The Gospels as understood by Christians for nearly 2,000 years do not support Verhoeven’s ideas.

William Portier, a professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton, in Ohio, said the Jesus Seminar was known for making provocative claims, but “they are real scholars — you have to deal with them.”

And you thought I was being snide when I referred to these guys as Important People With Advanced Degrees! "[T]hey are real scholars -- you have to deal with them" my ass! Any asshat can sit around and speculate about events that occurred millenia before their birth. "Might have" and "could have" are not equal to "proof". Do not be swayed by the work of people like this. They're all about entrapping the vulnerable and destroying the faith of the weak. They're no better than pimps or drug dealers -- and quite possibly not as bright.