Monday, February 26, 2007

Bad science, Bad journalism. Since when does the truth not matter?

Statistics rule the day:

"the filmmakers commissioned a statistician, Andrey Feuerverger, a professor at the University of Toronto, who calculated that the odds that all six names would appear together in one tomb are one in 600, calculated conservatively — or as much as one in one million."

Science is the foundation (so says secular humanism):

"We’re not scientists. At the end of the day we can’t wait till every ossuary is tested for DNA,” he said. “We took the story that far. At some point you have to say, ‘I’ve done my job as a journalist.'"

So this is journalism; 'finding' a story regardless of its validity?:

"the filmmakers did not conduct DNA testing on the other ossuaries to determine whether the one inscribed “Judah, son of Jesus” was genetically related to either the Jesus or Mary Magdalene boxes; or whether the Jesus remains were actually the offspring of Mary."

Source NY Times Article "Crypt Held Body of Jesus and Family, Film Says" By Laurie Goodstein Feb 27, 2007.

All the evidence is before you. Do you read the historical 'fiction' book "The Da Vinci Code" and believe it because it sounds convincing when the author himself claims that his intention is not to persuade or inform but to entertain (although I think he is lying). And do you watch this 'documentary' which is being pervaded from a 'scientific' standpoint when the filmmakers are clear that they are storytellers and not scientists; and when the truth is sitting right before their eyes to 'discover'?

I want to see DNA testing done on the other ossuaries before I'd give an ounce of credibility to a single thing that they have to report. And who will decry these filmmakers' blatant disregard of reason and logic? I for one will. So then they do perform the DNA testing and it proves that this is the tomb where Jesus Christ's family was buried (we shall see, then again probably not). This is not proof the Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. The other question I have is why do they presume that the Judah buried there is not Jesus' brother Judah? They may have a legitimate answer but I am still wondering about that one all the same (I hope there is no more use of statistical analysis in the project).

Lux Et Veritas

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