You Will Search For Me, But You Will Not Find Me

It was hard enough for me to believe there could possibly have been such a ridiculous pairing of star-crossed lovers on the ill-fated voyage of the Titanic, but now James Cameron is just reaching. Click here for an article about the filmmaker's upcoming documentary about finding the bones of Jesus in some back-alley neighborhood on the south side of Jerusalem. Intriguing? Sure, until you start to listen to all the archaeologists and (of course) clergymen who are disputing the find, which, by the way, isn't even new.

It is interesting, however, the similarities between many Christians and many skeptics today. Both kinds of people jump at the slightest morsel of information or revelation that validates their belief (or disbelief). For Christians of weak faith who embrace any little affirmation of mystery or scientific validation of a biblical claim, it seems they find comfort in the opinions of others, even though faith is not about that at all. When such things are completely stripped away, I wonder if such a weak faith would still remain. If something does remain, then that is true faith. Grow in that.

The same is true, however, for skeptics, which, I know, would make many of them shudder at the thought of having such a deep-rooted personality trait in common with the very people they do not - perhaps cannot - be like. Any long-shot discovery that, however pathetically, might poke holes in the traditionally-held belief of the religious, they pounce upon and expound on it as if it were world-shaking, faith-shattering FACT. There have been several in recent years. To name a few, the sacred feminine claims of The Da Vinci Code, or more specifically the one in a million chance that Jesus played Romeo to Mary Magdalene's Juliet; the Gospel of Judas and its purported real true story behind Jesus' death and purpose, nevermind the writing was more fragmented than readable, and it joins hundreds of other Gnostic gospels and first century writings; and now this documentary rumbling its almost laughably academic way toward its March 4th airing on The Discovery Channel.

We are the same. You, a skeptic, and me, a man of little faith, who still feels that surge of pious excitement when some obscure archaeologist reports finding a petrified piece of cypress log on Mt. Ararat, or a day missing from some ancient calendar record dated around the time of Joshua.

When will we both heed the words that were spoken first to the disciples and the temple police in their confusion and doubt, and then to us in our zealous yet futile search for proof? - "You will search for me, but you will not find me."