Hard Evidence But...(The Problem of Pain - Part I)

My clients sometimes ask about the different standards of evidence in modern jurisprudence. So, I explain to them the difference between evidence beyond a reasonable doubt (i.e., the usual standard for a criminal conviction) as compared to a preponderance of the evidence (i.e., the usual standard required to prove civil liability).

With this in mind, I was somewhat amazed at the recent claim of James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici that they have located the Lost Tomb of Jesus, his wife, siblings and his son. As proof, they have produced ossuaries (a/k/a limestone bone boxes) inscribed with the names of Jesus' clan, together with a statistical analysis concluding that there is a one-in-600 chance that those same names would have come together in a family that didn't belong to Jesus of Nazareth.

Biblical archaeologists of all religious persuasions have refuted these claims with evidence that I would deem persuasive. See for example, Jodi Magness' article, Has the Tomb of Jesus Been Discovered? published on the website of the Biblical Archeology Review ("BAR"). In addition, Statistician Carl Bialik refutes the one-in-600 finding in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, available here.

In researching this topic, I purchased the March-April 07 issue of BAR's magazine and was amazed to find evidence that early Christians, consisting of Roman legionaires, had no doubt that Jesus Christ is God. At a site in northern Israel near a modern-day prison near the base of Tel Megiddo, a prayer hall was recently unearthed that may be the earliest Christian church ever discovered in the Holy Land. Dating back to around 230 AD, the prayer hall seems to have been built and used by occupying Roman soldiers who had converted to Christianity; this at a time before Christianity became the religion of the Roman empire in the early 4th century! And on well-preserved mosaic floor tile, we see the clear inscription "God Jesus Christ."

Of course, this discovery does not prove that Christ is in fact God, or his Son. But, it proves that enough Roman soldiers thought He was to build a prayer hall in an ancient town that they occupied in 230 AD. I surmise that Roman soldiers are much like their contemporaries in uniform in that they don't believe in wild tales. This suggests that the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ were accepted as a matter of fact by those soldiers at that location, date and time. Hard evidence. How (divinely) cool is that?

But then I read another article in the BAR magazine, about how several prominent biblical archaeologists have lost their Judeo-Christian faith in the course of their prominent careers. They have not come to terms with theodicy, the question of how God can be righteous, given the amount of suffering in the world. According to one of the scholars, I decided that I couldn't believe in a God who was [not] in any way intervening in this world, given the state of things. So, that's why I ended up losing my faith."

This "problem of evil" is as old as Job in the Old Testament, as new as contemporaneous blogs debating this question between Jews and Christians on one side and agnostics and atheists on the other.

And my take on this issue for you will have to wait until Part 2 of this post. Thanks for blogging with me thus far!