Archive for March 23rd, 2008

23
Mar

more ridiculous than the easter bunny

By Alex Cameron 0 Comments
Categories: Black Arts, Christianity, Jedi Skills, Life, Rants and Wisdom

Hey, it’s Easter. “The Passion” is on. I wasn’t impressed, mainly as the actual crucifixion didn’t stick out as realistic to me. But what Easter would be complete without a look at the resurrection and the theories that surround it?

The information you’re going to read here is dangerous. It has serious implications. If you are in doubt as to whether to carry on reading, just stop and go somewhere else. We’re not into small talk here.

We start with the secular (non-religious) history. We know that on 14/15 Nisan after Passover in AD33, Roman records and Jewish history state that a man named Yeshua (Jesus) of Galilee, considered to be a spiritual teacher/healer, was executed by crucifixion in Jerusalem on the orders of the Prefect of the Judean province, Pontius Pilate. He was fatally beaten beforehand and died of asphyxiation and internal injuries approximately 9 hours later in the middle of the afternoon.

This event sparked a massive uprising that continued over the next 50-100 years, leading to the eventual destruction of Jerusalem and conversion of the Empire’s official religion. Pilate was recalled to Rome 3 years later in AD36 for his excess brutality. The instigators of the religious and political uprising called themselves “Christians”, worshipped the “Christus” and claimed that the executed man was resurrected from the dead 3 days (30+ hours) after he died and appeared to hundreds of eyewitnesses. They were chased, persecuted and run down as religious heretics, eventually all being executed for their beliefs, but not until they had spread their message across multiple continents.

These are historical facts. We know for absolute certain that multiple accounts of these events synchronise and are irrefutable. They are not from religious texts, and there is no serious historian or scientist who doubts them.

Here is the other fact – no-one has ever been able to conclusively disprove the resurrection, refute the recorded history or account for the behaviour of the disciples afterwards in over 2000 years. It is the single event that Christianity hinges on. Without it, everything else is irrelevant. If it happened, the Christian God is supreme and you need to get down on your knees and start that long overdue conversation.

It is the wonderful scandal and controversy at the heart of it all.

Resurrection is scientifically impossible according to our natural laws. Death is an irreversible part of the natural cycle of life and occurs as a triggered event or natural conclusion of the ageing process for all organisms. According to the laws of physics and our understanding of science, the governing laws of our universe say that resurrection after death is not natural or possible. Therefore we can only conclude that resurrection as a concept can only involve a scientific anomaly or supernatural intervention by a force outside of our universe that is able to violate those scientific laws. Logic dictates that if the resurrection happened, it was an act of God, or the Creator, as He would be the only one able to supersede the laws that He himself lives outside of and created.

Medically speaking, it would mean the complete physical healing of the body, the preservation of the flesh and a restarting of all the essential bodily processes (heartbeat, brain activity etc).

Like we said, we know absolutely that Jesus existed and was crucified. Whatever happened next converted a dozen simple peasant men into spiritual masters that travelled all over the world to tell the story, despite being denounced as blasphemers and ultimately being killed for it. Secular Roman and Jewish history records that the world changed forever.

The explanations fall into a few categories – he survived it, it was an illusion, it was all a big conspiracy, it never happened or it was mistaken identity. We’re going to take a look at them all. Somehow we have to logically explain why everything that happened afterwards and was recorded by history, happened.

So, our key question is: what happened after the execution of Christ that caused such massive and dramatic uproar and social change? Can we explain why things were that way without the biblical accounts?

A crucial point to understand that the lack of independent historical back-up (i.e. a Jewish or Roman record of events) of the resurrection actually supports the idea that Christ was raised from the dead. Firstly, there would be no reason to document what you already see, most believed that the end of the world would be in their lifetimes and that there was no point to writing it down, and the Jewish authorities actively were trying to suppress what they saw as Jesus of Galilee’s heretical and blasphemous teachings - it was the reason for his execution in the first place. They would not want it recorded in Judean or Jewish history. By the time the early church was circulating the first gospel texts, there was no point to re-writing the same thing over again.

Why during the early centuries is there no documentation disproving these events other than some writings that Jesus body was stolen? Why did those who were against Christianity make sure the body was not stolen from the grave? Why did the opponents against Christianity not produce Jesus body to prove the Christians were deceived? Why were there not writings proving that those who claim to have seen Jesus in resurrected form were ‘off the wall’, mentally ill? Why were there no documents by the opponents refuting the details that are documented in scripture? If it was a conspiracy, it was the biggest any group of humans have ever organised, with no evidence for it anywhere.

He survived the crucifixion – he feinted, passed out, was drunk, did a magic trick
Medically impossible, and he would have been the only person to have survived in the Roman Empire’s history that we know of.

  • He died quickly surprising the Roman leadership, suggesting his scourging was particularly bad;
  • The Romans were experts in killing, and for a Roman soldier to bodge an execution would be punished by death himself;
  • His legs did not need to be broken, meaning the soldiers were sure he was dead;
  • How did he get down without the guards noticing? Where did he go?;A half-dead, staggering sick man who has just had a narrow escape is not worshiped fearlessly as divine lord and conqueror of death;
  • It is medically impossible that anyone could survive more than 10 minutes unconscious on a cross before suffocating;
  • Why would the disciples die for it?
  • How could a swooning half-dead man have moved the great stone at the door of the tomb?
  • According to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association: “Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge.”

Conspiracy theory – the disciples stole the body and made it all up
Again, highly improbable if not almost impossible.

  • Unarmed peasants could not have overwhelmed Roman soldiers;
  • The Jewish authorities tried to promote this idea, but failed;
  • Why?
  • The apostles were either deceived, or deceivers. Not one person out of the thousands tortured and murdered confessed to a conspiracy or that it had been a lie. Every single one died such appalling deaths for a lie and not one even suggested that there was even an element of exaggeration?
  • If they made up the story, they were the most creative, clever, intelligent fantasists in history, far surpassing Shakespeare, or Dante or Tolkien. These were simple fishermen peasants – they just weren’t clever enough.
  • Jesus’s death had the opposite effect - it discouraged the disciples;
  • Could a lie cause such massive character transformation in the disciples? They change in their lives from fear to faith, despair to confidence, confusion to certitude, runaway cowardice to steadfast boldness under threat and persecution;
  • There is no plausible motive for a conspiracy or a lie and they derived no benefit from it - they were hated, scorned, persecuted, excommunicated, imprisoned, tortured, exiled, crucified, boiled alive, roasted, beheaded, disemboweled and fed to lions for it;
  • The Roman or Jewish authorities could have easily disproved it and put down the early church at any time by simply producing the dead body;
  • There were thousands of eyewitnesses in Jerusalem who could counter their fantastical lie;
  • Their enemies were rich and powerful enough to have unearthed it;

It was all a massive hallucination
It wasn’t a resurrected man, but mad fantasy like you would have on psychedelic drugs.

  • There were too many eyewitnesses, and hallucinations are generally private and different from each person;
  • The quality of the witnesses was good, and as women they were highly unusual (women were not allowed to give testimony in court because they were deemed stupid and immoral);
  • 500 people saw the person in the same way doing the same thing all in the same place at the same time?
  • Hallucinations usually last a few seconds or minutes; rarely hours. This one hung around for forty days;
  • Hallucinations usually happen only once, except to the insane. This one returned many times, to ordinary people;
  • Hallucinations come from within, from what we already know, at least unconsciously. This one said and did surprising and unexpected things - like a real person and unlike a dream;
  • The disciples did not believe it, and it had to be proved to them. They touched him;
  • Hallucinations do not eat;
  • If it was a hallucination, where was the corpse and why did the authorities not just produce it to stop the rioting crowds?

It’s just legendary myth, folklore or legend that didn’t really happen
Jesus’ existence and crucifixion is universally accepted by all scholars, historians and scientists.

  • The style of the Gospels is radically and clearly different from the style of all the myths, as verified by secular historians and literary critics;
  • There was not enough time for the myth to develop in relation to the events of the uprising, and it could all have been disproved quickly;
  • The myth unusually would have to have 2 layers – a Jesus who was not divine, did not claim divinity, performed no miracles, and did not rise from the dead, and the religious Jesus, who claimed to be divine, performed miracles and rose from the dead. There is no evidence whatsoever for the first one;
  • The characters and witnesses (women, peasants, blasphemers) are too unusual to be acceptable as mythology;
  • Textual evidence strongly favours the argument that the gospel authorship is reliable and genuine;

It was a medical/zombie act of unknown science
Zombies are scientifically and logically impossible – they are creations of literature and the film industry. Something like Reserpine could have been used to cause suspended animation and mimick death. An extension of the swoon theory and highly improbable.

  • He couldn’t have survived crucifixion for all the reasons outlined before, and even if they thought he was dead, they would have tested it and made sure, meaning he would be scourged and massively injured;
  • Nobody noticed at all?
  • Drug experiments on rats cannot be said to have the same effect as on humans (e.g. thalidomide);
  • The amount of natural compounds needed, and harvested from the local surroundings couldn’t have been ingested in custody and would have probably killed him;
  • Why did the disciples die for it?
  • There is no evidence for it whatsoever.

It was a body double/impersonation
It was an almighty magic trick pulled off with a clever body double that looked just like Christ, and that’s why the disciples didn’t recognise him.

  • The disciples were reluctant to believe in the resurrection, were doubtful and would have been hard to convince;
  • It would have been impossible to impersonate Christ’s wounds;
  • They travelled with him for 3 years, living with him day and night, meaning there was no way they wouldn’t recognise an imposter;
  • The appearances were recorded in locked rooms, which were impossible to ente;
  • Why?
  • What happened to the body?
  • There is no evidence whatsoever.

They went to the wrong tomb
Despite have taken the body there 3 days before less than 15 minutes from the place of execution, and when because of his massively high profile it was specifically marked and guarded by Roman soldiers and given a Roman seal? The disciples’ enemies knew the location of the tomb. What about the appearances and the transformation of the disciples? There is no evidence for this whatsoever.

The tomb soldiers fell asleep
All of them, at the same time? And risk death as the Roman penalty for falling asleep on the job? If the soldiers were sleeping, how did they know it was the disciples who stole the body? How did they sneak past the soldiers and then move a two-ton stone up an incline in absolute silence? The tomb was secured with a Roman seal. Anyone who moved the stone would break the seal, an offense punishable by death. The depression and cowardice of the disciples makes it very unlikely.

He was an alien or teleported away
Totally absurd. Teleportation is currently a scientific implausibility, and by all accounts the Jesus noted in history displayed all the biological signs of being human rather than extraterrestrial. There is no evidence for this whatsoever.

Islam’s theory – it wasn’t actually him
And finally, Muslims believe what the Qu’ran says that someone else was crucified in Jesus’s place and Allah ascended him to heaven. There are 2 schools of thought – that Allah asked for someone to take his place (e.g. Simon of Cyrene, the man who carried his cross) and the bible was mis-reported, or that Allah caused this substituted person to look like Jesus and confuse the soldiers.

And that, my friends, is more ridiculous than the Easter bunny. :)

23
Mar

examining the medical reality of crucifixion

By Alex Cameron 0 Comments
Categories: Christianity, Jedi Skills, Life and Rants

What we know historically is that the Roman rule was 2 things: a) plural, as in it allowed communities to worship their own gods, and b) unbelievably brutal. We are so used to hearing about crucifixion and seeing it depicted in a semi-cutesy way that we never really appreciate the scientific reality of how evil and terrible it was. If you think for a second that anyone willingly put themselves through it for martyrdom, you’re quite mad.

Prisoners were routinely beaten, or “scourged” before being crucified, and it really wasn’t a quick few stripes across the backside. A short whip composed of several single or braided leather thongs tied to small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones was primarily used in scourging. The severity of the scourging depended on the individuals who were doing the scourging. Its intent was to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death. Christ was scourged so badly that his appearance was “more marred than any man” and he was unable to carry his own cross bar.

“As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim’s back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues.  Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock. The extent of blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive on the cross.”

Journal of the American Medical Association

Crucifixion was used specifically for political insurrection (sedition/treason) against the Roman Empire, and the most humiliating and excruciating way to die. It was specifically designed to a long, torturous death that lasted several days in the burning heat and to put people on show to warn others not to challenge Rome’s authority.  The execution sites themselves were typically stone-based quarries and the victim was deliberately dragged across the broken stone to agonise their infected wounds from the scourging.

Crucifixes rarely had “seats”. Victims were hung naked from nails with their body slightly twisted round, and had to pull their entire body up to breathe in. The whole process was designed to be as awful as it could possibly be. The body was positioned in a way that there was no comfort possible – just breathing was agonising. Taking the pain away from the back meant leaning on your feet, which were nailed. Total uncompromising agony for days on end until exhaustion killed you.

What struck me in the BBC’s version of “The Passion” is that Yeshua was told to lie down to be nailed (would you want to?), and he was weak, helpless and crying. That is part of the biblical description of a “lamb being led to the slaughter”. If you need any evidence of just how incredibly evil and sadistic homo sapiens can be, look no further than the idea of crucifixion.

Since the weight of the entire cross was probably well over 300 lb (136 kg), only the crossbar was carried. The patibulum, weighing 75 to 125 lb. (34 to 57 kg) was placed across the nape of the victim’s neck and balanced along both shoulders. Usually, the outstretched arms then were tied to the crossbar. The processional to the site of crucifixion was led by a complete Roman military guard, headed by a centurion. The Roman guard would not leave the victim until they were sure of his death.

The archaeological remains of a crucified body, found in an ossuary near Jerusalem and dating from the time of Christ, indicate that the nails were tapered iron spikes approximately 5 to 7 in (13 to 18 cm) long with a square shaft 3/8 in (1 cm) across. Furthermore, ossuary findings and the Shroud of Turin have documented that the nails commonly were driven through the wrists rather than the palms. Each wound apparently was intended to produce intense agony, and the contributing causes of death were numerous.

The length of survival generally ranged from 3-4 hours to 3-4 days and appears to have been inversely related to the severity of the scourging.  However, even if the scourging had been relatively mild, the Roman soldiers could hasten death by breaking the legs below the knees (crurifragium or skelokopia). This would stop the victim being able to push their body weight up to breathe in, and cause them to suffocate.

Not uncommonly, insects would light upon or burrow into the open wounds or the eyes, ears, and nose of the dying and helpless victim, and birds of prey would tear at these sites. Moreover, it was customary to leave the corpse on the cross to be devoured by predatory animals.

The scourging prior to crucifixion served to weaken the condemned man and, if blood loss was considerable, to produce orthostatic hypotension and even hypovolemic shock. When the victim was thrown to the ground on his back, in preparation for transfixion of the hands, his scourging wounds most likely would become torn open again and contaminated with dirt. Furthermore, with each respiration, the painful scourging wounds would be scraped against the rough wood of the stipes. As a result, blood loss from the back probably would continue throughout the crucifixion ordeal.

With arms outstretched but not taut, the wrists were nailed to the patibulum. It has been shown that the ligaments and bones of the wrist can support the weight of a body hanging from them, but the palms cannot. Accordingly, the iron spikes probably were driven between the radius and the carpals or between the two rows of carpal bones, either proximal to or through the strong bandlike flexor retinaculum and the various intercarpal ligaments. Although a nail in either location in the wrist might pass between the bony elements and thereby produce no fractures, the likelihood of painful periosteal injury would seem great. Furthermore, the driven nail would crush or sever the rather large senso- rimotor median nerve. The stimulated nerve would produce excruciating bolts of fiery pain in both arms. Although the severed median nerve would result in paralysis of a portion of the hand, ischemic contractures and impalement of various ligaments by the iron spike might produce a claw-like grasp.

Most commonly, the feet were fixed to the front of the stipes by means of an iron spike driven through the first or second intermetatarsal space, just distal to the tarsometatarsal joint. It is likely that the deep peroneal nerve and branches of the medial and lateral plantar nerves would have been injured by the nails. Although scourging may have resulted in considerable blood loss, crucifixion per se was a relatively bloodless procedure, since no major arteries, other than perhaps the deep plantar arch, pass through the favoured anatomic sites of transfixion.

The major patho-physiological effect of crucifixion, beyond the excruciating pain, was a marked interference with normal respiration, particularly exhalation. The weight of the body, pulling down on the outstretched arms and shoulders, would tend to fix the intercostal muscles in an inhalation state and thereby hinder passive exhalation. Accordingly, exhalation was primarily diaphragmatic, and breathing was shallow. It is likely that this form of respiration would not suffice and that hypercarbia would soon result. The onset of muscle cramps or titanic contractions, due to fatigue and hypercarbia, would hinder respiration even further.

Adequate exhalation required lifting the body by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows and adducting the shoulders. However, this manoeuvre would place the entire weight of the body on the tarsals and would produce searing pain. Furthermore, flexion of the elbows would cause rotation of the wrists about the iron nails and cause fiery pain along the damaged median nerves. Lifting of the body would also painfully scrape the scourged back against the rough wooden stipes. Muscle cramps and paresthesias of the outstretched and uplifted arms would add to the discomfort. As a result, each respiratory effort would become agonizing and tiring and lead eventually to asphyxia.

The actual cause of death by crucifixion was multifactorial and varied somewhat with each case, but the two most prominent causes probably were hypovolemic shock and exhaustion asphyxia. Other possible contributing factors included dehydration, stress-induced arrhythmias, and congestive heart failure with the rapid accumulation of pericardial and perhaps pleural effusions. Crucifracture (breaking the legs below the knees), if performed, led to an asphyxic death within minutes.  Death by crucifixion was, in every sense of the word, excruciating (Latin, excruciatus, or “out of the cross”).

The gospel of John describes the piercing of Jesus’ side and emphasizes the sudden flow of blood and water. Some authors have interpreted the flow of water to be ascites or urine, from an abdominal midline perforation of the bladder. However, the Greek word (πλευρα, or pleura) used by John clearly denoted laterality and often implied the ribs. Therefore, it seems probable that the wound was in the thorax and well away from the abdominal midline.

Although the side of the wound was not designated by John, it traditionally has been depicted on the right side.  Supporting this tradition is the fact that a large flow of blood would be more likely with a perforation of the distended and thin-walled right atrium or ventricle than the thick- walled and contracted left ventricle. Although the side of the wound may never be established with certainty, the right seems more probable than the left.

Therefore, the water probably represented serous pleural and pericardial fluid, and would have preceded the flow of blood and been smaller in volume than the blood. Perhaps in the setting of hypovolemia and impending acute heart failure, pleural and pericardial effusions may have developed and would have added to the volume of apparent water.  The blood, in contrast, may have originated from the right atrium or the right ventricle or perhaps from a hemopericardium.

Jesus’ death after only three to six hours on the cross surprised even Pontius Pilate. The fact that Jesus cried out in a loud voice and then bowed his head and died suggests the possibility of a catastrophic terminal event. One popular explanation has been that Jesus died of cardiac rupture. In the setting of the scourging and crucifixions with associated hypovolemia, hypoxemia, and perhaps an altered coagulable state, friable non- infective thrombotic vegetations could have formed on the aortic or mitral valve. These then could have dislodged and embolized into the coronary circulation and thereby produced an acute transmural myocardial infarction. Thrombotic valvular vegetations have been reported to develop under analogous acute traumatic conditions. Rupture of the left ventricular free wall may occur, though uncommonly, in the first few hours following infarction.

However, another explanation may be more likely. Jesus’ death may have been hastened simply by his state of exhaustion and by the severity of the scourging, with its resultant blood loss and preshock state. The fact that he could not carry his patibulum supports this interpretation. The actual cause of Jesus’ death, like that of other crucified victims, may have been multifactorial and related primarily to hypovolemic shock, exhaustion asphyxia, and perhaps acute heart failure. A fatal cardiac arrhythmia may have accounted for the apparent catastrophic terminal event.

Thus, it remains unsettled whether Jesus died of cardiac rupture or of cardiorespiratory failure. However, the important feature may be not how he died but rather whether he died. Clearly, the weight of historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted and supports the traditional view that the spear, thrust between his right ribs, probably perforated not only the right lung but also the pericardium and heart and thereby ensured his death.

Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge.

More: “On the Physical Death Of Jesus Christ” - SC American Medical Association
http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/deathjesus.pdf


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