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"He is not here; he is risen." (Mathew 28:6)

These simple words, whether they were believed by the original witnesses to the ressurection or by New Testament readers today, resolve one of the most important issues to humankind in millennia of searching. The initial recipients were likely flooded with emotion as they had confirmed once and for all the answers to questions that billions of residents of this planet have asked at one time or another: Is there something else? Somewhere else? Someone else? Or does my body just rot away in the tomb forever, taking me inevitably with it?

These days, despite the hope and devotion to their beliefs that many of them have, Christians who believe this account of the New Testament need to be especially faithful. Efforts by media and academic organizations abound to undermine that faith. Even though science has parceled out only natural questions for its adherents and does not in theory weigh in on the "big questions," many scientists can't avoid expressions of their own faith. They often claim to know and even proselyte the unknowable, that there is no higher being or afterlife and believers are deluded, even though they themselves claim that any kind of opinions on these matters are by definition unscientific.

And their favorite topic for such debunking is Christianity, and particularly its sacred text, the Bible, and the claim that Jesus was the Son of God and the key to salvation through his crucifixion and resurrection. I often wonder why that would be. There aren't a whole lot of efforts at debunking Druidism or the worshiping of Greek Gods, and wouldn't religions like that be equally false in the minds of free-thinking atheist academics?

But as it often happens, criticism made in ignorance ends up being anything but. Many of these pseudo scholars often take pot shots at Christ and The Gospel from the firm vantage point of the nonbeliever. As John McCain in his presidential campaign said about criticism from Hugo Chavez: "I consider it a complimen coming from himt." (One of the few funny things Johny Mac has said, so it bears repeating.)

Notably one of the criticisms I heard on one of the recent History Channel documentaries (they always run a bunch of them this time of year - 'Happy Easter, you're deluded!') was that Christ obviously didn't know what he was doing because he picked such incompetents, frauds and traitors as his disciples. Like he would have benefited from some type of middle-management training: "7 Habits

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