The importance of being agnostic

James Cameron must be smiling ear to ear.

Ever since his recent press conference discussing his upcoming Discovery channel documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus where the filmakers claim to have possibly found the tombs of, among others, Jesus, his mother Mary, and (shades of The DaVinci Code), his wife Mary Magdalene, and son Judah, the story has been raging like a tidal wave across the blogosphere as well as the MSM.

My favorite quote so far is an epic of understatement from the Christian Science Monitor:

If the evidence proved convincing, it would represent a challenge to the New Testament and the foundations of Christianity.

Ya think?

And while this tempest in a tomb provides welcome relief from breathless stories about Anna's body and Britney's pate I must wonder whether the upcoming and ongoing firestorm (a Google search of Cameron + Jesus garnered over 2 million responses) should truly matter to people of faith.

My understanding of faith is that it requires one to act without the emollient of objective truth. (And, in fact, it's this requirement that keeps me happily agnostic.)

Therefore, regardless of the scientific arguments on either side of the accuracy of the documentary's claims, shouldn't all those arguments be irrelevent to true believers?

I strongly suspect that many will not see it so.

For those who feel this claim threatens their beliefs I have to ask, does that say more about the documentary, or does it say more about your faith?