The Case for Christ Page #4

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hopeful thinking

weakens your argument?

Not one bit.

The fact that I benefit

from gravity

isn't proof that it's real,

just as my dislike

for mosquitoes

isn't an argument

against their existence.

You see, what I... what I want

and what I don't want

has no impact on truth.

That being said,

if Christ's resurrection means

that I get to be

with Debbie again,

I have no problem

being happy about that.

Sometimes truth reminds us

of what's really important.

[]

(beeping)

(engine revving)

[]

(pager beeping)

ALFIE:

Oh, Lee, Lee. Lee.

Alfie. Remember me?

Yeah, of course.

What happened?

Okay, well, her water broke.

She couldn't reach you,

so she called me,

and... well, I drove her here.

Again... thank you.

- I'll take it from here.

- Okay.

(knock at door)

- Hey, Les.

- LESLIE:
Lee.

- Daddy.

- Hey, peanut.

(grunts)

You a big helper for Mama?

LESLIE:

Lee, where were you?

- I was working, hon. -Hon,

I paged you and I paged you

- and I paged you and I...

- I know, I know. Okay?

Yeah.

- You okay?

- Mm-hmm.

He's beautiful.

They're cleaning him up.

We were at home,

and I started cramping, and...

Ali was scared. Right?

And we prayed,

and everything got better.

Good. I'm glad.

(baby crying)

- Oh...

- Oh, hi, sweetie.

Hey, come here, honey.

Oh, hi.

- (chuckles)

- Oh, he's got healthy lungs.

Meet your son, Kyle Christopher.

- Hey.

- (gasps) Hi.

(grunting)

Hey.

Welcome to the world, buddy.

[]

(fussing quietly)

You should call your parents,

don't you think?

People can change, you know?

Well, the announcement's

in the paper.

They can read it

just like everybody else.

(radio playing indistinctly)

[]

[]

[]

(grunting):

Good gracious.

(blowing)

(horn honks)

LEE:

Mr. Marlow.

Lee Strobel, Chicago Tribune.

You'll have to excuse me.

Sir, you've been

dodging my calls

about James Hicks

for over a week.

I tried talking to PD.

They won't tell me anything,

either,

Why can't I get a statement

from anyone?

What's the big secret?

Hold this.

Tell you what...

Why don't you come to the jail

and talk to my client yourself?

Maybe you can get him

to say more to you

than he'll say to me.

(lock buzzes)

Mr. Hicks, I'm Lee Strobel.

I'm with the, uh...

the Chicago Tribune.

I'd like to talk to you

about the shooting.

I figured that maybe you'd want

to give me, uh,

your side of things... you know,

help yourself out a bit here.

I didn't do nothing.

Okay, so then... so then

tell me how it all went down.

I don't know. It's fuzzy.

Joe started shoving me around

for no reason.

Who's Joe?

- Koblinsky.

- HICKS:
The cop.

Koblinsky.

He put his hands on me,

so I fought back,

like anyone would.

We go at it for a bit,

then a gun goes off.

- Whose gun?

- I don't know.

Like I told you,

I was drinking that night.

- It was fuzzy.

- Crime scene report says

they found your .22-caliber

pistol in the bushes,

that it was missing a bullet

and it had your prints

all over it.

Koblinsky carries a .38.

His gun was never fired.

In fact, it was never taken

out of its holster, so...

if you didn't shoot him,

then who did?

My old lady

kicked me out that night.

I got a little crazy,

you know, fired off a round

at the building,

but I didn't aim it

at nobody or hurt nobody.

I tossed my piece in the bushes

when Koblinsky rode up on me.

That's it... he tossed it

in the bushes.

I tossed it in the bushes.

Mr. Hicks,

are you still affiliated

with the Gangster Disciples?

You know what this is?

This is a waste of my time.

Guard.

Sir, I- | am trying

to help you here,

and nothing that you've told me

is gonna change

the evidence

that's stacked against you,

which right now

is pretty overwhelming.

What you talking about?

You don't know me.

Okay, sir,

you gotta come up with

a better excuse

than "the dog ate my bullet"

if you're gonna beat

this thing, Mr. Hicks.

(door closes)

Your client's guilty as sin.

- You know that, right?

- Really?

[]

(bell tolling)

[]

(knocking)

LEE:

Father Marquez. Lee Strobel.

- Thank you for seeing me. l...

- Of course. Of course.

I, uh... I should tell you

I'm a bit of a history buff

myself, so...

- Oh. -Yeah, I'm-I'm...

I'm particularly intrigued

with your archaeological work.

Oh. A former life.

Uh, former life, yes.

I'm a... I'm a bit surprised,

given your, uh...

your stellar reputation

that you just

gave all that up for, uh, this.

Well, would you like to be

more specific?

Well, it just seems to me that,

for the better part

of 2,000 years,

Christianity has been

creating these...

these rituals and these rules.

You know, they've erected

these elaborate

and often expensive cathedrals,

and all of that

to support a faith

that I believe

is-is ultimately built on sand.

And yet it's all still standing.

Yes, because people

keep telling each other

the same stories

over and over again.

Just because I write

something down

and I bury it in the dirt,

that doesn't make it true.

I think I'm beginning to see

the crux of your visit.

Look, I...

I understand

that a number of people

claimed to have seen Jesus

after his crucifixion

and some of them

even wrote it down,

but I guess my question is:

How-how can we be sure

of the reliability

of those manuscripts?

Well, the same way

we authenticate

any historical document:

by comparing and contrasting

the copies

that have been recovered.

It's called textual criticism.

The more copies we have,

the better that we can

cross-reference

and figure out if what

the original was saying

is historically accurate.

And the earlier they come from

in history, the better.

Take Homer's "Iliad,"

for example.

MARQUEZ Hmm?

Is this real?

It's as real

as the Macedonian dirt

that I dug it up from.

LEE:
Well, the Greeks

considered this their Bible

- for many centuries.

- Yes, they did.

That is one of 1,565 copies

in existence today.

Now, the "Iliad"

was originally composed

- 800 years before Christ.

- Okay.

This Greek copy is dated

at the third century A.D.

(Lee inhales deeply)

So... (exhales)

800... that's-that's...

1,100 years between this copy

and the original, yes?

Correct. There is only one

ancient collection of writings

that has more authenticated

copies than the "lliad."

Can you guess what that is?

You're gonna tell me the Bible.

The New Testament.

And how many copies is that?

To date, archaeologists

have recovered 5,843

Greek New Testament manuscripts.

That's four times as many

as the "lliad."

- Really?

- The earliest fragment

of the Gospel of John

was found in ancient Egypt,

and it dates

to the second century A.D.

How close is that

to the original?

Less than 30 years.

I have one of the fragments

in my collection.

- It's quite a treasure, isn't it?

- Hmm.

After the New Testament

and the "lliad,"

runners-up don't even

come close.

We only have a hundred copies

of Sophocles,

seven copies

of Plato's tetralogies

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