October (Web-only) 2000

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"A California group says it plans to clone Jesus, using DNA obtained from a relic," reported the Chicago Sun-Times. Fox News picked it up from there: "Members of the group see cloning technology as a chance to literally bring Christ to the modern age, find out exactly how divine he is and perhaps work a miracle." Dozens of papers picked this one up, from The Scotsman to Australia's The Age. It has to be true, right? I mean, the group even has a Web page at clonejesus.com. A Web page, I tell you! (Sigh.) Yes, readers, there is a Web site. And it has lines like "We're not satisfied with evasive answers like, 'Jesus is in our hearts,' or 'Jesus is everywhere.' Meaningless statements like that are meant to reassure children and the ignorant." It quotes liberally from Edgar Cayce. The "more information" tab takes you to a book with "recipes for cooking babies" and other such nonsense. Getting the picture? Forget clonejesus.com. The Web site you should really be bookmarking is Snopes.com—the best source for sniffing out urban legends like this. Its religion page also covers such gems as the NASA scientists' discovery of a lost day in time, the hole to Hell in Siberia, Madalyn Murray O'Hair's broadcasting petition, and Attorney General Janet Reno's cultist definition. Lies, all lies. As Snopes points out, "the person behind this [cloning Jesus] stunt is Kristan Lawson, who is primarily known for having published the Unabomber's manifesto in book form." For more on cloning Jesus, see this press release from the Evangelical Alliance UK, in which David Hilborn explains, "There are no genes or chromosomes for God. Divinity is what distinguishes Jesus from the rest of us and divinity ...