A prominent historian investigating the death of Jesus experienced a conversion — and a brush with the supernatural

CNN ^ | 4th April 2026 | John Burke

[Cronos]

It was July in 2016, and Holland was in the northern Iraq city of Sinjar. He had arrived with a BBC film crew about three months after ISIS, the murderous jihadist group, had tried and failed to retake the town after massacring members of the Yazidis, an ancient religious and ethnic minority in Iraq.

Holland knew something about ancient history. He was an award-winning British historian who had written popular books about ruthless Spartan and Roman leaders he called the “apex predators” of the Greco-Roman world. They lived by the Athenian dictum: The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

ISIS applied that logic to Sinjar. They executed hundreds — some say thousands — of men and sold women into sexual slavery. They desecrated churches and hung some of their victims on crosses. The stench of death in Sinjar was so overpowering that Holland had to stop talking on camera.

As he paused to compose himself, the camera panned to a startling sight: a wooden cross, perched precariously atop the rubble of a demolished church and still standing over Sinjar’s skyline.

But the camera could not capture how that cross would change Holland’s life. He was an atheist-turned-agnostic who had rejected the Christian faith in which he had been raised. He had little use for the Bible or stories about miracles.

When he arrived in Sinjar, he was writing a book about Christianity, but from an objective historian’s point of view. Somehow along the way, though, investigating Jesus’ crucifixion transformed him — along with a possible brush with the supernatural.

An unlikely chain of events forced him to ask a momentous question: What if I were wrong about Christianity?

[Cronos]

In the book, “Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World,” Holland says reports of Christianity’s death are greatly exaggerated. He says plenty of non-Christians, such as atheists and agnostics, have Christian beliefs — and they don’t know it.

Holland argues that Western secular values, such as belief in the importance of compassion, equality, and human rights, are not universal human instincts. They are the products of Christianity.

[wardaddy]

Good for him

[miniTAX]

‘The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.
ISIS applied that logic to Sinjar’

---

Islam applies that logic to the world, especially to infidels. There, corrected.
Even when, tepidly, telling tale favorable to Christians, the scumbags media can’t help to euphemize the Religion of Pieces.

[Nateman]

Paywall . There is no way I am giving CNN any money!

[roving]

Just go to reader mode.

[roving]

I read the whole thing. He still has doubts.

[Cronos]

No worries.

Holland has a podcast, the rest is history, which is quite good.

Or just pick up his books, they are great. I recommend

1. Dominion
2. In the shadow of the sword

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

It was July in 2016, and Holland was in the northern Iraq city of Sinjar.

Poor excerpting. I'm fairly sure the country of Holland didn't move to Iraq. 🤔