Via PZ, a Facebook argument on whether Batman or Jesus would win in a fight.

On the pro-Batman side, “Roland” argues that “You’re all neglecting the fact that Jesus has no inherent power of his own. It’s all from his father.” This, however, overlooks the fact that in The Book of John, Jesus states that “I and the Father are one.” Assuming Jesus was telling the truth, it would appear that Jesus has a significant leg-up on Batman.

On the other hand, in The Book of Mark Jesus says, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” What exactly this means for the the relationship between Jesus and God is never really cleared up in canon, but it seems indisputable that in human form Jesus’ knowledge falls short of full-bown omniscience.

Given that, it seems likely that his power also falls short of full-blown omnipotence (which makes sense, since the miracles we actually see him working are fairly limited in nature). Though the exact limits of Jesus’ power and knowledge are never revealed, it seems safe to assume that whatever they are, Batman could exploit them, since he’s the master of exploiting others’ weaknesses–in The Dark Knight Returns, he’s even able to beat Superman this way!

But even granting Jesus omniscience and omnipotence, Batman still might have a chance. We know that Jesus operates under a very strict moral code, arguably a far more burdensome one than Batman’s “no kill” rule. For example, we know that Jesus was unable to simply forgive humanity’s sins, but had to sacrifice himself in order to deal with them.

Given such harsh restrictions, it seems likely that Batman could engineer a situation where Jesus’ code would force Jesus to act in furtherance of Batman’s goals. If Jesus is omniscient, he’d be able to see it coming, but it’s not clear that that would help him. We know, for example, that Jesus’s code also bars him from interfering with free will, and that might bar him from stopping Batman’s plan.

So there we have it: Batman could totally take Jesus.