Most of the e-mails I am receiving are along the same lines:

I believe that there is a difference between the groups that Himmelfarb uses
and the scourging of the alleged son of God. (I consider myself to be an
atheist.)

and another

The reason the thought experiments don’t work in [Himmelfarb’s] piece is that, for
Christians, this is the event on which all history hinges. Have any of the
incidents that she mentioned had nearly the amount of voluminous writings,
controversies, and “passion” surrounding them as the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ?