A magic trick is designed to distract and confuse whomever views it.

Long time ago, I was talking to one of my Christian friends and I just casually said that I had some serious doubts about what was in the Bible.

She shot back with a well-rehearsed, "Die for a lie" rebuttal and asked me, "Why would anyone knowingly die for a lie?"

"I don't know." I answered.

A few days later I saw her again and I said, "Wait a second....how exactly do you know when and how the Apostles died, or lived, at all?"

And she was went to another well-rehearsed tangent about tradition, something about Julius Cesar, etc. So, I asked, "Can you show me one extra-biblical historical text that describe the reason, place and time of the deaths of ANY apostle?"

And she couldn't

She was an excellent magician, though.