[Buddha-l] it's not about belief

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

The Times
     January 03, 2006
     


Prove Christ exists, judge orders priest
>From Richard Owen in Rome

AN ITALIAN judge has ordered a priest to appear in court this month to 
prove that Jesus Christ existed. AN ITALIAN judge has ordered a priest to 
appear in court this month to prove that Jesus Christ existed. 
The case against Father Enrico Righi has been brought in the town of 
Viterbo, north of Rome, by Luigi Cascioli, a retired agronomist who once 
studied for the priesthood but later became a militant atheist. 

Signor Cascioli, author of a book called The Fable of Christ, began legal 
proceedings against Father Righi three years ago after the priest 
denounced Signor Cascioli in the parish newsletter for questioning 
Christ's historical existence. 

Yesterday Gaetano Mautone, a judge in Viterbo, set a preliminary hearing 
for the end of this month and ordered Father Righi to appear. The judge 
had earlier refused to take up the case, but was overruled last month by 
the Court of Appeal, which agreed that Signor Cascioli had a reasonable 
case for his accusation that Father Righi was 'abusing popular credulity'. 

Signor Cascioli's contention " echoed in numerous atheist books and 
internet sites" is that there was no reliable evidence that Jesus lived 
and died in 1st-century Palestine apart from the Gospel accounts, which 
Christians took on faith. There is therefore no basis for Christianity, 
he claims. 

Signor Cascioli's one-man campaign came to a head at a court hearing last 
April when he lodged his accusations of 'abuse of popular credulity' and 
'impersonation', both offences under the Italian penal code. He argued 
that all claims for the existence of Jesus from sources other than the 
Bible stem from authors who lived 'after the time of the hypothetical 
Jesus' and were therefore not reliable witnesses. 

Signor Cascioli maintains that early Christian writers confused Jesus 
with John of Gamala, an anti-Roman Jewish insurgent in 1st-century 
Palestine. Church authorities were therefore guilty of 'substitution of 
persons'. 

The Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius mention a 'Christus' or 
'Chrestus', but were writing 'well after the life of the purported Jesus' 
and were relying on hearsay. 

Father Righi said there was overwhelming testimony to Christ's existence 
in religious and secular texts. Millions had in any case believed in 
Christ as both man and Son of God for 2,000 years. 

'If Cascioli does not see the sun in the sky at midday, he cannot sue me 
because I see it and he does not,' Father Righi said. 

Signor Cascioli said that the Gospels themselves were full of 
inconsistencies and did not agree on the names of the 12 apostles. He 
said that he would withdraw his legal action if Father Righi came up with 
irrefutable proof of Christ’s existence by the end of the month. 

The Vatican has so far declined to comment. 

THE EVIDENCE

·  The Gospels say that Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, 
grew up in Nazareth, preached and performed miracles in Galilee and died 
on the Cross in Jerusalem. 

·  In his "Antiquities of the Jews" at the end of the 1st century, 
Josephus, the Jewish historian, refers to Jesus as 'a wise man, a doer of 
wonderful works' who 'drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of 
the Gentiles' 

·  Muslims believe Jesus was a great prophet. Many Jewish theologians 
regard Jesus as an itinerant rabbi who popularised many of the beliefs of 
liberal Jews. Neither Muslims nor Jews believe he was the Messiah and Son 
of God 

·  Tacitus, the Roman historian who lived from 55 to 120, mentions 
'Christus' in his Annals. In about 120 Suetonius, author of The Lives of 
the Caesars, says: 'Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the 
instigation of Chrestus, Emperor Claudius expelled them from Rome.'

Maybe the judge can decide what to believe? ;-) 

Erik


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