Did Jesus Exist? Court to Decide
ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- Forget the U.S. debate over intelligent design versus evolution.An Italian court is tackling Jesus -- and whether the Roman Catholic Church may be breaking the law by teaching that he existed 2,000 years ago.
The case pits against each other two men in their 70s, who are from the same central Italian town and even went to the same seminary school in their teenage years. The defendant, Enrico Righi, went on to become a priest writing for the parish newspaper. The plaintiff, Luigi Cascioli, became a vocal atheist who, after years of legal wrangling, is set to get his day in court later this month.
"I started this lawsuit because I wanted to deal the final blow against the Church, the bearer of obscurantism and regression," Cascioli told Reuters.
Cascioli says Righi, and by extension the whole Church, broke two Italian laws. The first is "Abuso di Credulita Popolare" (Abuse of Popular Belief) meant to protect people against being swindled or conned. The second crime, he says, is "Sostituzione di Persona," or impersonation.
Comments
I think the existence of Jesus is pretty secure--that is, unless Italy has activist judges too.
Here's my analysis of the whole thing: Could Jesus Suffer His Father's Fate?
Posted by: JR @ RightFaith | January 5, 2006 1:26 PM
I'm sure the case will be found in favor of the Catholic Church, but there certainly is no evidence that a real Jesus existed! Not unless you count documents written decades after Jesus' death. Imagine if we just now started reading documents about Hitler, having never heard of him before. It's too bad this case is taking place in such a hostile venue. It'd be nice to have this battle some place where it'd get a fair treatment.
Posted by: EP | January 7, 2006 4:44 PM