[silverleaf]

Hmm, has anyone told the Muslims this judge demands proof of the existence of one of their prophets?

[Doc Savage]

Prove Justice Exists on Earth!

[montag813]

Prove "global warming" exists.

[NYer]

Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[BenLurkin]

How odd that a court decides in advance that the Gospels are not evidence.

No chance of a fair trial - again.

Of course there is also Josephus: http://www.josephus-1.com/

[trimom]

That's one of those questions you really have to be careful about asking.....all the lightning and earthquakes that could be yours, just for asking.....

[SeaBiscuit]

Rene Descartes

[crz]

Lets get out the writtings of Pilate and see if he really was real.

[skr]

Italy must have some interesting rules about what can and cannot be published in a parish newsletter.

[kindred]

[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.]

Hee, hee. No one in history was written of before the authors that wrote of them existed because they were not alive to to written of(except the prophets who wrote of the Messiah God would send)! All authors lived during or after the time of the people of whom they wrote existed.
Ignorant judge.

[Reaganesque]

How is this not hate speech? This man is motivated not by any fundamental set of morals or ideals. He is motivated by his hatred of Christianity. There is absolutely no point in this priest trying to prove the historical existence of Jesus. Christ himself could appear in the courtroom amidst the Heavenly Hosts and this jerk would still not accept it as proof.

He, like many atheists, is in love with the sound of his own voice, is greatly impressed with his own "intellect" and delights in the discomfort of others, specifically Christians. He lives to anger others so he will not be alone in his misery. The priest should ignore the court order.

[SuziQ]

The priest should have challenged the Judge to prove that Christ does NOT exist!

[Reily]

What's idiotic about that judges order there are several historical figures where absolute historical physical(or multi-sourced!)proof is quite thin or non-existent. A good example that no one would claim didn't exist is Alexander the Great. We have several semi-legendary histories with some apparent embellishments (For example did you know that Alexander went deep-sea diving in a glass diving bell. I find that to be a bit of stretch !)
I once heard a historian say that sometimes the best proof a historical figure is the figures effect on history. If one uses that Christs existence is just as certain as Alexander's !

[Beckwith]

Atheism is the highest expression of arrogance.

[chronic_loser]

The gospel of John was in existence in EGYPT by the year 115 AD, according to the best dating methods. I think it was the Bodmer Papyrus (my old memory fails me). That means that this LAST gospel to be written had time to filter out from Palestine to Egypt (give it 10 years?), putting the latest reasonable date for the writing of the gospel at 105 AD, which puts the synoptics at at least 20-30 years earlier. (Clement of Rome was quoting the gospels in 60-70 AD). This means that the claims of the gospel were in print and all over the Mediterranean world by 95 AD, less than 70 years after the death of Christ. It doesn't make any difference if they were "the bible" or not (there was no "Bible" then, as the canon wasn't determined conclusively till around 300 AD), the fact is that historical claims were made about Jesus of Nazareth and were widely circulated around the empire, causing riots in Rome (the "Chrestus" of Suetonius)among the Jews, and bringing in at least 14 volumes of writing by ante nicene Fathers from various points in the empire discussing this person.

Only a bonafide brain dead idiot would deny that the person of Jesus existed.

[bmwcyle]

OK Judge read this

[Godzilla]

They could exhume the body......except for the resurrection.

[Trajan88]

Is the burden of proof on the government... even in Italy?

Anyway... I'd tell the judge "prove Jesus does not exist" and then enter evidence of photos of folks going to church (along the lines of what happened in the movie "Micacle on 42nd St." [I think that's name of the movie] where Santa Claus' defense submitted sacks of letters from kids to Santa... proving there is in deed a Santa).

Trajan88... Roman emperor... of Texas ;-)

[HighlyOpinionated]

Did God Create Evil?

A university professor challenged his students with this question:

Did God create everything that exists? "

A student bravely replied "Yes, he did!"

"God created everything?" the professor asked.

"Yes sir," the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then God is evil." The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question professor?"

"Of course," replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor does cold exist?"

The professor replied "Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?"

The students snickered at the young man's question. The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (- 460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.

The student continued. "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir. Darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor. "Sir, does evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence we see everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

The young man's name --- Albert Einstein.

[VOA]

AN ITALIAN judge has ordered a priest to appear in court this
month to prove that Jesus Christ existed.

Heck, the priest's lawyer should simply start calling witnesses
like R.C. Sproul, Ravi Zacharias, Gary Habermas, etc. until the court
is either convinced or just decides to render a postmodern,
postChristian decision.

I guarantee if Sproul, Zacharias, Habermas, etc. were allowed to
speak their peace...this "news" story would just about vanish from
the news unless the judge rules against Christ's existence.
I suspect that if Sproul was allowed to cross-examine the atheist plaintiff,
the atheist would be babbling within about one minute. (I'm presuming
the plaintiff isn't in the same class as fellows like Michael Shermer)

This story will get the same press coverage as the Polish
Communists' artful TV camera-work that disguised the fact that
hundreds of thousands of Poles just happened to be in the
streets to meet John Paul II.