That's BS. Cascioli attended the same seminary as Enrico Righi before dropping out.
Posted on 01/22/2006 3:10:37 PM PST by Cornpone
Rome - Lawyers for a small-town parish priest have been ordered to appear in court next week after the Roman Catholic cleric was accused of unlawfully asserting what many people take for granted: that Jesus Christ existed.
The Reverend Enrico Righi was named in a 2002 complaint filed by Luigi Cascioli after Righi wrote in a parish bulletin that Jesus did indeed exist, and that he was born of a couple named Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth.
Cascioli, a lifelong atheist, claims that Righi violated two Italian laws by making the assertion: so-called "abuse of popular belief" in which someone fraudulently deceives people; and "impersonation" in which someone gains by attributing a false name to someone.
Cascioli says that for 2 000 years the Roman Catholic Church has been deceiving people by furthering the fable that Christ existed, and says the church has been gaining financially by "impersonating" as Christ someone by the name of John of Gamala, the son of Judas from Gamala.
Gospels 'full of errors'
He also asserts that the Gospels - the most frequently cited testimony of Jesus' existence - are inconsistent, full of errors and biased, and that other written evidence from the time is scant and doesn't hold up to scholarly analysis.
Prosecutors, who in Italy are obliged to investigate such complaints, initially tried to have the case dismissed, saying no crime could be verified.
But Cascioli challenged them, and Judge Gaetano Mautone set a hearing for next Friday in Viterbo, north of Rome, to discuss preliminary motions in Cascioli's bid to have the court appoint technical experts to review the historical data and determine if Jesus really did exist.
Cascioli, 72, said in a recent interview that he decided to pursue the case against Righi, a priest in the village of Bagnoregio, near Viterbo, because the cleric had written in the parish bulletin that Jesus existed.
Cascioli is quick to stress that he has no problem with Christians freely professing their faith.
Righi argues that the existence of Christ is "unmistakable" because of the substantial historical evidence - both pagan and religious - testifying that he indeed lived.
"Cascioli maintains that Christ never existed. If he doesn't see the sun at midday, he can't denounce me just because I do.
"He should denounce all believers!" Righi wrote.
Born 'against Christ'
Cascioli says he fully recognises that his case has a slim chance of succeeding in overwhelmingly Catholic Italy, but not because his argument is lacking.
"We aren't optimistic - unless the Madonna makes a miracle, but I don't think that will happen," he joked.
Cascioli says he is merely going through the necessary legal steps in Italy so he can ultimately take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, where he intends to pursue the case against the church for "religious racism".
"I was born against Christ and God," he said.
"I'm doing it (the complaint) now because I should do it before I die."
Welcome, then. I guess these are kind of old tromping grounds for me. LOL
I find it amazing they spend so much time and energy to prove NOTHING doesn't exist.
So do I, my friend, so do I.
(I agree that he's an idiot; however...)
to go over and promote athiesm in Iran.
That's easy for you to say, snug & secure here in America (I assume). Have you put in your time as a missionary in a Muslim land?
;Have you put in your time as a missionary in a Muslim land?
Yup. Been beheaded twice already!
Ok ok. You're points valid. But I wasn't really interested in converting them to athiesm just getting him to shutup. ;-)
That's BS. Cascioli attended the same seminary as Enrico Righi before dropping out.
Can't prove a negative.
OK, I understand your point from the Islamic viewpoint, they believe in Allah (GOD). But they don't place Christ very high, just a prophet.
But the Zeus example is really just weird. What, am I supposed to be scared that I'll be zapped and turned into a forest nymph or something?
They don't understand that Christianity teaches conversion by convincing people....Islam teaches conversion by infliction if people can't be convinced. These libs don't get that Islam is their worst nightmare when it's allowed to take a country over.
I'll second that.
No, no! It stands for:
BCE - Before the Corporate Era
CE - Corporate Era
The change point was the development of Heaven, Inc.
:-)
Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society
Ibn Warraq (ex-Muslim writer & activist)
Ali Sina (ex-Muslim writer & activist)
Jeff
Good show...
Jeff
Shhh, don't even say that. Zeus might be listening!
:-)
Actually the Roman Empire was not anti-God ! There were gods aplenty. Christian's gave imperial officials the appearance of being disloyal. For example Christian unwillingness to participate in the emperor cult. Since the Empire was always racked with rebellions any whiff of disloyalty was easily exaggerated. Rome's great weakness IMHO was the fact they never really solved the problem of how the next emperor was picked ! So paranoia regarding loyalty was the rule!
It looks like a publicity ploy to sell books.
From Wikipedia:
Recently a book, "The Fable of Christ" by Luigi Cascioli, an Italian ex-priest, now an atheist, has claimed that the Catholic Church deliberately confused John of Gamala with Jesus to build up their religion. Cascioli claims that his book is a decisive collection of proof demonstrating that Jesus is the result of manipulation and falsification of documents which in reality refer to a certain John of Gamala, son of Jude the Galilean and grandson of the rabbi Ezechia, a direct descendant of the Hasmonean dynasty founded by Simon, son of Mattathias the Maccabean.
Low book sales, so this generates free press time to try to pump up his figures.
Full article here
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