Did Christ Exist?

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 03 January 2006 17:05:52

Great story in The Times today.

A court in Italy has called for Father Enrico Righi to appear in court to respond to a case brought by a former trainee priest who is now a militant atheist. The case has been running for 3 years after the priest wrote an article denouncing Luigi Cascioli's denial on the existence of Jesus, following publication of his book The Fable of Christ.

Cascioli's reason for the charge is that by asserting that Jesus lived we are "abusing popular credibility", an offense in Italy. He states that there is no historical proof that Jesus existed. Apart from the gospels the only other evidence is written by people who lived after Jesus' death.

How the priest is going to provide incontrivertable proof of his existence is the big question? As Josephus, Tacitus and Suetonius all wrote about Jesus or Christus/Chrestus no earlier than the end of the 1st century AD there is no surviving contempary accounts of Jesus' existence.

2000 years of faith seems to count for nothing. I can't wait to see how this case is finally decided? What's the betting on the 2nd coming occuring during the trial?