I have to admit that I, a committed secular humanist, am a sucker for the Jesus story (must be that guilty-pleasure connection to the original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar), but it's a damned good story. A great, ummmm, myth, one might say.

Well, it's been said many times, but an Italian author, Luigi Cascioli (google translated page page here), wrote a book called The Fable of Jesus. Father Enrico Righi denounced the book in his church's newletter, so Senor Cascioli swore out a complaint in court:

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�.

So, in a court of law, in Italy, original country of the Holy Roman Empire, an atheist has launched a complaint aimed right at the heart of Christianity.

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.

There is an irony here. Not content to rely on faith, many religious leaders keep insisting on the historical "truth" of their claims. Shrouds are tested, sites excavated ... great effort is expended to prove historical "truth" behind religious belief. With great glee pagan and animist faiths are denigrated by the Abrahamic faiths, claims of historical "truth" advanced ... aggressive attempts to raise "religion" above "superstion" and "myth". In an Enlightenment ruled world, the Christian faiths are desperate to wrap the cloak of science and history around their beliefs. Well, one atheist has found a way to force a Priest into a court of law to PROVE IT.

I look forward to see how this turns out. It would nice to see the purveyors of hope and superstition forced back into their own realm. It's plain that many people need these stories, these myths. "Proof" of these beliefs is ... well ... beyond the realm of religion. It's time for that to be made clear. Perhaps these things are "true", but they are beyond proof. It will be interesting to see how Senor Cascioli's complaint progresses.

crossposted from Liberal Street Fighter