the bible is a complete crock of ***** after all.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/22/christ.book.ap/index.html

ROME, Italy (AP) -- 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 Rev. 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.

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.

Asked why he went after Righi -- a schoolmate when he and Cascioli were
boys -- and not any number of bishops, cardinals or even the pope who have
asserted the very same thing, Cascioli said it didn't really matter who he
named in his complaint.

"When one demonstrates that Christ didn't exist, attacking a simple priest
is the same thing as attacking a bishop or cardinal," Cascioli said.

Cascioli is quick to stress that he has no problem with Christians freely
professing their faith. Rather, he says in his complaint, he wants to
"denounce the abuse that the Catholic Church commits by availing itself of
its prestige in order to inculcate -- as if being real and historical --
facts that are really just inventions."

"Not only did Jesus actually exist, but he actually had some kind of
prominence to be mentioned in two or three chronicles."
-- R. Scott Appleby
Righi, who has been a priest for 50 years, declined to be interviewed on
the advice of his lawyers before the pending court date. But he set out
his rebuke of Cascioli in a recent issue of his parish bulletin
"Risveglio," or "Awaken," and said by telephone that the article
encapsulated his position.

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.

He cited many known observers, including non-Christian ones, who have
written about the existence of Jesus, including the Jewish historian
Flavius Josephus, considered by scholars to be the most important
non-Christian source on Christ's existence.

A passage of Josephus' "Jewish Antiquities," completed in A.D. 93, cites
the execution in A.D. 62 of "the brother of Jesus the so-called Christ,
James by name."

Righi also cited Pliny the Younger, who in the early second century
described a policy of executing Christians who refused to curse Christ,
and Tacitus, another writer of the same time who wrote that Jesus was
executed by the sentence of Pontius Pilate.

"You would have to give lie to each, one by one, to cancel the Christ man
that they speak of," Righi wrote.

R. Scott Appleby, a professor of church history at the University of Notre
Dame, concurs. There's "no real doubt" that Jesus existed, he said.

"But what Jesus of Nazareth did and what he means is a different
question," Appleby said. "But on the question of the existence, there is
more evidence of the existence of Jesus of Nazareth than there would be
for many other historical people who actually existed. Not only did Jesus
actually exist, but he actually had some kind of prominence to be
mentioned in two or three chronicles."

Cascioli says he fully recognizes 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."