I've heard of some stupid things but...

[SigmaKnight]

This has to take the cake:

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=193428+04-Jan-2006

I happened to find it while searching through the Journal of a friend of a friend.

Apparently what's going on is "An Italian court is tackling Jesus -- and whether the Roman Catholic Church may be breaking the law by teaching that he existed 2,000 years ago."

[meboeck]

Wow. Even many atheists say there was a rabbi named Jesus around 2000 years ago. Wow. Not that a court can really decide if someone existed 2000 years ago anyway. Goodness gracious.

[Mikomi]

-_- Ridiculous. Seems like people will take anything to court nowadays. What's next? Is someone going to disagree about the sky being blue and then take it to court to prove it is red although there is evidence clearly proving that it is, indeed, blue? I wonder why these people are so bent on disproving Jesus? I mean for a guy who they claim doesn't really exist or who they think is some fake, they sure seem to be threatened by him.

[Shadowchild]

Wow... and I thought I was crazy...

[Bobtheduck]

An Italian court is tackling Jesus -- and whether the Roman Catholic Church may be breaking the law by teaching that he existed 2,000 years ago.

Well, considering Italy has Vatican City, um... This isn't likely... Still, except similar things to happen here, though. And expect American judges to be a bit more stupid (if you think I'm being irrational, think "spilled coffee")

[Scribs]

That is quite disturbing. However I am not concerned, because I doubt that he will get anywhere with his attack.

[Kaligraphic]

Next up, we're going to eradicate the myth that Julius Caesar ever existed. After all, he has got even less evidence to support him than even this "Jesus" fellow.

You see, we're going step by step, but the ultimate goal is to liberate people from the idea that the past exists at all. You may think that in the past (twenty seconds ago) I took all your money in a cheap swindle, but you are mistaken - the past does not exist, therefore I couldn't have. See how silly you've been? Now, how's about you treat me to some sushi as thanks for liberating your mind from the idea of "past"?


(note: More classical sources support the existance of Jesus than support the existance of Julius Caesar. The guy's got an uphill battle all the way. On the far other side of things, Bill Shakespeare has actually been in doubt, and only an idiot would sue someone for teaching Shakespeare. Thus, because stupidity is funny, I laugh at it.)

[Yojimbo]

He's not going to get anywhere with it, the media will always put the fringe into the limelight because they are just that. We're talking about Italy here with a ginormous Catholic Christian population.

[chibiphonebooth]

*rolls eyes*

gosh, people are so pathetic.
seriously. how is he going to PROVE that?

I SWEAR! THAT PERSON DIDNT EXIST 2000 YEARS AGO! ITS A LIE! I KNOW CAUSE I WAS THERE!!

XD

[Boink!]

We shouldn't be surprised as this world is becoming more "fallen" by the day. These are all spiritual attacks. While in the natural we can say, he's out of his mind, when in fact he's being influenced by the enemy to attack the Church at the foundation of our faith, Jesus Christ.

[Yojimbo]

We shouldn't be surprised as this world is becoming more "fallen" by the day. These are all spiritual attacks. While in the natural we can say, he's out of his mind, when in fact he's being influenced by the enemy to attack the Church at the foundation of our faith, Jesus Christ.

Ehhh I wouldn't say we're living in darker times than before. Considering we're living in the aftermath of a nearly 50 year nuclear stalemate, two World Wars, the worst economic depression to hit the world, Jim Crow laws, Apartheid, Imperialism, Crusades, you name it.

[Sakura15]

*rolls eyes*

gosh, people are so pathetic.
seriously. how is he going to PROVE that?

I SWEAR! THAT PERSON DIDNT EXIST 2000 YEARS AGO! ITS A LIE! I KNOW CAUSE I WAS THERE!!

XD

ROFL!

But yeah, that is ridiculous..

[Boink!]

Ehhh I wouldn't say we're living in darker times than before. Considering we're living in the aftermath of a nearly 50 year nuclear stalemate, two World Wars, the worst economic depression to hit the world, Jim Crow laws, Apartheid, Imperialism, Crusades, you name it.

We may not be living in a depression (though the state of the world depresses Boink! at times), or in a World War (though we are at war), but we have definitely been on a spiritual and moral decline since the fall. We have seen much of the same in the past, God judges, and the cycle continues. Judgment is coming again, and I fear, for the last time.

[TheDrunkenNinja]

Now the only thing I'm disturbed about is the fact that they mix up religion with politics...

On second thought, I suppose they do that every day, but this is different.

[Yumie]

Yeah, I saw a thing about this on the news-- essentially there's some theory over there that Jesus was invented a long time ago to promote the developement of a "new religion", which, if that were true, would be illegal based on some law they have over there. But the thing that is stupid is that even non-Christian archeologists and historians will tell you that if nothing else that man Jesus did in fact exist, whether he was truly the Son of God or not. So, for them to have to prove his existence should be simple. Pointless, but simple.

[Yojimbo]

We may not be living in a depression (though the state of the world depresses Boink! at times), or in a World War (though we are at war), but we have definitely been on a spiritual and moral decline since the fall. We have seen much of the same in the past, God judges, and the cycle continues. Judgment is coming again, and I fear, for the last time.

I still don't agree there. People will always say that THIS was when times were worst, but history says differently. If anything we were in much more worse shape morally and spiritually in the past, especially from the inside. The Dark Ages, The Crusades, The Inquistions please explain to me how we are worse off then when events such as these were going on?

I don't know when the world's going to end and I really don't think about it too much, it never really gets ya anywhere. It could happen before I finish this sentence or it could happen 300 million years from now I don't know and no one does save God himself.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Well we see people going "the holocaut never existed"

soon like kali said, soon we will be battling the existance of people....

"Prove to me that I exist..."
"And whom shall I ask said that question?"

Or better yet, the existance of Thomas Jefferson!

[Nate]

The Dark Ages, The Crusades, The Inquistions please explain to me how we are worse off then when events such as these were going on?

This was explained in another thread I don't remember, but part of the problem is the easing of sin to be acceptable in society. Gay marriages would've been unthinkable 200 years ago. And do you really think that Paris Hilton Hardee's commercial would've been aired 30 years ago?

I'm not saying things are worse than they are back then, because I wasn't alive back then. But it seems to me that it's a lot easier for a Christian to fall into temptation these days with TV and the internet than it would've been back then. I'm not talking about huge wars and genocide. I'm talking about guys like me who have to struggle every day with lust, and knowing that the slightest thing on TV or a stray web site could bring me down again.

We don't have people beating us with barbed wire when we profess Christ in America. I think it is easier to be a Christian in America physically, but it is harder to be a Christian in America spiritually. If that makes sense.

I don't know when the world's going to end and I really don't think about it too much, it never really gets ya anywhere.

Yup.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. - Matthew 6:34

[JediSonic]

I'm not worried, frankly. I looked at some of that "Fable of Christ" 'evidence' and frankly, they got nothin.

It'll be nice to see the Italian secular court decide that Christ did in fact exist.. yeah right like thats even a possibility!

Some video clips on that site were so ridiculous I laughed out loud at them actually

[Yojimbo]

Oh my gosh people haven't heard of Osiris are you serious? Most people can't find France on a map!:P Any idiot who makes a flash movie of a cartoon devil jumping around a timeline suddenly knows everything. And then they take quotes from news sources way out of context.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

aww man. That was HILARIOUS!! hahaha wow. That evidence and logic was so flawed.

[Lochaber Axe]

"irreverently lays out the case that Jesus Christ never existed."

Irreverently means you are being disrespectful and sardonic you quack theologists! Newsweek was mocking you!

Man has been obsessed with immortality and resurrection since death came forth. Of course, myths would take on this wishful thinking.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Are you sure this isn't one of those offensive parody news articles like from The Onion?

[Lochaber Axe]

W4J, you are correct in that the website and dvd are parodical.

Special Features

The special features on this DVD are both generous and carefully selected. As DVD Talk puts it: "This DVD delivers the film in a quality presentation, with extras that quadruple the amount of content in a positive way with no filler."

The extras include:

• Two full-length alternate audio tracks with commentary from evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (A Devil's Chaplain), scholar Earl Doherty (The Jesus Puzzle) and popular blogger The Raving Atheist (ravingatheist.com)
• Over one hour of selected additional interview clips with each person in the documentary
• An in-depth slide show on every topic in the film, with active links to the Web (Windows or Mac computer required for Web features)
• Cast and crew biographies
• Selected music from the soundtrack album
• Full-motion chapter menus

The movie is presented full-screen, with crisp Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio. The DVD is playable in all regions, but is English language only (no subtitles or captions). If you have any questions, please email us.

Dolby 2.0...

If this is really real... oh my goodness... oh how we could mock them (of course we shouldn't and pray for them. They still deserve to be laughed at just for the stupidity).

Update: I've checked about the Dolby 2.0, and it doesn't exist. The 5.1 means the speakers used in home theatre systems (five main speaker and a six lesser). 2.0 would simply be two speakers. They might have made it for that, but Dolby wouldn't authorize it.

I also checked on the two gentleman and the raving athiest and found some pretty interesting things. One, there is such a person such as Richard Dawkins and he has written quite a number of books on Darwinism and Religion. Even though he appears to be intelligent, comments I've read state that he is antagonistically anti-religion and would jump to be part of such a movie. Two that Earl Doherty is real though I wouldn't classify him as a scholar seeing that he uses a fake publisher (that has a huge rant about Bush and Conservatism on its about page) that uses a completely independent publisher www.publishamerica.com. The ravingathiest... nothing... zip. Doesn't exist.

[Shepherdmoon]

W4J, you are correct in that the website and dvd are parodical.

Dolby 2.0...

If this is really real... oh my goodness... oh how we could mock them (of course we shouldn't and pray for them. They still deserve to be laughed at just for the stupidity).

Update: I've checked about the Dolby 2.0, and it doesn't exist. The 5.1 means the speakers used in home theatre systems (five main speaker and a six lesser). 2.0 would simply be two speakers. They might have made it for that, but Dolby wouldn't authorize it.

I also checked on the two gentleman and the raving athiest and found some pretty interesting things. One, there is such a person such as Richard Dawkins and he has written quite a number of books on Darwinism and Religion. Even though he appears to be intelligent, comments I've read state that he is antagonistically anti-religion and would jump to be part of such a movie. Two that Earl Doherty is real though I wouldn't classify him as a scholar seeing that he uses a fake publisher (that has a huge rant about Bush and Conservatism on its about page) that uses a completely independent publisher www.publishamerica.com. The ravingathiest... nothing... zip. Doesn't exist.

Well how is it stupid.

[mitsuki lover]

I don't think we should take it lightly.The best way of confronting such assertions is with hard and logical scholarship.You can't rebut something like this by making it into some joke.

[Sweet Mercury]

Yeah, I saw a thing about this on the news-- essentially there's some theory over there that Jesus was invented a long time ago to promote the developement of a "new religion", which, if that were true, would be illegal based on some law they have over there. But the thing that is stupid is that even non-Christian archeologists and historians will tell you that if nothing else that man Jesus did in fact exist, whether he was truly the Son of God or not. So, for them to have to prove his existence should be simple. Pointless, but simple.

What's interesting is that the same could be said of the founder of any archetypal religion. There isn't definitive proof that Buddha, Mohommad, Moses, Abraham, Lao Tsu, Confucius, etc existed. Historians make a lot of educated guesses and take a few things on faith. Can anyone prove that Confucius wrote the Five Classics? Historians all take a few "leaps of faith" in that respect, and Christians take that extra leap in trusting in His divinty.

In any case, I would be curious to discover the motives behind this law suit? What does he hope to do? If the charge is "abuse of popular credulity," can't that not only be alledged of every American politician/demegogue, but of anyone who has ever stood up and said, "Hey, I think I've got a good idea!"

[Technomancer]

Don't get too upset, the case was thrown out a while ago. Read the following link

[Shepherdmoon]

As they should this is a personal matter not a state matter.

[mitsuki lover]

If someone wants to believe Jesus didn't exist they have the right to believe so,if the same person wants to believe that eating chocolate only makes for a healthier diet they also have that right.What they don't have the right to do is to waste the tax payers and courts time with frivolous law suits.