Atheist Lawsuit Claiming Jesus Did Not Exist Thrown Out of Italian Court

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BK has previously posted about the frivolous lawsuit in Italy brought by an atheist against a priest. The atheist claimed that the priest was deceiving the Italian people by claiming Jesus existed when in fact Jesus is a fictional character based on John of Gamala. As it turns out, it appears that John of Galama is a fictional character of relatively recent vintage. In any event, this sounds absurd but it is not unlike some of the rants I have heard from skeptics about the Jesus Myth and nefarious Christian deceptions. Thankfully, according to ABC News, the Italian Court has tossed out the atheist's lawsuit as frivilous and "recommended magistrates investigate him for slandering priest Enrico Righi."

The article ends on a snarky note with the atheist claiming that in order to convict him for slander they would have to prove Jesus existed. Unless Italian law is very different than our own, however, that is not necessarily true. If the atheist accused the priest of knowingly deceiving people about Jesus, then all that would have to be established is that the atheist knew the priest genuinely believed Jesus existed.

One blogger wonders if this was simply a publicity stunt to sell books. Good question. If true, then in the United States the priest would have a strong malicious prosecution claim he could bring.

Comments

BK said…
The blogger you pointed out wasn't the only one who wondered whether Cascioli was seeking to sell his book (which does not appear to be published by any major publisher). On January 31, I commented:

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For Sr. Cascioli to make these assertions, I infer that one of three things may explain his lawsuit:

1. He is on the verge of insanity.
2. He is a liar who will say anything because he hates the Roman Catholic Church.
3. He's trying to get his book picked up by a major publishing house to make some money.

While I don't rule out the possibility that either the first or second inferences are correct, I suspect that the third inference is the truth. I sure hope no one picks up this book without some serious evaluation because there is no reason to give this guy any credibility in light of the quality of the material.

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"Luigi Cascioli's frivolous claims in the Italian Jesus lawsuit"
2/10/2006 12:41:00 PM
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