Check out this article. An atheist in Italy is attempting to go to the highest court in the European Union to prove that the Catholic Church has been fraudulently claiming that Jesus Christ existed and thereby illegally gaining financially as a result. The article almost makes it sound like a school bet though.
There are some issues here:
1. Has the Catholic Church been defrauding people?
2. Should Christians be persecuted for believing in a God/man that may or may not be provable?
3. Is there a new role for the courts - to monitor religious beliefs and behaviour?
4. Should the proof of the existence of Jesus Christ be important to Christians, or should it be a matter of faith?
Hmmm, some things to ponder over beans, salsa picante, and tortillas.
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4 comments:
Being agnostic (thanks to David I now have an excuse!!) I wonder why anyone follows a book based not on facts, but faith. Not to say there isn't some historical significance to some of it, but there are some things in there that make you think that something sounds a little funny. I guess it is the old saying...its not what they tell you, its what they don't tell you that would really tell the story.
Jewish people don't believe that Jesus was who the bible says he was. The bible was written many years after Jesus was crucified and I don't know about you but my memory is a little foggy of events after a few days, sometimes hours!! The Catholic bible is also the only one that says Jesus was born on December 25th. Got to wonder why they seem to think that but no other faith thinks so. Anyway, it should be interesting when this suit is done. I personally don't think the courts should be dictating the way it does. They seem to be getting into more personal subjects, not just the law. They should stick to the law.
I don't know where you heard it, but the Catholic Bible doesn't say anything about December 25. The month of December isn't even mentioned. The English Catholic Bible is called the Jerusalem Bible and differs primarily from the Protestant Bible because it includes apocryphal books (Tobit, Wisdom, Judith, and others). Not bad teaching, just not considered by Protestants to be inspired. The Dec 25 thing comes from Roman and Greek myth - birth of the sun, pagan solstice celebrations.
I think it's beautiful that belief in God/Jesus requires faith and not scientific proof. It's like marriage, you don't have proof that your wife won't leave you, but you trust and have faith that she won't.
The last verse in the Gospel of John (one of my favorite verses) says: "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written." I'm sure there were a lot of other miraculous and outrageous things that weren't recorded.
I don't remember where I heard the December 25th thing. I think it was my aunt who told "us". You are right in that it takes more than facts to believe in some things. In my new job I have to look for black and white answers and grey is just that.
Looks like the case was dismissed: read here.
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