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This is even more sickening than those fanatics who refuse medical treatment for their sick children because they're praying for a miraculous healing. It almost makes me want to join the fanatics on the other side who say that religion is a mental illness. I wonder if people in the first days after Jesus' death looked on the first Christians as a wacko cult. I'm amazed that the court agreed to the ridiculous condition about the resurrection. And after the "deprogramming," will she be less guilty of murder? The whole thing sickens me beyond measure. How can people let themselves stray so far from reason? Maybe because our culture values it so little, and practices it less.

Obviously, religion and mental illness has some rather alarming overlaps. I expect that the authorities involved are honestly adding this to humor a deeply disturbed woman. They know, as do all reasonable people, that resurrection won't happen.

One day, hopefully, the mother and the other members of this cult will realize this and gain some understanding of the enormity of what they did. Right now, they obviously have less capacity than most would. :(

Kuranes,

To answer your question, "I wonder if people in the first days after Jesus' death looked on the first Christians as a wacko cult."

The people of the first century feared Christians. The resurrection was a fact with which they had to contend.

An empty grave, no body, once terrified and hiding disciples now emboldened by appearances they beleived to be the resurrected Jesus.

More weird news on the religion front:
* Pope Benedict announced that the Vatican is now the world's largest Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall
* President Obama revealed that he is, indeed, the Antichrist, and is requiring all recipients of stimulus funds to take the Mark of the Beast
* A large donkey waddles into the morning service at Thomas Road Baptist Church, says it is Jerry Falwell reincarnated, and urges everyone to become Buddhists Before It's Too Late
* The Dalai Lama resigns his post to star in a Broadway revival of -- you guessed it -- "Hello Dalai"
* Rev. Roberts confirms persistent rumors that his real first name is Clarence. "Oral" is only a nickname
* Jesus Christ returns with a shout of archangels, a flourish of trumpets, and all the Host of Heaven, but all the reporters are away covering Britney Spears' latest relapse

Hope you all had a happy April Fools

The resurrection was only a fact to those first century people who believed in it. Pagan sources like Tacitus called Christianity a pernicious superstition; the satirist Lucian thought it ridiculous; Celsus scorned it for attracting only riff-raff. None of them thought they had to contend with the resuirrection. The disciples only had to believe in the resurrection to be transformed, whether it had actually happened or not; just as many people are profoundly changed (and not always for the better) by coming to believe in the resurrection despite never having seen the risen Jesus. The empty tomb (if it was not a myth) can be plausibly explained by a number of scenarios other than the miraculous return to life of Jesus.