Dave31

"I find it undeniable that many of the epic heroes and ancient patriarchs and matriarchs of the Old Testament were personified stars, planets, and constellations."

"I find myself in full agreement with Acharya S/D.M. Murdock"

- Dr. Robert Price, Biblical Scholar with two Ph.D's; CIE book review

"We sorely need a new History of Religions School for the 21st century, to apply modern techniques to this important ancient material. Perhaps this book will help bring that about."

- Earl Doherty, review of Acharya's "Christ Conspiracy"

"Your scholarship is relentless! ...the research conducted by D.M. Murdock concerning the myth of Jesus Christ is certainly both valuable and worthy of consideration."
—Dr. Kenneth L. Feder, Professor of Archaeology, Central Connecticut State University, Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience In Archaeology

"I can recommend your work whole-heartedly!"
—Dr. Robert Eisenman, James the Brother of Jesus and The New Testament Code, RobertEisenman.com

"I've known people with triple Ph.D's who haven't come close to the scholarship in Who Was Jesus?"
—Pastor David Bruce, M.Div, North Park Seminary, Chicago, HollywoodJesus.com

"Thirty years ago, when in divinity school, I might have had second thoughts about becoming an Episcopal priest if a book like D. M. Murdock's Who Was Jesus? had been available to me."
—Bob Semes, Retired university professor of History and Religion, Founder and Executive Director of The Jefferson Center

"Ms. Murdock is one of only a tiny number of scholars with the richly diverse academic background (and the necessary courage) to adequately address the question of whether Jesus Christ truly existed as a walking-talking figure in first-century Palestine."
—David Mills, Atheist Universe

"Thank you, Acharya, for the important work you are doing. Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of the Christ just might be the best short introduction to Biblical scholarship yet."
—David Bergland, 1984 Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate, Libertarianism In One Lesson

"...I have found her scholarship, research, knowledge of the original languages, and creative linkages to be breathtaking and highly stimulating."
—Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham, Pastor, Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX

"Acharya S has done a superb job in bringing together the rich panoply of ancient world mythology and culture, and presenting it in a comprehensive and compelling fashion."
—Earl Doherty, The Jesus Puzzle

"The Christ Conspiracy—very, very scholarly and wholly researched—is a book for today..."
-Rev. B. Strauss, ex-Catholic Priest, Chicago, IL

Dave31

Is this misogynistic or just sexist?

stephan huller

its a quote to determine if your name is really Dave. she made the statement. how can it be sexist? you're not a man. even gay men cut Raquel some slack. as a mythicist you should respect an idol

Zwaarddijk

Tanya,

explain to me why there are irish words claimed in her book that simply do not exist. OPENING A GODDAMN DICTIONARY, IS THAT TOO HARD? Is it ok not to do it when making a claim about words in a language one doesn't know? IS IT?

tanya

You are perceived as one having difficulty understanding something of forum etiquette.

We don't mind criticism. We welcome it.

However, we have rules (and you may have noted that stephan huller, an admirer of Luis Bunuel's masterpiece Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie, who delights in avoiding questions, offering insults, and contempuous replies to forum posts including sexual innuendo in order to convey his own dislike of both forum conventions and participants), and one of them, is to offer links to relevant texts on the subject under discussion.

You have twice mentioned something about Irish this or that, without however, providing either link to the original text, or to the supposed dictionary which you claim contradicts her writing.

So, we have no idea which text of hers you are attempting to refute, nor the method that you have employed to engage her, critically.

Simply asserting that you and your friend consider her presentation to be incorrect, doesn't cut it on this forum.

If you found an error in a C program, would it suffice to point that out? No, anyone would then turn to you and ask, if the pointer were misaddressed, how the code should be modified, so that it would point to the correct address.

You cannot simply write, oh, she made a mistake. We need the chapter, verse, link, and the reference source.

We also demand context. Was her error related to something essential to the thrust of her book as a whole, or was her error based on a misinterpretation of something written in a side note?

Chaucer claimed, in his introduction, that your scholarship had been admirable.

I must respectfully disagree with him. I do not find any evidence that you understand forum conventions. We do need links, and data, not simply an outpouring of bile.

Ratel

Thanks, great resource, and I hope Acharya will take some of the criticisms to heart and revise some of the mistakes he points out, like her claim that the Polynesians were navigating the Pacific 30,000 years ago and the like.

aa5874

You appear to be a person who supports an historical Jesus and has argued vehemently against those who support a mythological Jesus.

Have you ever exposed the logical fallacies of Ehrman in "Did Jesus Exist?"

You appear to be a person who has years of experience as a blogger. Something appears to be radically wrong. Are you mis-representing yourself??

Surely, you must understand that you are on a public forum.

Zwaarddijk

Page 109, Suns of God, and states as follows:

"Interestingly, Baal/Bel "is also the sun in Irish," as is "Krishna."[109].

Yes, I realize these are quoted from Bonwick's Irish druids and Old Irish Religions. Bonwick, however, does not provide any sources for his claims either - so it just pushes the responsibility for making shit up one step away.

As counterevidence, any dictionary of Old Irish should suffice. Of course, the fact that Irish does not write the sound /k/ using the letter k, but instead using the letter c, kind of causes problems for the Krishna claim as well. (Say, Kim McCone, a First Old Irish Grammar and Reader, 2005) (As does the sound change leading up to Old Irish where fricatives before sonorants were assimilated, can be found in Macbain's etymological dictionary)

Zwaarddijk

Nope, haven't. I do on occasion argue in favor of a historical Jesus, but mainly when I see flawed arguments against such an idea. I have also pointed out mistaken arguments in favor of the idea of a historical Jesus on occasion. I will not touch on the HJ/MJ debate in the book I am reviewing, though, as I will exclusively point out other facts that are badly supported or downright wrong.

I have a blog that I've had since 2005 or thereabouts, in which I've posted something like two dozen posts or so [edit: ok, closer to three dozen. which can break down to about half regarding hobbies, a handful about my transition out of Christianity, a handful about linguistics, a book review, and two regarding discussions against some Christians. ] for close friends and suhc. I've never tried making it an easily readable thing, barely touched the default layout (well, might've spent five minutes on it), nor do I even restrict it to posts in English. I am not experienced in 'serious' blogging. The other blog has - in 7 years or so - amassed just about as many views every other year as this new one has in a week. I've never actually gone about mucking about with the settings in blogger, and have no idea what possibilities it offers, simply because blogging by and large has not interested me until recently. I consider myself a person that lacks an eye for layout and graphical aesthetics. Omitting such a simple fact about myself is not particularly ominous, is it?

Toto

Hello Zwaarddijk -

First of all, welcome to the board. I am glad you are here to liven up the conversation. And now that you have 5 posts, you can post links.

Secondly, a bit about Acharya S/Diane Murdock: she is not an academic and has spent more time interacting with New Age and pagan sources than standard academics. I find her frustrating - she raises interesting ideas, but refuses to correct blatant errors, and acts as if every criticism is a personal attack.

And another thing - there are some overly combative posters here. Don't get too involved with them. It's just internet drama.