ApostateAbe

Yeah, my mistake.
It doesn't have anything to do with credentials. He thinks that maybe comets raised the sea levels thousands of years ago flooding a mysterious nation that migrated all over the world to share knowledge of pyramid building.

Toto

Have you examined his arguments? You can browse his book on Amazon. Even if his arguments are speculative in that case, why does that discredit his endorsement of the Zeitgeist guide?

ApostateAbe

I don't want to take too much time investigating a character who gave his endorsement to another character I barely care about. The way I see it, if you are going to brag about a Ph.D. endorsing your book, a book that seems bizarre and retarded by everyone else, then don't choose a Ph.D. who has written his own bizarre and retarded-seeming books.

Toto

"Bizarre and retarded" is not helpful to the discussion. If you don't care enough to make an informed opinion, perhaps you should withdraw from the thread?

Solitary Man

Informed? I think Abe is plenty informed on just how bizarre and retarded Acharya S's theories are.

GakuseiDon

To be fair to Acharya S, quite a few of her theories are not particularly bizarre. Some are, of course, but "Astrotheology" -- the idea that myths were created due to the movements of bodies in the heavens -- makes some sense to me. It's just that she doesn't appear to have any real evidence for it that I've seen. I've gone through "Christ Conspiracy" and read her website extensively, and though I've only skimmed through her "Suns of God" myself, Dr Price expresses the same criticism as well in his review of her "Suns of God". While positive about some aspects of her book, he writes:

"Again and again, Acharya finds herself hemmed in by old writers who never elevated their claims above the level of hearsay (as she herself points out). Kersey Graves (The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors) assures the reader that he has before him plenty of original documentation for his claims of crucifixion parallels, but he, er, doesn't have room to include any. And this is the rule, not the exception. Lundy, Higgins, Inman, Graves, Doane, etc., they all claim they have read or heard this or that, but none of them can site a single source document. Acharya seems generously inclined to believe them. I don't."

So, sensible theory or bizarre, without the support of primary sources her theories are just so much speculation, like Doherty's "sublunar fleshly realm". Both Acharya and Doherty have their supporters though who are unconcerned by this. These supporters can sometimes be the theory originators' worst enemy. Acharya has Freethinkaluva ("lets not forget that Horus & Seth or Set is how we get 'Horizon' & 'Sun-set'. Clearly astrotheological.") and Doherty has Ted Hoffman ("by definition divine figures are not historical figures. Caesar is not a divine figure even though he was divinized by faithfuls").

youngalexander

I should think that Abe would find that a thoroughly copacetic opinion.

ApostateAbe

The way I see it, it is not about how the theories are, but it is more like how they seem. The theory that seems bizarre and retarded is not given any kind of lift by an endorsement from an author of the same seeming ilk.

schilling.klaus

True theories are necessarily bizarre to average mankind,
as mankind lacks the necessary wisdom to understand them.
Thuis already Plato's Politeia compares the human who sees
the light of truth with a caveman who is exposed for the
first time to daylight, after having made many hilarious
speculations about flickering shadows in the dimming light.
He's not able to communicate appropriately with his
dumb and ignorant fellow humans who are trapped
in their naive folly.

Retarded are the theories of those who believe in the base reliability
of Eusebian church history
and unsophisticated Jewish origin of Christianity.

Klaus Schilling

ApostateAbe

Klaus Schilling, examples like those are why I insist that the bizarre fringe positions of Acharya S are not evidence that she is wrong. The revolutionary truths that become widely accepted normally start out as such. But you must also keep in mind that there are thousands of purely bogus propositions, theories and worldviews that are by all measures unreasonable and false. It is to no advantage to the Church of Scientology that their beliefs seem truly knuckle-headed. They and Acharya S need evidence. She can't just keep appealing to authorities, especially authorities who seem equally fruity.