Jeffrey Gibson

What are yours?

What "fields of biblical training"(??) have you studied?

Do you? And if so, what are they?

What college/university, if any, did you attend? Did you graduate?

In other words, why should anyone here think that you are in anyway qualified, sufficiently well educated, suficiently fluent in ancient languages, and as well grounded in comparative religion, ancient history, mythology, and archeology as you yourself imply one needs to be to be able to assess the accuracy and validity of AS's claims?

Jeffrey

Freethinkaluva

Ahh Jeffrey, I'm not the one going around the net preemptively trashing other peoples work I've never read. So lets not try to side-track this off on some tangent - AGAIN

"Malachi151/rationalrevolution/R.G. Price, what exactly are your credentials anyway? What fields of biblical training have you studied? Do you speak/write any other languages? What college did you go to, if any? And what does the R.G. stand for in your name - I can’t find it anywhere on your website."

What are the credentials of Malachi151/rationalrevolution/R.G. Price? I don't see anything on his website - no degrees in anything.

ApostateAbe

Wonderful, Ronin. I sent you an email over the IIDB with my address. Let me know if you didn't get it.

Amaleq13

You certainly can and it would be a welcome change if you would do so without violating the rules.

Thanks in advance for choosing to follow the rules you agreed to upon joining IIDB,

Amaleq13, BC&H moderator

Jeffrey Gibson

The only thing that's a side track here is your refusal to answer my question.

You've been promoting AS's work as something that's very good and academically top notch. Are you or are you not qualified in the ways you imply one needs to be qualified to be able to evaluate the accuracy and the validity of her claims?

Why should I take seriously your judgment of the value of her work.

Jeffrey

Ronin

You're quite welcome, I really enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

For the record I do give credit to Acharya S for all of her substantial efforts in actually broaching the subject and being a part of the proactive and vocal critical examination of religious claims.

In my view, she is to be lauded for all that she has done even within a critical analysis of her work.

GakuseiDon

Yes, and I agree. The question is, how to convince someone who thinks that the parallels aren't word games? That's the dilemma. There is no further source that can be easily looked up to confirm or deny what is a brute fact observation: the sun arguably appears to "walk on water". How can you convince your average Acharya follower that this is indeed just word games?

I don't think you can, and I think this is where the "cult" aspects start to appear, along with irrational hatred of any criticisms of the "cult's" leader and ideas. It strikes me that we should see the same in early Christian writings as well, given the brute fact observation of the divine nature of one crucified. There are hints in Celsus's comments ("Don't investigate! Just believe!") Justin Martyr used word games to find parallels between Hebrew Scriptures and pagan myths, but he at least admitted that they were weak parallels because the devil got them wrong. I'll need to reread the early literature to see if something similar can be seen. Interesting!

ApostateAbe

I recommend cruising over to the Truth Be Known forum and check it out:

http://forums.truthbeknown.com/index.php

I think this thread is especially interesting and scary:
It's time to open the Acharya's Institute....

Read it. Here are some quotes:

"Acharya S has alot to offer and she can inlighten thousands of people with her knowledge. Yes, books are fine but institute will work much better. The Acharya's Institute can be started as a regular meeting of small group of people in some office building..."

"This forum is a start in that direction, but I do like the idea of 'The Acharya Institute'. It does have a nice ring to it. So when is the first class? [Smile]"

"How about 'The Temple of Acharya'?"

"Maybe set up a free franchise operation called 'The Omega Course' and engage in some major deprogramming? It wouldn't be too expensive to put course packs together and put them out as pdf files the interweb. It would certainly help grease the skids and might better occupy the time of recent refugees from religion who spend their time on other sites that we dare not mention..."

Maybe some of these people are joking? Or exaggerating for comic effect? The scariest post I think is this one, written by our own Freethinkaluva:

Yes, we've discussed this Idea in the yahoo groups before. I even started a thread here about getting started with a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Some other names were:

Astrotheology University

College of Astrotheology

International Church of Astrotheology

etc.

===========================

Here's a very ruff draft I had saved for about a year or so...

Our mission is to educate the public demonstrating how a combination of archaeoastronomy, astrotheology and mythological stories about the sun, moon, planets and stars or natural phenomena evolved into religious beliefs over several millennia have their roots in most religions & cultures worldwide.

Yet, this evidence is largely ignored today.

The Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization under Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3). All dues and contributions are deductible for income tax purposes.

Archaeoastronomy - "The study of the knowledge, interpretations, and practices of ancient cultures regarding celestial objects or phenomena. The branch of archaeology that deals with the apparent use by prehistoric civilizations of astronomical techniques to establish the seasons or the cycle of the year, esp. as evidenced in the construction of megaliths and other ritual structures."

Astrotheology - "Theology founded on observation or knowledge of the celestial bodies."

1. Educate the public on the common roots of religion worldwide based in archaeoastronomy, astrotheology and mythological stories etc. Library (Rosetta Stone) - lectures, interviews, news media. articles, videos.

2. The humanitarian efforts of exposing religious crimes against humanity. Where religion uses God and a holy text as an endorsement by their God to commit heinous crimes to other humans, animals and the environment.

3. Our goal is to have a Solar Mythology, archaeoastronomy Historical Museum

4. Acharya's work in every major Library and online Library

5. Acharya's work in the hands of Professors of major universities

6. Solar Mythology for children and teachers: books, videos

7. WWJ, SoG, CC - donations to libraries, (Hitchens, Harris, Dawkins, Heads of State, Lou Dobbs, Oprah etc)

8. Latest news of archaeoastronomical discoveries

9. Acharya audio books

10. Podcasts, radio show

Vision, Purpose? Why? Resources? What does the Foundation do? Accomplishments? Become A Member? Frequently Asked Questions? Get Involved?

Any thoughts to add? Here's an example to have a look at -
http://www.ffrf.org/membership

Anyone who would like to help or someone with experience organizing such a thing should come forward so we can get started...

Perhaps "cult following" is not an exaggeration. If this foundation gets off the ground, I would probably call it a full-blown cult. Who makes it their goal to insert the work of just one author into every major library? Maybe the author herself. I'll be relieved if I hear that Freethinkaluva is really just Acharya S's sockpuppet. But I am not that optimistic. I have seen equally cultish nontheistic devotion in the Lyndon LaRouche campaign. Cults on the outside are problem enough. I would hate to battle enemies on the inside.

GakuseiDon

Ah. If the normal pattern follows, we will soon get other Acharya supporters here "banging the drum". Perhaps even Acharya herself, who no doubt is looking over this. I ask that if you are from Acharya's board, that you at least admit this upfront, rather than pretend that you are someone who has read one of her books and then suddenly stumbled across this website.

I offer this quote from Acharya to help illustrate the OP. People on an atheist forum were questioning aspects of her work. On her own forum, Acharya compliments Freethinkaluva on his support of her, and writes:
http://forums.truthbeknown.com/viewt...t=1208&start=0

"Thanks for banging the drum. If anyone else - Mriana? - would like to go there and give FTL (Freethinkaluva) a hand, please feel free to do so. Don't be shy in pinning people down as to whether or not they've actually read any of the reams of material I've provided. They usually have not, but they like to present themselves as all-knowing "experts" on my work nonetheless. It seems the blind believers and the aloof atheists have much in common in that regard."

I've found that any questioning of specific claims made by Acharya inevitably lead to the response "Read her books!" by her supporters. If specific questions on specific claims get the continual response to "read her books", then I think this is a good indication of the cult nature of that belief system. Cult members are loathe to investigate specific claims for themselves, or answer specific questions in case they go against "orthodoxy". As Roger says, at some point this can only be considered a scam.

Freethinkaluva, you say that you aren't an apologist for Acharya. Where do you disagree with Acharya, and why? Acharya is in concurrence with the "ancient advanced civilization" theory ("Atlantis") that would allow for one or more centralized civilizations to have spread throughout the world during a very remote period in protohistory. Do you agree with her?

Yellum Notnef

I think the above displays why these questions are best left to non-Christians.

Apologists, either ancient or present, just bring in too much of their own nonsense that gets in the way.