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Revision as of 21:32, 21 December 2005 by 69.209.226.138 (talk) (→Books)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Acharya S is the pen name of D. Murdock. A proponent of the Christ-myth hypothesis, she has authored two books and operates a website called "Truth be Known". Her contention is that all religion is founded in earlier myth and that the characters depicted in Christianity are the result of the plagiarizing of those myths to unify the Roman State.
Books
Her book, The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, is a development of part of her website. A follow-up book, Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, discusses her views further. It is largely written as an address to critics of her former book. In it, she comments on the Hindu story of the life of Krishna, as well as the life of Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama). She points out parallels to the life of Jesus, presenting this as evidence that the story of Jesus was written based on existing stories, and not the life of a real man. And has tens of thousands who agree with her.
General premise
Acharya's claim is that Christ's story is based on pagan myths, all of which represent "astro-theology" or the story of the Sun. She asserts that the pagans understood these stories to be myths but that Christians destroyed the works stating this, and killed all who did not accept it as literal, factual history.
This purportedly led to widespread illiteracy in the ancient world and ensured that the mythical nature of Christ's story was hidden. Scholars of other sects continued to oppose the historicizing of a mythological figure. Where no evidence exists, Acharya claims that this is because the arguments were destroyed by Christians. However, Christians preserved these contentions, she states, through their own refutations.
In "The Christ Conspiracy" she states this theory in twenty-five points, such as "The sun 'dies' for three days at the winter solstice, to be born again or resurrected on December 25th", and "The sun enters into each sign of the zodiac at 30 ; hence, the 'Sun of God' begins his ministry at 'age' 30."
Acharya compares Jesus' history to that of other gods—such as Adonis, Krishna, Quetzalcoatl, Odin—claiming that the similarities result from a common source, the myth of the sun-god.
Criticisms
Most critics who are sincere find her work to be very enlightening and a breath of fresh air from all of the dogma and deception that has been literally brainwashed into the minds of humanity for thousands of years.
Noahide Laws
Acharya S has written online about the Noahide Laws. She is highly critical of them, and certain aspects of Judaism, in particular Hasidism. She phrases this criticism in terms of a theocratic New World Order .
Life
She has been described as a historian, mythologist, religious scholar, linguist, archeologist, and even, by a person quoted on the splashpage of her site, "the ranking religious philosopher of our era". She has a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree from Franklin and Marshall College. In an interview she said she came from a moderate Christian background. Though not traumatic or "Fundamentalist", she described it as "boring" and said she ceased attending church regularly at age 12.
Her inspiration for labeling Jesus Christ a myth was apparently Joseph Wheless' book Forgery in Christianity. Wheless is also one of her primary sources. She then read other freethought works, such as Kersey Graves' The World's 16 Crucified Saviours, which also serves as one of her main references, and Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopaedia of Myth and Secrets,another source she relies heavily upon.
Acharya has also given interviews on a variety of radio stations, usually discussing her work in The Christ Conspiracy. She is a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, a division of the Council for Secular Humanism.
External links
- Truth be Known (Acharya S's website)
- Interview with Acharya S in Paranoia Magazine
- "A Refutation of Acharya S's book, The Christ Conspiracy" (includes a rebuttal) from RisenJesus.com
- Earl Doherty reviews The Christ Conspiracy, see Earl Doherty
- Robert Price reviews The Christ Conspiracy
- ebtx.com reviews The Christ Conspiracy
- Tekton Apologetics Ministries reviews The Christ Conspiracy
- Answering Infidels "Answering Acharya S"