Acharya S, Kenn Thomas & Robalini in Laughlin, Nevada, late nineties...
Showing posts with label Acharya S. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Acharya S. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Review: The Christ Conspiracy
Note: In all my time as a book reviewer there is really only one review that I regret allowing to be published and that is The Christ Conspiracy review posted on the Konformist.Com. Pressured by the author herself, one Acharya S. (real name Murdoch), I caved in and watered the original review down - putting this oddly palliative goddess spin on it that I concocted ad hoc from what I now believe to be a rather dubious realm: a dimension of ill repute. However, my conscience has gnawed at me continually on this matter and I attempted to post a segment of the original review on Amazon.Com. Not surprisingly Ms. S. ordered it taken down shortly afterwards and Amazon, sad to say, caved into her demands. It puzzles me that if Acharya is so sure of her theory of the non-existence of Christ why she would be threatened by my review at all. I've come across the 'Christ never existed' bit before in David Icke's The Biggest Secret , Mark Amaru Pinkham's The Myth of Christ: The Redemption of the Peacock Angel and more recently in Brian Desborough's They Cast no Shadows. I'm surprised that it hasn't dawned on these authors that perhaps the Piso family who allegedly concocted the Jesus myth for the masses were so vibrationally freaked out by the presence of the Christ and his threat to the imperium (via his unconditional love) that they spun a story making him appear to be unbelievable. No reading between the Roman spin lines for these revisionists however. I recommend James Patrick Holding’s Tektonics site for further elucidation on this matter:
http://www.tektonics.org/af/achy01.html#jb
Acharya S. needs to move past her penchant for Avatar bashing and do something more proactive with her talents.
The Christ Conspiracy
Acharya S.
Book Review by Jaye Beldo
"I take great glee in telling the truth." Acharya S. author of 'The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story ever Sold' told me. In her controversial tome, she claims that Jesus Christ never existed, that the God Man/Man God was simply a bit of stagecraft caprice, a mere fabrication of the Roman Aristocracy to keep the unwashed masses down as well as out for the count of their long lasting reign. She surely provides an impressive smorgasbord of erudite evidence supporting her claim to the truth. A scan of the book's bibliography which includes such amazing oddities as Anacalypsis by Godfrey Higgins as well as the works of GRS Mead and Sir James Frazer will prove that. But aside from her obviously fecund and thorough scholarship to back up her forensic claim, what exactly is the truth she is so sure of conveying to us?
I suggest, to counter her stake in an ultimate Christ Hoax where the Lamb of God's wool has been pulled over our eyes for the last 2K years, is that if Jesus was indeed a mere fabrication, we should then give profound thanks to the fabricators and not despise them as cavalier perpetrators of a great lie. No, we should not thank them for the institutionalized horrors that 'Christ-Insanity' has generated over the centuries, such as the Catholic Church and its inhumane inquisitions, but rather for the wily hatchers's profoundly brilliant if not deliciously nefarious imaginations. I don't think Acharya realizes what it would take to create such a story in the first place. I doubt that you or I could ever conjure up such a tale, even on our best tall tale day out on the back porch with a pint of whiskey, a two by four and a whittling knife. It would take one hell of a sophisticated imagination to pull the Christ story out of the air of heaven, let alone to disseminate the information in a convincing way and make it seem so dramatically real. If it really was that they indeed pulled off the Jesus con, then Kyrie Kudos to those crooks!
Acharya S.: Avatar Basher
One need only to appreciate the art, music, poetry and literature that the Christ Mythos has generated over the centuries ranging from Bach's 'Jesu: The Joy of Man's Desiring' to El Greco's 'Assumption of the Virgin' to the vibrant Byzantine Mosaics to the breathless grandeur of 12th C. French Cathedrals. One need only to meditate for a few quiet moments on Leonardo's St. Ann and his tormentors or even Holbein's stark cartoon The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb. How about considering the little shop of horrors found in the visions of Colette of Corbie, the 15 C. Fransican reformer, where Christ appeared to her as a dish of 'carved-up flesh like that of a child.' (see this described in the work 'The Female body and Religious Practice in the Later Middle Ages' by Caroline Walker Bynum in ZONE Fragments for a History of the Human body Part One) God, without the Christ, we wouldn't have Frank Zappa's song, St. Alfonso's Pancake Breakfast! Without the Christ cozenage, we would have virtually none of these masterpieces of art,vision and parody. History, as well as our hearts, would be pretty barren places without them.
No mere conspirators bent on world control could inspire artists, poets, troubadours, bards and musicians for so many centuries if there wasn't something so catalytically spiritual in the Christ Mythos itself. Perhaps this is the pearl of irony that has been hidden away for so long and thanks to Acharya's efforts has now come out. I suggest that a little bit of light, something spiritually genuine, purely inspired, came out of these Imperial damage control dispatches Archaya convincingly describes and miraculously insinuated itself into the official storyline like the descent of the Dove into the lord at the Baptism of Jesus himself.
No cabal could compel people aspiring to love and freedom to align themselves to the Christ archetype in so many astonishingly strange and esoteric ways and risk facing persecution by the official church. No Tyrant spin doctors could have created such things as charity, forgiveness, the ability to ward off evil, the desire to help others if the light hadn't escaped through the chink in their propaganda armor to not only expose them but to benignly betray them as being highly vulnerable to their own game. I sense that these apocalyptic engineers will someday resurrect if not liberate themselves if we let them simply by acknowledging the favors they have unintentionally given us. I already see the ascent of the PR thugs at Hill and Knowlton and other lie agencies into the love and light of eternity.
Perhaps Acharya will someday set aside her totalizing polemic against the Christ myth and consider the esoteric dimensions of his mystery. I suggest she experience the works of Rudolph Steiner or even Drunvalo Melchizedek for a momentary change of perspective. I suggest she meditate on the Christ consciousness grid of the earth as spelled out in Bob Frisell's book, Something in this Book is True as a possible means to ward off the negative NWO matrix. Maybe a consideration of optimist Barbara Marx Hubbard's work 'Revelations' is in store as a part of her future scholarly endeavors. I only suggest these works because I worry that Ms. S. will inevitably join the likes of Frederick Crews who has devoted his life to crucifying poor ol' Sigmund Freud or that she'll join the 'School of Resentment' as Harold Bloom names the legions of loveless deconstructionists and revisionist hacks that plague our Politically Correct Universities. I trust that Acharya is more intelligent, more sensitive than that.
(c) 2008-Jaye Beldo
postscript: I wrote this review prior to knowing that Drunvalo has a CIA handler and that Hubbard actually promotes genocide (see Treason by Gurudas for more info on this.)
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Classic Photo Break
Kenn Thomas of SteamshovelPress.com & Robalini in the 90's
Robalini, KT, and Greg Bishop wearing the hat & glasses of William S. Burroughs, owned by Richard Metzger of DangerousMinds.net
From left to right: Bishop, Robalini, Jim Martin of Flatland Books, The Christ Conspiracy author Acharya S and Kenn Thomas
From left to right at Barney's Beanery: Free Citizen zine editor Scott Sawyer, Acharya S, Robalini, KT & writer Skylaire Alfvegren. (Where is Acharya's foot in this photo?)
From left to right at LAX: Robalini, Acharya S, KT and Greg Bishop
Friday, August 20, 2010
Review: PARANOIA: The Conspiracy Reader, Volume 1
Kenn Thomas
Haha! This volume brings popular conspiracy lit full circle: many moons ago a square-bound conspiracy journal called Critique turned itself into a newsstand magazine, presaging the age of conzines, immediately preceding the explosion of conspiracy sites on the internet. PARANOIA became among the last holdouts of the hardcopy zines and now has returned to that pre-zine, Critique like format.
It's a good move from a credibility standpoint. For some reason, a square bound journal gets more respect than a lowly magazine that fits folded in any back pocket. It is sad, though, that the newsstands have one less product reflecting interest in parapolitics. Also sad in that clearly editors Joan D'Arc and Al Hidell made this decision for economic reasons. The newsstand demand had lowered to the point that the magazine was no longer financially feasible. Although a more attractive package, this POD production means a more limited circulation and by no means guarantees to resolve the money issue. Encouragement should go out to as many people as possible to order this in the hope of more volumes to follow.
Even neophytes would benefit from the broad selection of topics: the moon hoax and the Masons; 9/11 and Bin Laden; alien intelligence, scientology, the Necromicon--and who hasn't wondered about the conspiracy that was Tiny Tim? The explication is pretty advanced, though, so readers more familiar with the material also come away from the volume satisfied that they've added to their knowledge warehouse, which in this format looks more like a library than a magazine stand.
Yes, all readers could argue with every single thing in this journal/book. I've recently come to question the research capabilities of Anthony Bragalia and so cast a wary eye at his contribution; I also wonder about the credibility of yet another JFK jailhouse confession from a Robert MacKenzie found here; and certainly harder questions could have been asked of rightist Christ debunker Acharya S. But that's sort of the point--almost anything said about the contents of PARANOIA The Conspiracy Reader Volume One leads so far from the binary boredom of MSNBC/FOX, left/right pre-occupations that, with luck, the reader will never find a way back into the box.
Haha! This volume brings popular conspiracy lit full circle: many moons ago a square-bound conspiracy journal called Critique turned itself into a newsstand magazine, presaging the age of conzines, immediately preceding the explosion of conspiracy sites on the internet. PARANOIA became among the last holdouts of the hardcopy zines and now has returned to that pre-zine, Critique like format.
It's a good move from a credibility standpoint. For some reason, a square bound journal gets more respect than a lowly magazine that fits folded in any back pocket. It is sad, though, that the newsstands have one less product reflecting interest in parapolitics. Also sad in that clearly editors Joan D'Arc and Al Hidell made this decision for economic reasons. The newsstand demand had lowered to the point that the magazine was no longer financially feasible. Although a more attractive package, this POD production means a more limited circulation and by no means guarantees to resolve the money issue. Encouragement should go out to as many people as possible to order this in the hope of more volumes to follow.
Even neophytes would benefit from the broad selection of topics: the moon hoax and the Masons; 9/11 and Bin Laden; alien intelligence, scientology, the Necromicon--and who hasn't wondered about the conspiracy that was Tiny Tim? The explication is pretty advanced, though, so readers more familiar with the material also come away from the volume satisfied that they've added to their knowledge warehouse, which in this format looks more like a library than a magazine stand.
Yes, all readers could argue with every single thing in this journal/book. I've recently come to question the research capabilities of Anthony Bragalia and so cast a wary eye at his contribution; I also wonder about the credibility of yet another JFK jailhouse confession from a Robert MacKenzie found here; and certainly harder questions could have been asked of rightist Christ debunker Acharya S. But that's sort of the point--almost anything said about the contents of PARANOIA The Conspiracy Reader Volume One leads so far from the binary boredom of MSNBC/FOX, left/right pre-occupations that, with luck, the reader will never find a way back into the box.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Dead Sea Scrolls prove Bible unoriginal
http://freethoughtnation.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=280:dead-sea-scrolls-prove-bible-unoriginal
Dead Sea Scrolls prove Bible unoriginal
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Acharya S
"They speak of a Teacher of Righteousness and a pierced messiah, of cleansing through water and a battle of light against darkness.
"But anyone looking to the Dead Sea Scrolls in search of proof, say, that Jesus of Nazareth was the messiah presaged by the prophets, or that John the Baptist lived among the scroll's authors, will be disappointed."
News items are circulating about how "hints" and "insights" contained in the famous Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in caves near the ancient site of Qumran can be found in the Bible. In other words, certain ideas in the scrolls also appear in the New Testament, meaning, of course, that the impression of Christianity as a "divine revelation" appearing whole cloth miraculously from the very finger of God is clearly erroneous.
Few scholars today claim that any of the Dead Sea Scrolls ("DSS") date to the time after Christianity was allegedly founded by a "historical" Jesus in the first century of the common era. Indeed, it is agreed that most of the scrolls pre-date the turn of the era and that none of them show any knowledge of Jesus Christ or Christianity.
In my book The Christ Conspiracy, I demonstrate that Christianity is an amalgam of the many religions, sects, cults and brotherhood traditions of the Mediterranean and beyond. One of the major influences on Christianity is that of Jews, obviously, including those mentioned in the New Testament, i.e., the Pharisees and Sadducees. Ancient Jewish historian Josephus also mentions the sect of the Essenes, who are traditionally associated with Qumran, in a "by default" argument. However, scholar Solomon Schecter - who discovered a scroll at Cairo that was later found at Qumran - points to a heretical sect of Sadducees or Zadokites, as they are called in both the Bible and DSS. In The Christ Conspiracy, I discuss this Zadokite origin of the DSS and this group's obvious influence on the New Testament.
What this rumination all means, of course, is that Christianity is, as I contend in my books, largely unoriginal, representing not fresh and new "divine revelation" but, again, the amalgamation of not only the ideas of the Zadokite authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls but also influences from the Essenes, Jews, Samaritans and many others.
Hints of the Scrolls in Bible
To understand how the Dead Sea Scrolls influenced early Christianity, just turn to the New Testament.
Take, for example, the Great Isaiah Scroll, a facsimile of which is on display as part of the Milwaukee Public Museum's Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Written around 125 B.C. and the only scroll to emerge virtually intact from the caves at Qumran, its messianic message is quoted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, John and Luke, the earliest of which wasn't written until around A.D. 65.
The scrolls' so-called "Son of God" text reads much like the story of the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke. And the Scrolls' "Blessing of the Wise" echoes the beatitudes of Matthew's Sermon on the Mount....
This early dating of the gospels, it should be noted, is based only on the a priori assumption that the story they relate is at least partially true in recounting a "historical" Jesus who truly walked the earth at the time he is claimed in the gospels themselves. There is no external evidence whatsoever for the existence of any canonical gospel at this early a date. In fact, the canonical gospels as we have them do not show up clearly in the historical record until the end of the second century.
Moreover, the Sermon on the Mount - supposedly the original monologue straight out of the mouth of the Son of God Himself - can be shown to be a series of Old Testament scriptures strung together, along with, apparently, such texts from Qumran. No "historical" founder was necessary at all to speak these words, as they are a rehash of extant sayings. (Even in this patent literary device the gospels cannot agree, as Luke 6:17-49 depicts the Sermon as having taken place on a plain.)
It is easy to see why the Catholic Church would blanche upon the discovery of these scrolls, as it could be - and has been - argued that these texts erode the very foundation of Christianity. It appears that this news, however, when released slowly has little affect on the mind-numbing programming that accompanies Christian faith.
The bottom line is that the existence of the Old Testament and the intertestamental literature such as the Dead Sea Scrolls shows how Christianity is a cut-and-paste job - a fact I also reveal in The Christ Conspiracy, in a chapter called "The Making of a Myth," which contains a discussion of some of the texts obviously used in the creation of the new faith. These influential texts evidently included some of the original Dead Sea Scrolls, serving not as "prophecy," "prefiguring" or "presaging" but as blueprints of pre-existing, older concepts cobbled together in the New Testament.
Dead Sea Scrolls prove Bible unoriginal
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Acharya S
"They speak of a Teacher of Righteousness and a pierced messiah, of cleansing through water and a battle of light against darkness.
"But anyone looking to the Dead Sea Scrolls in search of proof, say, that Jesus of Nazareth was the messiah presaged by the prophets, or that John the Baptist lived among the scroll's authors, will be disappointed."
News items are circulating about how "hints" and "insights" contained in the famous Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in caves near the ancient site of Qumran can be found in the Bible. In other words, certain ideas in the scrolls also appear in the New Testament, meaning, of course, that the impression of Christianity as a "divine revelation" appearing whole cloth miraculously from the very finger of God is clearly erroneous.
Few scholars today claim that any of the Dead Sea Scrolls ("DSS") date to the time after Christianity was allegedly founded by a "historical" Jesus in the first century of the common era. Indeed, it is agreed that most of the scrolls pre-date the turn of the era and that none of them show any knowledge of Jesus Christ or Christianity.
In my book The Christ Conspiracy, I demonstrate that Christianity is an amalgam of the many religions, sects, cults and brotherhood traditions of the Mediterranean and beyond. One of the major influences on Christianity is that of Jews, obviously, including those mentioned in the New Testament, i.e., the Pharisees and Sadducees. Ancient Jewish historian Josephus also mentions the sect of the Essenes, who are traditionally associated with Qumran, in a "by default" argument. However, scholar Solomon Schecter - who discovered a scroll at Cairo that was later found at Qumran - points to a heretical sect of Sadducees or Zadokites, as they are called in both the Bible and DSS. In The Christ Conspiracy, I discuss this Zadokite origin of the DSS and this group's obvious influence on the New Testament.
What this rumination all means, of course, is that Christianity is, as I contend in my books, largely unoriginal, representing not fresh and new "divine revelation" but, again, the amalgamation of not only the ideas of the Zadokite authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls but also influences from the Essenes, Jews, Samaritans and many others.
Hints of the Scrolls in Bible
To understand how the Dead Sea Scrolls influenced early Christianity, just turn to the New Testament.
Take, for example, the Great Isaiah Scroll, a facsimile of which is on display as part of the Milwaukee Public Museum's Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Written around 125 B.C. and the only scroll to emerge virtually intact from the caves at Qumran, its messianic message is quoted in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, John and Luke, the earliest of which wasn't written until around A.D. 65.
The scrolls' so-called "Son of God" text reads much like the story of the Annunciation in the Gospel of Luke. And the Scrolls' "Blessing of the Wise" echoes the beatitudes of Matthew's Sermon on the Mount....
This early dating of the gospels, it should be noted, is based only on the a priori assumption that the story they relate is at least partially true in recounting a "historical" Jesus who truly walked the earth at the time he is claimed in the gospels themselves. There is no external evidence whatsoever for the existence of any canonical gospel at this early a date. In fact, the canonical gospels as we have them do not show up clearly in the historical record until the end of the second century.
Moreover, the Sermon on the Mount - supposedly the original monologue straight out of the mouth of the Son of God Himself - can be shown to be a series of Old Testament scriptures strung together, along with, apparently, such texts from Qumran. No "historical" founder was necessary at all to speak these words, as they are a rehash of extant sayings. (Even in this patent literary device the gospels cannot agree, as Luke 6:17-49 depicts the Sermon as having taken place on a plain.)
It is easy to see why the Catholic Church would blanche upon the discovery of these scrolls, as it could be - and has been - argued that these texts erode the very foundation of Christianity. It appears that this news, however, when released slowly has little affect on the mind-numbing programming that accompanies Christian faith.
The bottom line is that the existence of the Old Testament and the intertestamental literature such as the Dead Sea Scrolls shows how Christianity is a cut-and-paste job - a fact I also reveal in The Christ Conspiracy, in a chapter called "The Making of a Myth," which contains a discussion of some of the texts obviously used in the creation of the new faith. These influential texts evidently included some of the original Dead Sea Scrolls, serving not as "prophecy," "prefiguring" or "presaging" but as blueprints of pre-existing, older concepts cobbled together in the New Testament.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
FeedBack: The Christmas Hoax
gregchaos
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Achara S has done a great job of exposing the takeover of the solar birthday. The underlying information is that countless pre-Christian cultures saw the Sun as a living being, an intuitive understanding that Christianity wiped from our culture. Yes, there was hijacking of dates and legends, but the interesting question is: Were the ancients right - is the Sun a living being?
What brings life to our bodies is energy. Stars make their own energy fields as they release the light of life to the likes of us. Everything from an atom upwards has an energy field. Dive deeper at:
http://www.sunofgod.net
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Achara S has done a great job of exposing the takeover of the solar birthday. The underlying information is that countless pre-Christian cultures saw the Sun as a living being, an intuitive understanding that Christianity wiped from our culture. Yes, there was hijacking of dates and legends, but the interesting question is: Were the ancients right - is the Sun a living being?
What brings life to our bodies is energy. Stars make their own energy fields as they release the light of life to the likes of us. Everything from an atom upwards has an energy field. Dive deeper at:
http://www.sunofgod.net
Thursday, December 31, 2009
The Christmas Hoax
http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/christmas.htmlThe Christmas Hoax:
Jesus is NOT the "Reason for the Season"
by Acharya S/D.M. Murdock
What is the real "reason for the season?"
Excerpted from
Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled
by Acharya S
The December 25th birthday of the sun god is a common motif globally, dating back at least 12,000 years as reflected in winter solstices artfully recorded in caves. "Nearly all nations," says Doane, commemorated the birth of the god Sol to the "Queen of Heaven" and "Celestial Virgin." The winter solstice was celebrated in countless places, including China and Persia, the latter regarding the solar Lord and Savior Mithra's birth. In Rome, a great festival called "Saturnalia" was celebrated from December 1st to the 23rd. The winter solstice festival in Egypt included the babe in a manger brought out of the sanctuary.
Regarding the date of the "Christmas Feast," the Catholic Encyclopedia ("Christmas") remarks:
The well-known solar feast...of Natalis Invicti, celebrated on 25 December, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date....
The earliest rapprochement of the births of Christ and the sun is in Cypr., "De pasch. Comp.", xix, "...O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born... Christ should be born." In the fourth century, Chrysostom, "del Solst. Et Æquin." (II, p. 118, ed. 1588), says: "...But Our Lord, too, is born in the month of December... the eight before the calends of January [25 December]... But they call it the 'Birthday of the Unconquered'. Who indeed is so unconquered as Our Lord...? Or, if they say that it is the birthday of the Sun, He is the Sun of Justice." Already Tertullian (Apol., 16; cf. Ad. Nat., I, 13; Orig. c. Cels., VIII, 67, etc) had to assert that Sol was not the Christians' God; Augustine (Tract xxxiv, in Joan. In P. L., XXXV, 1652) denounces the heretical indentification of Christ with Sol. Pope Leo I (Serm. xxxvii in nat. dom., VII, 4; xxii, II, 6 in P. L., LIV, 218 and 198) bitterly reproves solar survivals--Christians, on the very doorstep of the Apostles' basilica, turn to adore the rising sun.
Ancient Greeks celebrated the birthday of Hercules and Dionysus on this date, as the ancient authority Macrobius (c. 400 AD/CE) maintained. Even the Greek father god, Zeus, was supposedly born at the winter solstice. The "Christmas" festival was celebrated at Athens and was called "the Lenaea," during which time, apparently, "the death and rebirth of the harvest infant Dionysus were similarly dramatized." This Lenaea festival is depicted in an Aurignacian cave-painting in Spain, with a "young Dionysus with huge genitals," standing naked in the middle of "nine dancing women." The Aurignacian period extended from 34,000 to 23,000 years ago. In The White Goddess (399), mythologist Robert Graves states:
The most ancient surviving record of European religious practices is an Aurignacian cave-painting at Cogul in North-Eastern Spain of the Old Stone Age Lenaea. A young Dionysus with huge genitals stands un-armed, alone and exhausted in the middle of a crescent of nine dancing women, who face him. He is naked, except for what appear to be a pair of close-fitting boots laced at the knee; they are fully clothed and wear small cone-shaped hats. These wild women, differentiated by their figures and details of their dress, grow progressively older as one looks clock-wise around the crescent...
By using the term "Dionysus," Graves is not stating that it was written on the walls of the cave. He is using it to describe an archetype that is very ancient.
The Greco-Syrian sun god Adonis - the "Adonai" of the Bible - was also born on December 25th, a festival "spoken of by Tertullian, Jerome, and other Fathers of the Church, who inform us that the ceremonies took place in a cave, and that the cave in which they celebrated his mysteries in Bethlehem, was that in which Christ Jesus was born."
Nor is the winter solstice celebration a purely "Pagan" concept, as the Jews also observed it in reference to the birth of their god, Yahweh. The "Feast of Illumination," "Feast of Lights" or "feast of the Dedication," occurred in winter (John 10:22-23; Josephus's Antiquities XII, 7.7)¹ and represented the "ancient Hebrew Winter Solstice Feast." The reference in the gospel of John states:
"It was the feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem; it was winter..." (RSV)
The passage in Josephus's Antiquities (XII, 7.7) refers to the eight-day festival celebrated by the Jewish hero Judas Maccabeus (190 BCE-160 BCE), the "festival of the restoration off the sacrifices of the temple." This 8-day festival is called by Josephus simply "Lights," as in the "festival of Lights." Known as "Hannukah," this "feast of Lights" represents a "restoration" of the ancient temple sacrifices.
Regarding this Hannukah feast, in The White Goddess (469), Graves further says:
The rabbinical account is that this eight-day festival which begins on the twenty-fifth day of the month Kislev, was instituted by Judas Maccabeus and that it celebrates a miracle: at the Maccabean consecration of the Temple a small cruse of sacred oil was found, hidden by a former High Priest, which lasted for eight days. By this legend the authors of the Talmud hoped to conceal the antiquity of the feast, which was originally Jehovah's birthday as the Sun-god and had been celebrated at least as early as the time of Nehemiah (Maccabees, I, 18).
The citation in Graves concerning the antiquity of this feast should be 2 Maccabees 1:18, which states:
Since on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev we shall celebrate the purification of the temple, we thought it necessary to notify you, in order that you also may celebrate the feast of booths and the feast of the fire given when Nehemiah, who built the temple and the altar, offered sacrifices.
The biblical figure Nehemiah is reputed to have lived during the fifth century (fl. 430 BCE), and 25th of the month of Kislev (November/December) is indeed the time of the celebration called Hannukah/Chanukah. As 2 Maccabees recounts, during this earlier sacrifice by Nehemiah, the Persians to whom he had sent for the sacred fire had only given him a "thick liquid" (oil?). After the liquid was sprinkled on the wood, the sun - previously hidden by clouds - beamed brightly, causing a great fire to blaze up, "so that all marveled." At this point, the priests offered fervent prayers to the Lord God.
From the account in the biblical book of Ezekiel concerning the Temple priests holding secret rites - sacrilegious in Ezekiel's opinion - we know that there is an esoteric tradition within Judaism that is not made known to the masses. Graves is apparently suggesting that this esoteric tradition included the knowledge of Jehovah/Yahweh as a sun god - as asserted and demonstrated by numerous authorities and researchers - and that, as a sun god, he too was typically considered as born on the winter solstice. It would appear, therefore, that this "festival of Lights" and "feast of the dedication" was a winter-solstice celebration based on the solar aspect either of the old Israelite gods or elohim, as they are repeatedly termed in the Old Testament, or of the Jewish tribal god Yahweh. (These inferences make for further studies by interested parties. The solar attributes of the main Jewish god Yahweh are brought out in detail in The Christ Conspiracy and Suns of God.)
In addition, Indians for millennia have celebrated the winter solstice, as a cardinal point, the new year and, presumably, the birth of the sun god. In the Indian solstice celebration--a "great religious festival"--there is "rejoicing everywhere." As in the West, the Indians "decorate their houses with garlands, and make presents to friends and relatives," a "custom of very great antiquity." One way the Brahman priests of Orissa have celebrated the solstice is by carrying images of "the youthful Krishna to the houses of their disciples and their patrons, to whom they present some of the red powder and tar of roses, and receive presents of money and cloth in return." Thus, in India the winter solstice has been as much a major holiday as it was anywhere, which is to be expected in a land permeated with sun worship for millennia.
Regarding the Persian sun god Mithra and his sacrifice, in the 19th century respected Christian author Rev. J.P. Lundy remarked:
"For let it be borne in mind that it was precisely at the season of this sacrifice, near the beginning of the new year, that the birth of Mithra was celebrated over all Persia and the world, in temple-caves, on the night of the 24th of December, the night of light. Even the British Druids celebrated it, and called the next day, the 25th of December, Nollagh or Noel, the day of regeneration, celebrating it with great fires on tops of their mountains. In fact, all nations, as if by common consent, at the first moment after midnight of the 24th of December, celebrated the birth of the sun-god, type among the Gentiles of Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, as the Desire of all nations and the Saviour of the world."
Lundy was thus well aware of the sun gods, whom he deemed "types of Christ," indicating Christ's solar nature as well.
Concerning the winter solstice festival in Ireland, the author of Christian Mythology Unveiled relates:
"The Baal-fire feast, or meeting, was a great festival in Ireland, on the 25th of December, and midsummer eve. Baal, or Bel, was a name of the sun all over the east."
It is important to note that the "December 25th" birthdate only applies to the age and hemisphere in which the winter solstice falls on December 21-24. In other ages, the solstice month is different, changing with the precession of the equinoxes every 2150 years.
The December 25th birthdate is that of the sun, not a "real person," revealing its unoriginality within Christianity and the true nature of the Christian godman. "Christmas" was not incorporated into Christianity until 354 AD/CE. In reality, there is no evidence, no primary sources which show that "Jesus is the reason for the season."
Happy Solstice!
Excerpted from "Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled"
¹ This citation contained a typo that unfortunately ended up in the "Reason for the Season" video. As here, it should be Josephus's Antiquities, XII, 7.7, rather than book XIII.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The "Historical" Buddha?
http://stellarhousepublishing.com/historical-buddha.html
The "Historical" Buddha?Adapted from Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled
by Acharya S/D.M. Murdock
"The Buddhists of different parts of the East differ widely in their chronology. The Northern Division of the faith place the birth of Buddha in 1030 B.C., the Southern fix his death in 543 B.C., a discrepancy of five centuries. Other accounts reveal disagreements of still further magnitude. Upon this absence of even an approach to chronological accuracy, Professor Wilson has broached the idea that probably the existence of Buddha is a myth. 'There are various considerations which throw suspicion upon the narrative and render it very problematical whether any such person as Sakiya Sinha, or Sakiya Muni, or Sramana Gautama ever actually existed.'"Rev. Simpson, Moor's Hindu Pantheon
There is much confusion as to the identity of "the Buddha," the main figure of the Eastern religion of Buddhism. First of all, there are different forms of Buddhism, including the two main branches of Theravada and Mahayana, in the latter of which we find the familiar Zen and Tibetan traditions, among others. Secondly, as we shall see in this excerpt from my book Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, there have also been many different Buddhas, including the figure also known as Siddhartha Gautama and Sakyamuni, who is frequently considered a "historical" personage. In this excerpt I provide many reasons to doubt the tradition of historicity for "the Buddha." Indeed, all factors combined, the evidence points to Buddha as a mythical, not historical, figure.
(In Suns of God and this adaptation, I relate the fascinating debate among scholars over the past several centuries concerning the nature and dating of "the Buddha." For a more updated discussion, please refer to my forthcoming work The Christ Myth Anthology.)
Who is "the Buddha?"
As the Hindu god Krishna was said to be an avatar of the solar deity Vishnu, so too was Buddha, who, according to common belief, was the founder of Buddhism in the 6th century BCE. However, the tradition represented by "Buddhism" is in fact much older than the period attributed to "the Buddha," or Gautama, as there have been several sects of Buddhism, some dating back hundreds if not thousands of years before the "historical" Buddha. A number of researchers and scholars have evinced that what is termed "Buddhism," i.e., asceticism, is found around the globe, thousands of years prior to the common era. Some Buddhists themselves have maintained that their religion goes back 15,000 or more years, and the Buddhistic Jains of India claim to possess the oldest religion in the world. As Sir William Jones says, "The Buddhists insist that the religion of Buddha existed from the beginning."
In actuality, Buddha's "name" is a title that does not represent a single individual, and there were, according to Buddhist tradition, countless Buddhas prior to the purported advent of Gautama, he himself having myriad previous incarnations. Because of this fact of plurality, it is impossible and virtually pointless to attempt to create a "biography" of a "real person" named Buddha. Even the godman's title itself changes from country to country, era to era and writer to writer. As Doane observes:
"It is said that there have been several Buddhas… We speak of Gautama. Buddha is variously pronounced and expressed Boudh, Bod, Bot, But, Bud, Badd, Buddou, Bouttu, Bota, Budso, Pot, Pout, Pots, Poti and Pouti. The Siamese make the final t or d quiescent, and sound the word Po; whence the Chinese still further vary it to Pho or Fo. Buddha - which means awakened or enlightened…is the proper way in which to spell the name."
In discussing "the same god, who reigns under different names in the nations of the East," Count Volney remarks:
"The Chinese adore him in Fot, the Japanese in Budso, the Ceylonese in Bedhou, the people of Laos in Chekia, of Pegu in Phta, of Siam in Sommona-Kodom, of Thibet in Budd and in La."
In his studies of Buddhism, published in the 1850's in a number of books, including A Manual of Budhism, the pious Christian R. Spence Hardy used some 465 texts from Ceylon/Sri Lanka, in the original Sanskrit, Pali, et al. These texts were collected during Hardy's many years as a missionary in Sri Lanka, much of which time was spent with "Sramana priests," Sramana being a title for Buddha that means "tamer of the senses." Sramana also refers to priests who perform "hard penances" and are not allowed to speak falsehoods. In any event, as concerns "Buddha," Hardy, a respected authority on the subject, relates:
"The name of the founder of Budhism has been spelled by European authors in the following modes, and probably in many others that have not come under my notice: Fo, Fod, Foe, Fohe, Fohi, Fho, Fuh, Futh, Pot, Pott, Poot, Poota, Pootah, Poth, Poti, Pout, Phuta, Wud, Bod, Bot, Bud, But, Buth, Budh, Buddh, Bood, Boodh, Boudh, Bhood, Baoth, Bauth, Budo, Buto, Budud, Booda, Bodda, Budda, Butta, Budha, Buddha, Budhu, Buddhu, Budho, Buddho, Buddow, Bodhow, Budhoo, Budso, Budha, Boudha, Boudhu, Boudhoo, Bouddha, Bouddhu, Boutta, and Bouddho."
These copious variants are not only transliterations limited to Western writers; indeed, not a few of them are the result of the culture in which the ideology was developed. Moreover, as we shall see, this "founder" of which Hardy speaks is not a person at all but a mishmash of myths and sayings that go back centuries and millennia prior to the alleged advent of "the Buddha," i.e., Siddhartha, Gautama, Sakyamuni or other name.
Hardy's Manual is a comprehensive look at the profuse Buddha legends, which include stories of many "Buddhas" and "Bodhisattvas." As stated, some of these Buddhas represent previous lives of "the Buddha" as well. The many stories related by Hardy are abundant in fantasy and magic, and, although there may be the sayings and exploits of "real people" intertwined in them, they cannot serve as "biographies" of "historical" individuals. Concerning these various tales, Hardy states:
"The attentive reader will observe numerous discrepancies. These occur, in some instances, between one author and another; and in others between one statement and another of the same author."
In his exhaustive research, Hardy says he was unable to find "any eastern work that is exclusively confined to the biography of Gotama [Gautama], or that professes to present it in its completeness."
In his chapter attempting to trace the ancestry of "the Buddha," regarding the numerous legends he encountered Hardy remarks:
"Several of the names, and some of the events, are met with in the Puranas of the Brahmans, but it is not possible to reconcile one order of statement with the other; and it would appear that the Budhist historians have introduced races, and invented names, that they may invest their venerated sage with all the honors of heraldry, in addition to the attributes of divinity."
Hardy also states that his sources are Tibetan, Nepalese, Chinese, Indian, Burmese, Siamese and Sri Lankan (Ceylonese), of which the sacred books of Burma, Siam and Ceylon are "identically the same." Nevertheless, he continues:
"The ancient literature of the Budhists, in all the regions where this system is professed, appears to have had its origin in one common source; but in the observances of the present day there is less uniformity; and many of the customs now followed, and of the doctrines now taught, would be regarded by the earlier professors as perilous innovations."
In reality, there have been identified at least 60 "translations, versions, or paraphrases" of Buddha's life. Hence, his "life" has changed from era to era and place to place.
The Dating of Buddha
As was the case with Krishna, the era in which "the Buddha" was supposedly born has been variously placed. While it is currently held that "the Buddha" or Gautama lived in the 6th century BCE, other writers, including eastern ones, have placed it in a number of different eras: "Professor Wilson…quotes no less than eleven authorities, every one of which establishes the era of Budha more than 1000 years B.C., and five other authorities make it above 800 years B.C."
Moreover, in Asiatic Researches Jones relates that the Arab traveler Abul Fazel placed Buddha "in the 1366th year before that of our Saviour," while the Chinese put the birth of Buddha, or Fo, the "son of Maya," in 1036 or 1027 BCE. The Catholic missionary Georgius/Giorgi reported that the Tibetans claimed Buddha's birth occurred in the year 959 BCE. Basing his estimations on the Chronology of the Hindus, Jones himself set the birth of Buddha, "or the ninth great avatar of Vishnu," in 1014 BCE, while Krishna, the "Indian Apollo," he established more than 1200 years before the common era.
As concerns Buddha's death, the Ceylonese/Singhalese or Sri Lankan account puts it at 543 BCE, while the chronology of the Greeks, based on the king "Sandracyptus," "Sandracottos" or "Chandragupta," places it at 477 BCE. According to Inman, the date of Buddha's death or nirvana in Chinese accounts is circa 770 BCE.
As Prof. Wilson discerned, the lack of consensus bespeaks the mythical and unhistorical nature of "the Buddha." Recounting Wilson's arguments, Rev. Simpson gives other reasons to suspect that Buddha is mythical:
"The tribe of Sakiya, from which the sage sprung is not mentioned in Hindu writings as a distinct people. The names introduced into the narrative are all symbolical. Buddha's father was Suddhodana; 'he whose food is pure.' His mother's name is Maya or Mayadevi, 'illusion, divine delusion;' as a prince, he was called Siddhartha, 'he, by whom the end is accomplished' and 'Buddha' signifies 'he, by whom all is known.'"
Simpson also explains at least some of these dating discrepancies as a "back-reckoning" from a particular historical event of the various nations into which Buddhism spread.
As demonstrated, neither the story itself nor the sixth century date for the life of Buddha is conclusive, and we are left with a lack of historicity in the tale. It must be emphasized that, when discussing the legends of ancient gods, godmen and heroes, we are generally dealing with myths that change constantly in order to incorporate new information, adapt to a specific era, or reflect a particular culture. It should also be kept in mind that information is suppressed and expunged, for a variety of reasons and agendas.
It is obvious that the "biography" of Buddhism's alleged founder is not set in stone, and that following the ancient path of the religion's development is difficult. In light of such information, one can readily understand how Western scholars would "identify Buddha with a variety of personages, imaginary or real."
The Many Buddhas
To reiterate, despite the hundreds of Buddhist texts he studied, Hardy himself admits the difficulty in discovering reliable information and sorting it all out:
"We have little information of the innumerable Budhas who have appeared in the past ages, until we come to the twenty-four who immediately preceded Gotama; and even their history consists of little more than names and correlative incidents….
"'…There is a verse in the Aparanita Dharani…purporting that 'the Budhas who have been, are, and will be, more numerous than the grains of sand on the banks of the Ganges.'… These are evident nonentities, in regard to chronology and history, yet it is often difficult to distinguish them from their more substantial compeers.'"
The 24 Buddhas are the same as the "Teerthankaras" of Jainism, another Indian faith that is essentially the same as Buddhism but is considered by its adherents to be the oldest religion in the world.
In addition to these 24, in long ages outlined in Buddhists texts are said to have appeared some 387,000 Buddhas. Several of these Buddhas are depicted as living tens to hundreds of thousands of years. We are also told that during the long epochs after the pre-existent Gautama "wished to become a Buddha, 125,000 Buddhas appeared; and during this period he was born many hundreds of times, either as a dewa [deva] or as a man." (A deva is "a divinity," i.e., a divine being or an "angel.") Concerning these many lives of "the Buddha," Hardy says:
"A great part of the respect paid to Gotama Budha arises from the supposition that he voluntarily endured, throughout myriad of ages, and in numberless births, the most severe deprivations and afflictions, that he might thereby gain the power to free sentient beings from the misery to which they are exposed under every possible form of existence."
Simpson puts a number to these "numberless births":
"Sakiya [Buddha] is supposed to have had a prior existence of indefinite length, during which he assumed five hundred and fifty births."
Concerning the Chinese version of Buddha, Fo, Bell enumerates his lives at 8,000:
"FO, or FOE, an idol of the Chinese: he was originally worshipped in the Indies… His disciples after his death published a great number of fables concerning him, and easily persuaded the people that Fo had been born eight thousand times; that his soul had successively passed through several different animals…"
Some of these numerous lives of Buddha are as follows:
"An ascetic 83 times; a monarch 58; the deva of a tree 43; a religious teacher 26; a courtier 24; a prohita brahman 24; a prince 24; a nobleman 23; a learned man 22; the deva Sekra 20; an ape 18; a merchant 13; a man of wealth 12; a deer 10; a lion 10; the bird hansa 8; a snipe 6; an elephant 6; a fowl 5; a slave 5; a golden eagle 5; a horse 4; a bull 4; the brahma Maha Brahma 4; a peacock 4; a serpent 4; a potter 3; an outcaste 3; a guana 3; twice each a fish, an elephant driver, a rat, a jackal, a crow, a woodpecker, a thief, and a pig; and once each a dog, a curer of snake-bites, a gambler, a mason, a smith, a devil dancer, a scholar, a silversmith, a carpenter, a water-fowl, a frog, a hare, a cock, a kite, a jungle-fowl, and a kindura."
Considering this overwhelming and bizarre list, it cannot be possible to write a "biography" of a "real person." As stated by Buddhist and Sanskrit scholar Dr. Christian Lindtner:
"In my paper on Buddhist Bhagavatism I show that even in early Pâli sources there is a clear concept of the double nature of a Bhagavat (nominative: Bhagavân). Already in the earliest sources the same person is man and god (descending from Brahmaloka) at the same time. He has conversations with Indra, Brahma etc. He can fly, make himself invisible etc. He can also descend to Naraka ("Hell"), just as he can go to heaven. This is clearly a mythical figure. And the Pâli texts also list our Buddha (Siddhârtha) as # 7 in a row.
"So, how can [anyone] deny that the Buddha is a mythical being?'
The Mythical Buddha
In studying the various texts, the divine, supernatural nature of Buddhism and the Buddhas becomes evident. Nevertheless, amid all the wild and miraculous tales concerning the countless Buddhas and assorted incarnations, an "orthodox" life of "the Buddha" has been created.
To begin with, Buddha's conception is portrayed as coming to his mother, Maya, in a dream, like the conflicting gospel tales of Joseph's dream or the angel appearing to Mary. Maya is represented as telling her husband, the king, about the dream "in the morning"; yet, the conception was said to have been accompanied by "32 great wonders," including the trembling of "100,000 sakwalas" ("solar systems") and the roaring of bulls and buffaloes, which surely would have woken up not only the king but also the entire town! In addition, Maya's pregnancy was attended by 40,000 devas keeping guard. She was "transparent," and the child could be seen in her womb. Certainly, these events - which historicizers would place only six centuries before the common era, when historians and travelers were abundant enough to have noticed - are not "historical" but mythical.
Buddha's birth is further depicted thus:
"During the period of pregnancy Maya was carefully guarded by 40,000 deities, while numberless divine personages stood watch over the royal palace and the royal city. As her time drew near its close, she wished to visit her parents in the city of Koli. The road was levelled; trees were planted; all the luxuries required for an eastern journey were provided, a cushioned litter of gold was her conveyance, and a thousand nobles were her bearers. Attended by a host of followers, she came to a garden of sal trees in bloom. She rested awhile to enjoy the fragrance of the flowers and the songs of the birds, she raised her hand to catch a bough of a tree; it bent of its own will; and without pain, or pollution, Buddha was born. Maha Brahma received the child in a golden net; from him, the guardian deities and nobles who wrapped it in folds of the finest and softest cloth. But Buddha was independent of their aid and leapt on the ground and where he touched it, a lotus bloomed. He looked to the four points and the four half points, above and below, and saw all deities and men acknowledge his supremacy. He stepped seven steps northward and a lotus marked each foot fall. He exclaimed, 'I am the most exalted in the world; I am chief in the world; I am the most excellent in the world, hereafter there is to me no other birth.'"
This story is beautiful and magical, but it cannot be considered as biography. If it were "history," and if Buddha were a "real person," the author of such miracles and divine wonders, we would be compelled to pronounce him "God of gods," because his bio is much more impressive than that of Christ. However, it is obvious we are not dealing with the biography of any historical human being. And these fabulous tales are just a few of the many regarding "the Buddha," Bodhisat, etc., in his numerous incarnations.
As another example, in one story Buddha is depicted as pre-existing in the mystical land of Tusita, where he "had a crown four miles high." In this fable, he also possessed "sixty wagon-loads of gems and jewels, all other kinds of treasures and a kela of [numberless] beautiful attendants."
Once he finally took incarnation, as an infant Buddha was brought by wise men to the temple, amid a tremendous precession graced by music, showered by flowers and attended by 100,000 deities who pulled the Divine Child's cart. The arrival at the temple was announced by an earthquake, as well as the flower-shower, and the temple idols representing gods came alive and welcomed the latest avatar.
As he grew older, Prince Siddhartha, who would become Buddha, had 40,000 queens, princesses, "dancing women" or "inferior wives" with him in his palace. This motif could hardly be an historical fact, and the number is identical to the amount of deities attending his birth. Moreover, when Siddhartha, rejecting the temptation of the Prince of Darkness, left his native city, he was preceded by 60,000 devas holding "torches of jewels."
In testing whether or not he would become Buddha, the prince threw his hair into the air, saying, "If I am to become Buddha, my hair will remain in the sky…" The hair not only stayed airborne but also attained a height of 16 miles!
During a reception of Buddha by his royal father in his hometown, the other Sakya princes were instructed to worship him, which they were reluctant to do. Having read their thoughts, Buddha contrived to convince them:
"Accordingly, he rose up from the throne, ascended into the air, and in their presence sent forth the six-coloured rays, and caused a stream of fire to proceed from his shoulders, ears, nostrils, eyes, hands, and feet, from the 99 joints and the 99,000 pores of his body; and this was followed by the issuing forth of a stream of water from the same places."
In addition, while visiting the island of Ceylon, Gautama fought in the air with demons, appearing to them as the moon, and creating pillars of fire, after which an island approached the demons, who took refuge upon it.
In another example of the fabulous "life of Buddha," one of the sage's followers, a woman named Yasodhara-devi, who had attained to the status of rahat ("one entirely free from evil desire"), was depicted as follows:
"She…related the history of her former births, then rose into the air and worshipped Budha; in this manner she rose and descended many times; and performed many other wonders, in the presence of men, devas and brahmas."
Again, if these fantastic events are to be considered the biography of a real person, we can only conclude that Buddha is a much more powerful figure than Christ! Furthermore, anyone trying to make a modern biography from this impossible mishmash, which includes talking animals and copious other miracles, would be spinning (dharma) wheels endlessly.
Buddha's Body
The physical description of Buddha is no less fantastic and likewise impossible as "biography." He is depicted as having feet like golden sandals, with chakras (wheels) in the center of the soles. His palms and soles were as soft as "cotton dipped in oil" and "appeared like richly ornamented windows." He possessed antelope-like legs and long, straight arms that reached to his knees. "His secret parts were concealed, as the pedicle of the flower is hid by the pollen," and his body was impervious to dirt and dust. Buddha also had magical hair and nerves, as well as perfectly sized and white-colored teeth, which looked like a "row of diamonds" and which "shone like the stars of a constellation." He had a neck "like a golden drum" and the strength of a lion, etc. Obviously, this description reflects a very strange-looking "person."
Also, whereas Buddha is said to have had red hair, in ancient statuary Buddhas are depicted as negroid in feature. As Jones says:
"…the ancient Hindus, according to Strabo, differed in nothing from the Africans, but in the straitness and smoothness of their hair, while that of the others was crisp and wooly; a difference proceeding chiefly, if not entirely, from their respective humidity or dryness of their atmospheres; hence the people who received the first light of the rising sun, according to the limited knowledge of the ancients, are said by Apuleius to be the Arü and Ethiopians, by which he clearly meant certain nations of India; where we frequently see figures of Buddha with curled hair apparently designed for a representation of it in its natural state."
Moor also relates that certain statues of Buddha "exhibit thick Ethiopian lips" and "wooly hair."
In reality, Buddha's bizarre, amorphous appearance further demonstrates that his story is myth. Again, the understanding of myth is both important and entertaining, not to be dismissed as mere, worthless fabrication. Without creative and imaginative myth, human beings would be far less colorful and rich. It is only when the esoteric meaning of the myth is lost, and the myth becomes misapprehended as "historical fact," that it becomes insidious and harmful.
For more information, including relevant citations, see my book Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, as well as my forthcoming work The Christ Myth Anthology.
PARANOIA: The Conspiracy Reader
http://www.paranoiamagazine.com/volume1.htmlPARANOIA: The Conspiracy Reader
Volume 1
Ready in April 2010! 180 pages!
Save NOW! Pre-order via PayPal or mail before January 31, 2010 and get FREE shipping!
USA $14
CANADA/MEXICO $19
WORLD $23
What’s in it?
Philip Coppens on 2012, Iona Miller on Tavistock, Astrotheology according to Acharya S, Lovecraft and the Necronomicon, Craig Heimbichner on the OTO, Robert Guffey on Albert Pike, Michael Cremo on Forbidden Archeology, The Reabductions of Melinda Leslie, Eustace Mullins at 86, RAND and UFOs, Who Murdered Robin Hood?, Is the Virgin Mary appearing in Alabama?, New JFK Witness Revealed, David Ray Griffin Interview, Round II, The Apollo Hoax!, and scary PARANOTES by Al Hidell!
Authors
Daniel Harms
Anthony Bragalia
Robert Guffey
Joan d’Arc
Al Hidell
Michael Cremo
Philip Coppens
John Kaminski
Steve Ahlquist
Melinda Leslie
Barbara Green
Iona Miller
Dail R. Cantrell
Mark Elliott
David Gracer
Interviews
Craig Heimbichner
Roderick MacKenzie
David Ray Griffin
Acharya S
William Bramley
David McGowan
Tiny Tim
Jarrah White
Ralph Rene
Artwork
Lee Harvey Roswell
Saint John
John Moore
Al Hidell
Friday, October 2, 2009
The 2010 Astrotheology Calendar
http://stellarhousepublishing.com/2010calendar.htmlThe 2010 Astrotheology Calendar
D.M. Murdock/Acharya S & N.W. Barker
47 pages 8.5 x 11 14 color images ISBN-13 978-0979963131 $19.99
U.S. orders only at this time!
The 2010 Astrotheology Calendar—brought to you by Astrotheology Press, a division of Stellar House Publishing—provides valuable and amazing information about holidays celebrated from ancient times to today that are largely based in astrotheology and nature worship. In addition to recording a number of fascinating celebrations from a variety of cultures marked on various days of each month, the Astrotheology Calendar highlights certain dates in the accompanying explanatory text. These highlighted days include the solstices, equinoxes and "cross-quarter days," as well as various dates that reflect important developments in the field of comparative religion and mythology.
For example, many people nowadays know that "Christmas" is not really the day when Jesus Christ was born. Rather, Xmas is a remake of an ancient winter-solstice celebration. In the Astrotheology Calendar are included a number of other important winter-solstice celebrations, such as the births of Mithra and Horus-Aion, as well as that of the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu. Also explored in this calendar are many other revelations of how Pagan festivities celebrated in such places as Rome, Greece, Egypt and the British Isles, were likewise Christianized by the Catholic Church.
Created by independent scholar of comparative religion and mythology D.M. Murdock, author of The Christ Conspiracy, Suns of God, Who Was Jesus?, Christ in Egypt, The Gospel According to Acharya S and Jesus as the Sun throughout History, there has never been anything like the Astrotheology Calendar before.
This calendar is actually a book with 47 pages consisting of 13 full-page images, the actual calendar and 23 pages of text explaining what we have put together here, covering the following intriguing subjects:
Inspiration for the Calendar—Our Connection to Nature
What is Astrotheology
Archaeoastronomical Alignments
What is a Myth?
The Sun
The Moon
The Zodiac
Lunar Calendars
Egyptian
Sumerian/Babylonian
Greek/Roman
Pagan/Wiccan/Celtic
Christian/Catholic
Zoroastrian
The Solstices, Equinoxes and Peak Days
Days of the Week
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Cool Stuff
Sources & Further Reading
This cool calendar has a bibliography of almost 100 sources, along with 44 citations/footnotes—very unusual for a calendar!
The 2010 Astrotheology Calendar was not only written by D.M. Murdock/Acharya S, but also designed and typeset by her, while she likewise created/worked up the images and covers as well. Again, never has there been a calendar like this one—the 2010 Astrotheology Calendar is a unique creation you will want to have!
The 2010 Astrotheology Calendar contains information never-before published in any of Acharya's books and provides a fascinating and striking view of how certain aspects of comparative religion have developed over the centuries, including and especially as concerns the deliberate appropriation and Christianization of various Pagan holidays.
A one-of-a-kind creation that will make a wonderful gift for anyone curious about the roots of religious beliefs, as well as comparative religion and mythology extending back into the hoary mists of time.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
"Who Was Jesus?"
http://tbknews.blogspot.com/2009/09/who-was-jesus-is-important-and.html
Friday, September 11, 2009
'"Who Was Jesus?" is an important and enlightening book!'
The following is a review of my book Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ. While excerpts of it have been posted at Amazon, the entire review is republished here.
Acharya S.
An important and enlightening book
5.0 out of 5 stars (September 10, 2009)
By D. Haagensen (Johannesburg, South Africa)
At first, it would seem almost needless that the Bible should be examined and dissected to such an extent as to reveal its seemingly obvious man-made fabrication. After all, there appears to be no need to apply the same painstaking investigation into debunking the works of Hans Christian Andersen, or the Brothers Grimm, or C.S. Lewis, or any children's fairytales, considering that they have long been unquestionably accepted as fictional creations originating from the minds of the authors who wrote them. And it doesn't take a learned academic to spot the apparent similarity of the writing styles of these fictional tales and the texts contained in the Bible, the most predominant resemblance being the abundance of verbal exchanges between characters whose names, incidentally, change according to the language they’re translated into – something you don’t generally find in historical accounts.
But the difference is, innocent children's fables are not the basis for world-dominating cults or religions; and if they were, most people would surely think it to be absurd, fanatical, and outrageously extreme, or, in simple terms, just plain crazy. Yet, is it not just as crazy and ludicrous that millions upon millions of people on this planet are doing exactly that when it comes to these religious texts?
Sacred allegories historical events?
However, since the vast majority of the world actually believes these sacred allegories to be authentic records of actual events, it is therefore necessary to expose the folly of such gullibility in logical and easily understandable terms, which is what D.M. Murdock has quite clearly done (in this case, focusing specifically on the four Gospels of the New Testament) in her book Who Was Jesus?: Fingerprints Of The Christ.
"Murdock reveals the obvious erroneousness and fictional nature of the Gospels in a very rational and objective manner."
Not only has she revealed the obvious erroneousness and fictional nature of the Gospels, but she has "dismantled" and carefully laid out all the essential elements and clues on the table, so to speak, focusing on each individual component, and plainly demonstrating, in a very rational and objective manner, the indisputable facts, as well as highlighting the evident flaws. Even if the information she divulges seems obvious to anyone who has long been suspicious or sceptical of the content contained within the "Good Book", it is nevertheless a riveting and enjoyable read – uncomplicated and coherent, and free of condescension and convolution. Furthermore, she does not express personal opinions, make speculative judgments, or attempt to sway anyone to a particular school of thought, but instead applies the same acumen and impartialness that any scholar or scientist would be expected to employ in the investigation of any subject under examination. In short, Ms. Murdock’s conclusions, which are reached by use of logical deduction and rationale, appear to be incontrovertible.
"Murdock’s conclusions, which are reached by use of logical deduction and rationale, appear to be incontrovertible."
Personally, I believe that all it takes to be suspicious of the Bible’s claims is to read it with an objective approach, and it will soon become apparent that it does not follow the natural laws of logic, reason, common sense, or consistency, and very much of it has no correlation with the real world. In addition, it is written in a blatant puerile fashion, is replete with implausible events, and, more importantly, contains no dates whatsoever (which suggests to me that its writings are very unlikely to be historical records). Surely it would be naturally expected that anyone recording such events, or authoring the so-called letters, would include the dates in their accounts, such as any historian or custodian of historical records would do. And if "God/Yahweh" was indeed the actual guide behind these writings, then surely they would have been put down in such a way as to appear a lot more convincing and indubitable, and not riddled with confusion, vagueness, and ambiguity. Surely, these issues alone provide enough food for thought and legitimate questions concerning its validity.
If the same people who are convinced that these bizarre tales are inerrant truths are also capable of accepting the fact that children’s fairytales are clearly made up fantasies, then perhaps it’s about time that they apply the same logic when examining the Bible. And although this would normally be apparent simply by reading the Bible with an open mind, Ms. Murdock has gone the extra mile by not only stating the obvious, but also showing, in meticulous detail, how things just don’t quite add up (or, conversely, how certain things DO add up).
Regrettably, in this modern age, faith is just no longer an acceptable justification, when common sense and methodical enquiry demonstrate otherwise. And this is why it is important, if not essential, that more people read books by authors like D.M. Murdock, in the hope that these outdated and primitive notions will be appropriately seen for what they really are, that the "penny will drop", just as the Flat Earth was eventually rightfully "corrected".
Who Was Jesus? is an important book, essential in the ongoing enterprise of exposing the truth and enlightening the world, so that we may have a future where morals, ethics, integrity, and simple goodness are the order of the day.
Friday, September 11, 2009
'"Who Was Jesus?" is an important and enlightening book!'
The following is a review of my book Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ. While excerpts of it have been posted at Amazon, the entire review is republished here.
Acharya S.
An important and enlightening book
5.0 out of 5 stars (September 10, 2009)
By D. Haagensen (Johannesburg, South Africa)
At first, it would seem almost needless that the Bible should be examined and dissected to such an extent as to reveal its seemingly obvious man-made fabrication. After all, there appears to be no need to apply the same painstaking investigation into debunking the works of Hans Christian Andersen, or the Brothers Grimm, or C.S. Lewis, or any children's fairytales, considering that they have long been unquestionably accepted as fictional creations originating from the minds of the authors who wrote them. And it doesn't take a learned academic to spot the apparent similarity of the writing styles of these fictional tales and the texts contained in the Bible, the most predominant resemblance being the abundance of verbal exchanges between characters whose names, incidentally, change according to the language they’re translated into – something you don’t generally find in historical accounts.
But the difference is, innocent children's fables are not the basis for world-dominating cults or religions; and if they were, most people would surely think it to be absurd, fanatical, and outrageously extreme, or, in simple terms, just plain crazy. Yet, is it not just as crazy and ludicrous that millions upon millions of people on this planet are doing exactly that when it comes to these religious texts?
Sacred allegories historical events?
However, since the vast majority of the world actually believes these sacred allegories to be authentic records of actual events, it is therefore necessary to expose the folly of such gullibility in logical and easily understandable terms, which is what D.M. Murdock has quite clearly done (in this case, focusing specifically on the four Gospels of the New Testament) in her book Who Was Jesus?: Fingerprints Of The Christ.
"Murdock reveals the obvious erroneousness and fictional nature of the Gospels in a very rational and objective manner."
Not only has she revealed the obvious erroneousness and fictional nature of the Gospels, but she has "dismantled" and carefully laid out all the essential elements and clues on the table, so to speak, focusing on each individual component, and plainly demonstrating, in a very rational and objective manner, the indisputable facts, as well as highlighting the evident flaws. Even if the information she divulges seems obvious to anyone who has long been suspicious or sceptical of the content contained within the "Good Book", it is nevertheless a riveting and enjoyable read – uncomplicated and coherent, and free of condescension and convolution. Furthermore, she does not express personal opinions, make speculative judgments, or attempt to sway anyone to a particular school of thought, but instead applies the same acumen and impartialness that any scholar or scientist would be expected to employ in the investigation of any subject under examination. In short, Ms. Murdock’s conclusions, which are reached by use of logical deduction and rationale, appear to be incontrovertible.
"Murdock’s conclusions, which are reached by use of logical deduction and rationale, appear to be incontrovertible."
Personally, I believe that all it takes to be suspicious of the Bible’s claims is to read it with an objective approach, and it will soon become apparent that it does not follow the natural laws of logic, reason, common sense, or consistency, and very much of it has no correlation with the real world. In addition, it is written in a blatant puerile fashion, is replete with implausible events, and, more importantly, contains no dates whatsoever (which suggests to me that its writings are very unlikely to be historical records). Surely it would be naturally expected that anyone recording such events, or authoring the so-called letters, would include the dates in their accounts, such as any historian or custodian of historical records would do. And if "God/Yahweh" was indeed the actual guide behind these writings, then surely they would have been put down in such a way as to appear a lot more convincing and indubitable, and not riddled with confusion, vagueness, and ambiguity. Surely, these issues alone provide enough food for thought and legitimate questions concerning its validity.
If the same people who are convinced that these bizarre tales are inerrant truths are also capable of accepting the fact that children’s fairytales are clearly made up fantasies, then perhaps it’s about time that they apply the same logic when examining the Bible. And although this would normally be apparent simply by reading the Bible with an open mind, Ms. Murdock has gone the extra mile by not only stating the obvious, but also showing, in meticulous detail, how things just don’t quite add up (or, conversely, how certain things DO add up).
Regrettably, in this modern age, faith is just no longer an acceptable justification, when common sense and methodical enquiry demonstrate otherwise. And this is why it is important, if not essential, that more people read books by authors like D.M. Murdock, in the hope that these outdated and primitive notions will be appropriately seen for what they really are, that the "penny will drop", just as the Flat Earth was eventually rightfully "corrected".
Who Was Jesus? is an important book, essential in the ongoing enterprise of exposing the truth and enlightening the world, so that we may have a future where morals, ethics, integrity, and simple goodness are the order of the day.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
What is a Mythicist?
http://stellarhousepublishing.com/mythicist.html
What is a Mythicist?
by D.M. Murdock/Acharya S
In existence for many years, the term "mythicist" has come into greater currency of late, because of the increasing popularity of one of its main foci: To wit, the evident non-historicity of the New Testament character Jesus Christ. Although the concept goes back into remote antiquity, the word "Mythicist" seems to have made its way originally into mainstream literature during the first decades of the 1800's, in German writings regarding theologian Dr. David Friedrich Strauss (1808-1874), whose book The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined, was first published in 1835. One of the earliest usages of "mythicist" in English occurs in a translation of an earlier German text reflecting the Straussian debate at the time, as related by the Jesuit priest Rev. Adrien Nampon in 1869:
"'Strauss is not consistent,'" said Krugg [sic], the successor of Kant in the chair of philosophy at Koenisberg, 'we must therefore look for a bolder mythicist, to appear some day, who will accuse his predecessor of timidity, and maintain that all which the documents of Christianity relate of its Founder, is mythical, without any exception.'" (Nampon, 264)
Regardless of the criticism, so strongly did Strauss define the burgeoning field of gospel skepticism that we find a reference to "Straußschen Mythicismus"—Straussian Mythicism—in a chapter about his book in Kritische Prediger-Bibliothek by Dr. Johann Friedrich Röhr, published in 1836. This mythicism was likewise called the "Mythical Theory," often specifically as concerned Strauss. Hence, in a sense, Strauss was the exemplar of a mythicist in its modern usage. For his intellectual endeavors—which in fact were very bold and courageous at the time—Strauss lost his livelihood. Indeed, when he attempted to take up his new occupation as a professor of Theology at the University of Zurich, Strauss was assailed by people from the surrounding environs in Switzerland who, riled up by their clergy, "took up arms, and declared their determination to prevent his coming, calling him 'a heretic and an unbeliever.'" (Strauss, Opinions, iii)
The History of Mythicism
In our quest to determine what is "mythicism," we discover that this movement was epitomized by David Strauss, who had come out with a book critical of Christianity that pointedly identified as myth much of the gospel story regarding Christ. Strauss was not an atheist or skeptical mythicist, however, as he did not dismiss the gospel story as "mere" fairytales. Rather, being a Christian theologian, he attempted to imbue the Christian mythos with spiritual, if not allegorical, meaning. This perspective represents one plank of the mythicist position, as mythicism in its totality does not dismiss myth simply as something fabricated but instead recognizes the ancient wellspring of profundity and comprehension from which it draws. Strauss was evidently encouraged in his efforts by the success of German biblical criticism—most widely known through the group called the "Tübingen School," as established by his professor Dr. Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792-1860), whose own work in comparative religion was considered "revolutionary."
Such doubt was evidently not enough for Dr. Wilhelm Traugott Krug (1770-1842), heir to the seat of famed philosopher Dr. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), who called for an even stronger declaration of Christianity's mythical nature. Krug's solicitation was answered by another German scholar and theologian, Dr. Bruno Bauer (1809-1882), who published his first mythicist work in 1840.
Although they brought forth novel notions, Baur, Strauss and Bauer were preceded in fact by many others who stepped out from the shadows of the Inquisition to voice unpopular ideas that had doubtlessly circulated surreptiously for centuries. Indeed, prior to this seemingly sudden burst of mythicism appeared the voluminous writings published in 1795 by Professor Charles François Dupuis (1742-1809), as well as those of Count Volney (1757-1820) and Rev. Dr. Robert Taylor (1784-1844), who spent three years in prison in the late 1820's and early 1830's for two convictions of "blasphemy," based on his popular lectures asserting that Christ was a myth. This punishment did not deter Taylor from publishing a number of books on the subject, including The Syntagma (1828), The Diegesis (1829), and The Devil's Chaplain (1831). Yet, his ordeal was so horrifying that it haunted evolutionist Charles Darwin, who feared his own writings would land him a similar fate. Following this brouhaha, in 1840 an individual wisely maintaining his anonymity by calling himself merely a "German Jew" (J.C. Blumenfeld?) published a series of pamphlets in a volume entitled, The Existence of Christ Disproved by Irresistible Evidence.
Strauss and Bauer were also succeeded by the publication in 1841 of The Christian Mythology Unveiled, whose anonymous author later published under the name of Logan Mitchell. Mitchell was followed by lay Egyptologist Gerald Massey (1828-1907), whose monumental works highlighted the comparisons between Christianity and the Egyptian religion. Another earlier scholar who extensively dipped into mythicism was Sir Godfrey Higgins (1772-1833), although he was not a mythicist per se but an evemerist who believed that under all of the mythical attributes of various godmen lay a "real person." This evemerist or euhemerist perspective, named for the Greek philosopher Euhemerus (4th cent. BCE), who posited that the gods of old were in reality kings and assorted other heroes who were deified, remains one of the most commonly held opinions regarding Jesus Christ, along with the believing and mythicist perspectives.
Although many people believe evemerism to be a "reasonable" position, often expressing that, while they do not believe Jesus was the Son of God, they do believe he was a "real person," the fact is that there simply is no evidence for this "real person," such as any historical record. Moreover, when the mythological layers are peeled, there remains no "historical" core to the onion. Evemerism is generally the result of skepticism as concerns miracles, yet lacking an in-depth knowledge of the mythicist position. To paraphrase Massey, a composite of 20 people is no one.
The evemerist position has been popular enough for a definition to be widely available in dictionaries and encyclopedias, while the mythicist position does not likewise enjoy such a widespread recognition. Considering that mythicism was the major thrust of many well respected scholars for centuries in Europe, this oversight would seem to be both contrived and egregious. We hope that this article will help to establish this previously marginalized and ignored position as a viable option worthy of respect and scientific study.
Individuals who continued the mythicist position into the modern era include John E. Remsburg (1848-1919), Dr. William Benjamin Smith (1850-1934), Dr. John M. Robertson (1856-1933), Dr. Arthur Drews (1865-1935), Edouard Dujardin (1861-1949), Herbert Cutner (fl. 1950), Dr. John Jackson (1907-1993), Dr. Frank Zindler, Dr. Robert Price, Earl Doherty and others. I myself have three published books specifically about the mythical nature of Jesus Christ, while a fourth investigates the non-historical character of the gospels:
The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold
Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled
Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection
Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ
The first three texts in this list delve specifically into comparative religion and mythology, demonstrating that there is little original or "historical" about the Christ myth as a whole. The last inspects the canonical gospels themselves to see whether they could possibly be considered reliable history. These various approaches constitute the main planks of mythicism in a nutshell, which often highlights the astrotheological origins of the myths, such as I demonstrate throughout my books, articles and ebooks, including:
Jesus as the Sun throughout History
The Companion Guide to ZEITGEIST, Part 1
A popular form of mythicism may be seen also in the first part of internet movie "ZEITGEIST," which purportedly has been viewed over 100 million times worldwide and for which my work served as a significant source. Comedian and cultural commentator Bill Maher's "Religulous" also touches upon the subject.
The Definition and Value of Mythicism
The term "mythicism" as it has come to be developed in the present day may be defined as I have done in my book Christ in Egypt (12):
Mythicism represents the perspective that many gods, goddesses and other heroes and legendary figures said to possess extraordinary and/or supernatural attributes are not "real people" but are in fact mythological characters. Along with this view comes the recognition that many of these figures personify or symbolize natural phenomena, such as the sun, moon, stars, planets, constellations, etc., constituting what is called "astromythology" or "astrotheology." As a major example of the mythicist position, it is determined that various biblical characters such as Adam and Eve, Satan, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, King David, Solomon and Jesus Christ, among other entities, in reality represent mythological figures along the same lines as the Egyptian, Sumerian, Phoenician, Indian, Greek, Roman and other godmen, who are all presently accepted as myths, rather than historical figures.
It should be noted that the mythicist position importantly serves as a bridge between theism and atheism, as it does not seek to discount or denigrate the long and exalted history of thought concerning religion and mythology, dating back many thousands of years, as manifested in the religious and spiritual practices of man beginning millennia ago and continuing since then. The pinnacle of mythicist cultures—more specifically those based on astrotheology—can be seen in the massive and profound civilization of Egypt, for example. Rather than being ignored and dismissed, such wondrous creations should be explored and treasured as unique and glorious contributions to the overall human accomplishment. The astrotheological aspect of mythicism is expressed in remarks such as those by the ancient Greek writer Diodorus Siculus (c. 90-21 BCE):
"Now when the ancient Egyptians, awestruck and wondering, turned their eyes to the heavens, they concluded that two gods, the sun and the moon, were primeval and eternal; and they called the former Osiris, the latter Isis..." (Murphy, 14)
Latin writer Macrobious (c. 400 AD/CE) also wrote about the astrotheology of the ancients, asserting that "all the gods of the Greek and Roman mythology represent the attributes of the one supreme divine power—the sun." In the modern era, archaeologists and archaeoastromers have confirmed this ancient astrotheology in numerous sites throughout the world, as summarized by astronomer Dr. Edwin C. Krupp in In Search of Ancient Astronomies:
"At Stonehenge in England and Carnac in France, in Egypt and Yucatan, across the whole face of the earth are found mysterious ruins of ancient monuments, monuments with astronomical significance. These relics of other times are as accessible as the American Midwest and as remote as the jungles of Guatemala. Some of them were built according to celestial alignments; others were actually precision astronomical observatories... Careful observation of the celestial rhythms was compellingly important to early peoples, and their expertise, in some respects, was not equaled in Europe until three thousand years later."
The mythicist position brings forward the ancient astrotheology as expressed in these numerous cultures and ties it into the more modern religious traditions, which in many aspects are simply rehashes of the earlier religion and mythology of antiquity: To wit, Jesus Christ is a mythological character along the same lines as the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Sumerian, Phoenician, Indian or other mythical gods, goddesses, godmen and heroes.
In modern times, there exists a real reluctance within the hallowed halls of academia to delve into mythicism, despite the mountain of fascinating evidence, expressed now and again by individual scholars within a variety of fields. With the treatment endured by Dr. David Strauss and others, this hesitancy may be viewed as understandable. However, the burying of this massive body of astromythological information, which reflects virtually the entire modus vivendi of certain cultures such as that of ancient Egypt, has been at the core of much cultural degradation and loss. The resurrection of this ancient astrotheological knowledge as one of the foundations of mythicism may indeed constitute one of the most important, world-changing events we can strive to achieve.
Again, the mythicist position allows us to step outside the theist-versus-atheist box and to value the vast human creation of religion and mythology, without being either antagonistic toward it or believing it as dogma. Mythicism goes beyond the ceaseless theist-atheist debate, in fact, which is in the end futile, since cases for both perspectives can be and have been made ad infinitum, under a variety of circumstances, and since experience shows us that this discussion will never be resolved—except, indeed, in the mythicist position, which neither believes nor dismisses but which understands and appreciates humanity's longstanding interest in religion and spirituality. The mythicist position does not necessarily accept religious traditions as being based in third-dimensional reality and history. Nevertheless, mythicism itself is rooted in reality and is an end product of freethought and scientific endeavors as well as recognition of profound human imagination and creativity. The mythicist position has much to offer, allowing us to create greater harmony by acknowledging and enjoying the similarities and differences in religious traditions founded upon valid evidence grounded in natural phenomena.
Sources & Further Reading
Force, James E. and Popkin Richard H., Essays on the Context, Nature, and Influence of Isaac Newton's Theology, Springer, 1990.
Jenaische Allegemeine Literatur-Zeitung vom Jahre 1815, IV, Leipzig, 1815.
Matheson, George, Aids to the Study of German Theology, T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1876.
Murphy, Edwin, The Antiquities of Egypt: A Translation, with Notes, of Book I of the Library of History of Diodorus Siculus, Transaction Publishers, 1990.
Nampon, Adrien, Catholic Doctrine as Defined by the Council of Trent, Peter F. Cunningham & Son, Philadelphia, 1869.
Röhr, Johann Friedrich, Kritische Prediger-Bibliothek, Johann Karl Gottfried Wagner, 1836.
Strauss, David Friedrich, Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet, Verlag von C.F. Osiander, Tubingen, 1835.
—The Life of Jesus, or A Critical Examination of His History, Taylor, Smallbrook, Birmingham, 1844.
—The Opinions of Professor David F. Strauss, as Embodied in His Letter, John Chapman, London, 1844.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
The Gospel According to Acharya S
http://stellarhousepublishing.com/gospel.htmlNow available from Stellar House Publishing!
The hard-copy paperback edition you can hold in your hands!
The Gospel According to Acharya S
"The most truthful piece of spiritual writing I've ever read!"
"I just read your essay titled, 'What is God?' and I'd like to tell you that I found it the most truthful piece of spiritual writing I have ever read. So concise, a real stimulation unhindered by myth, parable and occult symbolism."
Steve R., Australia
Prologue
When I first wrote these essays in the early 90s, those who read them thought they were revolutionary--and unpublishable. The publishing industry back then was such that if you did not have a publisher of significance-and there were relatively few--you could expect to sell a handful of copies and to remain obscure and unknown. Writers were at the mercy of overburdened editors and their massive slush piles. Once the internet became fairly popular, however, revolutionary writings such as these found a home, as did eventually also the world of small publishing using print-on-demand. The internet is the great equalizer, as self-published or small publisher books compete side by side with the big-name companies, and a controversial book like this one becomes a feasible project. What you are holding, therefore, is something that would have been difficult if not impossible to create and propagate just a couple of decades ago. In the future, with the push for censorship as concerns religious cults, such a book may again become nonviable, banned and burned. In this regard, read it while you can, before it is put on the Index of the next Inquisition!
What Is God?
Is God a giant man in the sky? Does God exist?
Belief in God
Is belief in God is righteous, or ignorance of truth?
Praising the Lord
Does God need to be praised? Does He need to be worshipped?
Egotists on Earth
Should spiritual leaders be worshipped? Is God the ultimate egotist?
Speaking for God
Does anyone speak for God? Who?
God's Word
Is the Bible God's Word? Is there a Holy Land?
On Being Religious
Is being religious righteous and moral?
On a Wing and a Prayer
Does prayer really work? What is prayer?
Born in Sin?
What is sin? Are we all born in sin?
Eternal Life for Everyone?
Are we all immortal? Is everyone God?
Holy Days
Are holidays really holy? Did God establish them? Are they set in stone?
The Origins of Good and Evil
What are the origins of good and evil? Is there a good god and an evil devil?
The Devil is Divine
Where did the Devil come from? Who created the Devil and evil? Was it God or man?
Prophecy or Blueprint?
Is the Bible a book of prophecy? Have biblical prophecies been fulfilled?
Is Cannibalism a Religious Experience?
"He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." Jesus Christ
What is a Cult?
Is a cult a religion? Is the Catholic Church a cult? Is the IRS?
Is God a Transsexual?
"God" was once "Goddess." Did He have a sex change?
Abusing Women is Not Religion
Is abusing women "religion?" Women the world over are beaten, tortured and killed in the name of religion.
A Question of Free Will
Do we have free will? Must we give our will to God? If we do, is it really "free?"
Celebration of Life
What is the purpose in life? Let us celebrate our existence.
A Truly Sacred Scripture
What is a "sacred scripture" or a "holy text?"
Epilogue
"The Gospel According to Acharya S has over 130 illustrations!"
"This 'Purple Bible' is the antidote to the world's insanity-producing 'holy scriptures!'"
Be sure to check out all the great excerpts below--and remember, the book is fully illustrated, with inline illustrations right next to the text!
At 204 pages, this 5x8 book is an easy read-and the perfect size for toting around.
"Grab your copy of the 'Purple Bible' today!
"Get your copy of The Gospel According to Acharya S through this site and receive a brand new, specially created ebook bonus free -
Acharya's Religion 101!"
"Yes, I want to order The Gospel According to Acharya S right now!"
(Be sure to check your mail/bulk/spam folders for a return receipt!)
Sorry - no Canadian/International Orders at this time!
International orders try: Barnes & Noble or Amazon
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Prologue
What is meant by "Gospel?"
Armageddon Sick of It!
An "Atheist" Here to Destroy?
What is God?
"God" is the Life Force
The Cosmic Mind
True Spirituality
"God" has No Form or Gender
The Ego, Consciousness and Enlightenment
Perceiving the Divine
GOD IS BORG-RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
Belief in God
Belief Proves Nothing - Truth Must Be Known
Belief Causes Turmoil
Praising the Lord
Is Kissing Arse a Religious Experience?
Is God a Megalomaniac?
God is a Murderous Tyrant!
God is a Deranged Crackpot
Enlightened Behavior
Egotists on Earth
Surrendering to the Master
Many "Masters" are but Egotists
Speaking for God
Omnipresence has No Spokespeople
Disagree, Go to Hell
Everybody Speaks for "God"
God's Word
Books are Written by MEN
Superior? Chosen? Arrogant! Conceited!
Is God a Jewish or Arab Man?
There are No "Chosen" People or "Superior" Races
On Being Religious
Do Pompous Pride and Religiosity Go Together?
Being a Zombie is Not a Religious Experience
On a Wing and a Prayer
Is Begging a Religious Experience?
Does God Like Begging?
We are Buddhas, Not Beggars
Oh Lord, Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz?
What is "True Prayer?"
Is God a Sadist?
Born in Sin?
The Sin of Adam
Sinners or Not?
Eternal Life for Everyone?
Divine Qualities are Not Restricted to the Divine
Join the Crowd-Everyone is God
Uncle Harry is Immortal!
Holy Days
Look to the Stars - "Religion" is Based on Astrotheology
The Origins of Good and Evil
Narrow Perceptions Represent Bigotry
True Wisdom can be Found Anywhere, Not Just in Some Old Book
"Religions" are Recycled Myths
Abraham is Brahma? Moses is Dionysus?
God and the Devil are One
"Evil" is Subjective
Horus and Set-Sound Familiar?
The Devil is Divine
The Origin of Evil
How Religions are Made
The Origin of the Words "Devil" and "Demon"
In God's Name-Not the Devil's
Prophecy or Blueprint?
The Bible
A Blueprint for Destruction
Israel - God Gets His Favorite Vacation Spot Back
Was Chernobyl a Can of Worms?
The Mark of the Beast & 666-an Evil Conspiracy?
Since When is Building a Building "Fulfillment of Prophecy?"
Peace on Earth Requires Clarity of Perception, Not Belief
Is Cannibalism a Religious Experience?
The Eucharist
Jewish Ritual Sacrifice
Cannibalism in the Bible
Murderous Rampages
Moral Behavior of God’s "Chosen"
The "Good" Patriarchs
What Does God Do with All the Foreskins?
The Good Book - Does it Produce Morality?
Is the New Testament Exempt from Moral Turpitude?
What is a Cult?
The Definition of Cult
Governmental Bodies Guilty of "Religious Veneration?"
The Catholic Church is More of a Cult than the Moonies
Mainstream Groups Use Cultlike Brainwashing Techniques
Isolate and Conquer
Rome Fiddles While the World Burns
"Cult" is Often Simply Name-Calling
Is God a Transsexual?
Believers are No More Religious than Nonbelievers
When God was a Woman
Nothing New Under the Sun
No Proof that "Great Spirit" is a Man
"Holy War" is Not Holy
THOU SHALT NOT KILL
Abusing Women is Not Religion
"Religions" Represent Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Torture
Burning Women is Not Sacred
Genital Mutilation is Not Holy
Ankles are a Sexual Turn-on?!
There is Nothing Religious About Depravity
"God" is Not a Man-Get It?!!
A Question of Free Will
Obey Your Masters!
Slaves of Allah
Is God Negligent?
Celebration of Life
When are Human Beings at Their Best?
Humans Can Be Radiant and Superb
A Truly Sacred Scripture
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
