Freethought Nation

"I can understand why Ehrman would want to respond to the best material from the mythicist movement. If you're going to write a book critiquing a point of view, you ought to respond to its best defenders. I have mixed feelings about it, though, because although D.M. Murdock (aka Acharya) how been shown by many people (even Robert Price) to be utterly incompetent, she has nevertheless been very influential among internet mythicists where most of the movement is taking place. These are the people who need responses. They're reading people like D.M. Murdock and watching films like Zeitgeist and being convinced by it."

Re Freke and Gandy, you may have seen Neil Godfrey's recent commentary at http://vridar.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/ ... flections/

Robert M. Price says:
"I once pointed out some difficulties in Acharya's first book, but she has progressed very far and most impressively in the decade since then. I can only admire her indefatigable and amazingly thorough research. Her books are filled with otherwise neglected important information. I tried my best to have her included in the one-time Jesus Project, but to no avail. If the JP is ever revived, and if I have anything to say about it, she is in like flint."

Robert M. Price

MW says:
"Amen. It seems Ehrdman and his supporters are afraid to tackle and deal with her actual research and information. Instead they slander her and call her incompetent or unqualified as if that is all to be said and settles it. It doesn't."

MW says:
"Here is a quote from another review of yours, "Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a fundamentalist." That explains a lot! But I have more to say:

I find your comments about Acharya S to be horribly insulting and slanderous. She is far from incompetent. Nobody has "shown this." You are full of it. I find Ehrman's and your own comments about mythicists to be incredibly close minded and arrogant. Their case against the literal existence of Jesus is hardly irrelevant. Ehrman has been proved wrong about everything he has said about D.M. Murdock's work and others yet the character assassination of her still goes on. His, yours, and other's defamation is sickening to me. This woman KNOWS what she is talking about and is NOT incompetent nor has anyone proved she is. To say so is a lie. She must really pose a threat to Ehrman and his supporters because he and others have gone out of their way to slander her. Have you even bothered to read anything she has written? Are you, Ehrman, and others afraid of her extremely well researched books being read at all? I suspect there is also some misogyny involved. It is very dishonest to dismiss someone when you really aren't familiar with their work at all. What is even worse is to spread lies which in fact has been done and is still being done. I have read works by authors from both sides of this issue not just hers alone. It sickens me how low members of the academic status quo will go when they feel they feel threatened because their arguments simply will not hold up under the proper scrutiny. Some of your comments are outright malicious as has those of the egotistical Ehrman. To slander and spread lies is not cool.

I hope Ms. Murdock will not mind me quoting her here. If so, I will delete this portion of my comment. It's just that she can express herself, her ideas, and defend herself much better than I can. I have nothing but the up most respect for this woman unlike Ehrman. yourself, and other detractors.

"What I demonstrate through thousands of pages put together over a period of almost 17 years online is simple:

The "Jesus Christ" of the New Testament is a fictional composite of characters, real and historical. A composite of multiple people is no one. When the mythological and midrashic layers are removed, there remains no "historical" core to the onion.

The "kernel" you are looking for - the nonexistent "historical" core to the onion - is a handful of sayings that are part of a genre called "Logia Iesou" or "Logia Kuriakou." These "Sayings of Jesus" existed BEFORE the common era and are attributable to many individuals. If we are to hang the gospel story on a handful of pre-existent sayings, we are in some slippery territory indeed. What percentage, then, of the gospel story is supposedly based on a "historical" figure? 10%? How is that stripped figure of relative nothingness a "real person?" As I have demonstrated in my books, practically the entire story can be explained by the stringing together of Old Testament scriptures, Pagan mythological motifs and pre-existent sayings that are part of an ancient genre of "logia."

I maintain that there remains nothing "historical" under these layers. That's not an "obsession," that's a position based on ALL the evidence and facts, in multiple languages from antiquity into the modern era, which I have spent countless hours bringing to the forefront, despite the constant calumny and misrepresentations of my work."

D. Martin says:
"Sam...I take strong issue with your comments about DM Murdock. She is so "influential" because she is familiar IN DEPTH with scholarship from a variety of disciplines, and she articulates well a very logical and coherent argument for the mythicist position. She has published numerous responses and refutations to Ehrman's nonsense as well as others...but my suspicion is that you have not read her at all. Direct question: have you read any of her published works? Your honest answer must be: NO. And I know why...you are arrogant elitist who is in the same boat as Ehrman as a "credentialist." I hold an advanced degree in biblical studies and theology from Emory University/Candler School of Theology. A very reputable academic institution. I was a biblical expositor for over 25 years. I can assure you that the so-called "discipline" of biblical studies is NOT scientific, it is parochial and "a scholarship of convenience" just as Ehrman accuses mythicists of being. EVERY theory of NT epistemology is based on what can only be truthfully called conjecture...there are no original source documents, no extra-biblical proof of the existence of any NT authors (even Paul's authorship is questioned)...well, if you are an honest person, you know this. The ONLY way people like Ehrman can attack or criticize DM Murdock (or Carrier or Price) is to insult them, call them "uncredentialed" or "scholars of convenience"...and not actually deal with the actual research. You make an intersting statement..."Whenever a mythicist comes across a source that goes against their position, they claim it is an interpolation." I could make that same argument about Ehrman and other "credentialed" NT scholars. NT "scholarship" is only considered such by those already within the Christian tent. It does not merit academic respect. The only people who will claim that mythicism is not a valid interpretation of Christian religion are those who are Christian, and don't want their religion questioned. So...all of us dumb asses out here in internet world, where Acharya has such influence...well, to us you guys look like monkeys in a cage. But, we are not "credentialed" to be able to have an opinion, apparently. KMA! "

M. Sexton says:
"Do not believe the negative reviews you have read about DM Murdock. A.k.a. (Acharya S.). Her work is not utterly incompetent, as posted by Bart Ehrman and Mr. Haper. Almost everything Bart Ehrman has criticized about her work is completely wrong and she has been able to show that Bart Ehrman is wrong. This is what happens when someone has pretended to have studied DM Murdocks work. She is the most positive, and influential person on these issues. This negative review on her work is completely WRONG and anyone who believes it is really missing out on her great work. I've been following her work for for a few years now. She and her work has always been able to debunk any negative reviews , if you take the chance to read her work and not take someone's uneducated guess about her work. If you take the chance and read her work, you will then know, she is the one who is correct on these issues. I recommend studying up on ANY issue you question about her work, due to someone's negative reviews. You will find out who is right. I guarantee it. "

Deirdre Simone says:
"Mr. Harper, I don't seem to have the ability you have to know whether a book is worth reading by, as you put it, "...it smelled good". But I will use the old saying: "I smell a rat" to refer to your pathological unwarranted vicious attack on DM Murdoch/Acharya S. You doth protest too much. I suggest you go to her website TRUTHBEKNOWN.COM, if you don't want to read her monumentally researched books, and you will see for yourself how she surpasses any religious "scholars" reasearch in historical Jesus studies. It is time to look elsewhere, outside the New Testament, with its "frauds", "forgeries" and "misquotes" as Bart Ehrman discovered himself, to find the real or mythical Jesus. And that's where DM Murdoch/Acharya S goes, and to me, finds the truth. At first it was hard for me to believe a non-existent Jesus, but in my graduate studies in psychology I learned of something called "a paradigm shift" , it is a mental shift in the brain that breaks the grip of long-held beliefs that have been proven wrong. An example would be when humanity accepted that the earth was round and not flat. Ironically, it was Ehrman's books about the gospels inconsistencies that led me to read Acharya's CHRIST CONSPIRACY--which fortunately resulted in my own paradigm shift. My mind is free of dogma now and my free thoughts can easily pick out frauds and fools...and Murdoch is NOT one of them. "

Best reason to buy the book so far: "it smells good"

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2YGU2QGLPVQ3I/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0062204602&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=

Here's just one example of the utter incompetence of Dr. Bart Errorman: The phallic 'Savior of the World' hidden in the Vatican

Maybe someone would post the above with the links as a comment to that review?

Bronze sculpture hidden in the Vatican treasury of the Cock, symbol of St. Peter.

It just dawned on me that the universally hated subject of grammar and sentence structure is what went wrong here. I was an ace at this in elementary school, but still wondered how it would ever affect my life. Now I know how it could!



What is the subject of the sentence: Bronze sculpture (of the Cock)
What is the predicate: hidden in the Vatican treasury, symbol of St. Peter