Why are human beings so frequently prone to believing the unbelievable, trusting the improbable, being convinced by the very eccentricity of the impossible? As a species, we seem to want marvels and miracles more than facts. This might account for the almost assured success of nearly every would-be cult leader, no matter how bizarre his or her program may be. In fact, the wilder the better. The likes of Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell, Mary Baker Eddy, L. Ron Hubbard, and even the notorious Jim Jones readily attracted believers—as shown by such notable successes as Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, and Scientology. Jones's cult may have had a similar burgeoning if it had not unfortunately turned suicidal.
Religious assertions that would seem improbable even in the context of Grimm's fairy tales are confidently put forth as believable, and routinely labeled miraculous. The Catholic Church actually has a set agenda for identifying what it calls "genuine" miracles, which all Catholics are called upon to believe without doubting.
Doubt, in fact, is often described as an evil, whereas unquestioning credulity is the virtue known as "faith." Millions of literal Bible believers allow themselves to be convinced that a man can live for three days in the stomach of a whale, or that city walls can be knocked down by blowing a ram's horn, or that all humanity incestuously descended from a single pair, or that representatives of every animal species were once crammed into a boat built by a single man, either by twos or by sevens, depending on which chapter of Genesis you read. Oddly enough, when the same or similar stories are found in writings older than the bible, they are simply regarded as myths, and not believable.
But those who insist on obedience to bible literalism must be consistent enough to insist on some rather drastic behaviors. For instance, they must kill all homosexuals, witches, adulterers, non-virginal brides, all people who work on Sunday, and any family member who doesn't worship Yahweh. Jesus tells them that they may keep slaves, and even beat them (Luke 12). Jesus also tells them that a man wishing to be sure of getting into heaven must be not just circumcised but castrated; he must be made a eunuch "for the kingdom of heaven's sake" (Matthew 19).
Perhaps this particular promise comforted the thousands of castrati who sang the soprano parts in church choirs through the centuries, when the church ruled that female voices were too "impure" to be heard at mass.
However, by the fifth century the church had found Jesus's view of castration to be something less than popular, and so quietly ignored it. The third-century church father Origen, who had also advocated it, was posthumously excommunicated and his writings consigned to obscurity. It has been a consistent church policy to ignore any of Jesus's teachings that will not advance church welfare, such as the statement that it is easier for a camel to get through a needle's eye than for a rich man to get into heaven. Of course the church has flourished throughout the centuries precisely by promising blessed immortality to the rich.
Churches tell people what to believe. Saint Ignatius Loyola wrote: "We should always be disposed to believe that which appears white is really black, if the hierarchy of the Church so decides." If the belief happens to conflict with scripture, it's usually the text that gets sidelined, erased, or reinterpreted. Dubious attitudes toward church edicts are almost always regarded as wicked, due to devilish influence. To grant the doubters any credence at all is so devoutly feared by the devout that, throughout history, defenders of any faith have been notoriously prone to attack nonbelievers with wars, crusades, pogroms, rape, murder, pillage, torture and the stake.
The violence inspired by religion has exceeded all other forms of human violence. Indeed, every nation wishing to institute aggression against another nation has depended on religion to label the enemy an evil to be eradicated. Faith can always be trusted to inspire some humans to destroy large numbers of other humans.
What is sharia or Islamic law? Sharia law is followed by millions of people in Islam-dominant countries. Below are the popular elements of sharia law purportedly ordained by Islamic holy writings, including the Quran and sahih hadiths, as asserted by many Muslim authorities over the centuries. Although the law differs from one Muslim country to the next, many devout Muslims - they object to the word "radical" or "extremist" - concur with one or all of these elements as part of Islamic or sharia law and, ultimately, as the core of Islam itself. If you disagree with these Muslim spokespeople, please feel free to tell them that. You can find these devout Muslims discussing these subjects in the videos below.
Beheadings Stonings Hangings Crucifixions Honor killings Genocide Supremacy/global domination Warfare/conquest Beatings Torture Limb amputations Genital mutilation Death to apostates Forced conversion Slavery Sex slavery and rape Misogyny/sexism Women enslavement Wife beating Child marriage/rape Brutality against homosexuals Censorship Dictatorship Bigotry and hatred Robbery and pillage Extortion of nonbelievers Animal cruelty Prohibition of music/singing Destruction of pre-Islamic antiquities Etc., ad nauseam
Videos of Muslims on Sharia Law
Iraqi Muslim sheik: Raping women is okay in Islam
Kurdish Mullah: Female genital mutilation "is an obligation" in Islam
Muslim cleric: The man must hit his wife because women are stupid creatures
Muslim cleric: Allah honored wives with the punishment of beatings
Bahraini Muslim cleric: Rules for wife-beating
Kuwait Muslim woman: Muslim men need sex slaves, should capture Europeans
Muslim scholar: Homosexuals must be stoned
Kuwait Muslim scholar: Homosexuals must be killed
UK Muslim leader: Gays should be executed
Pakistani Muslim scholar: Islam is the only true religion, all others false
UK Muslim lawyer: Non-Muslims are not innocent
Saudi cleric: Any Muslim who refuses to pray is an infidel and must be killed
Saudi Muslim: Killing apostates a 'healthy belief'
Egyptian Muslim leader: Kill anyone who insults Mohammed, even if he repents
Muslim cleric: Mohammed had sex with a nine year old girl
Muslim cleric: Mohammed had sex with his 9-year-old "wife" Aisha
Muslim child brides want divorce
Muslim child preacher: Singing and Music are forbidden in Islam
Muslim cleric: Islam, Muslims will conquer the world
Egyptian Muslim cleric: Muslims will conquer Europe
Muslim commentator: We will commit jihad against all those who refuse Islam to spread on their soil
Muslim commentator: There is no "radical" Islam, just Islam
My forum mod's put together a post on the pagan parallels to the "life of Christ" constantly bandied about around the internet. In my book The Christ Conspiracy, published in 1999, I included several lists of parallels from the "lives" of various pagan gods and heroes. These parallels lists have been reproduced all over the place, and they tend to create apoplexy in the faithful and others ignorant of the research behind them. I updated these parallels lists in my revised article "Origins of Christianity," which you can find linked in the attached forum post.
I've stated that, based on Christian apologists' frantic behavior in "debunking" these various lists and parallels, this part of Jesus mythicism appears to be the "Achilles Heel" of Christianity, as it demonstrates that, rather than serving as "divine revelation," the faith is a rehash of the religious and mythological notions current and popular at the time of its creation.
Despite the hysterical "refutations" generally indicating ignorance of the subject, the parallels are real and not to be dismissed. And they do indeed expose Christianity as a remake of pre-Christian religion and mythology, as much of the rest of my forum, websites, articles, books, ebooks, videos and radio programs also demonstrate.
So, you really believe that a possible "Creator" of this enormous cosmos is obsessed with puny little human beings on a microscopic planet off to the side of one galaxy in a vast sea of universes? Note that the massive star in the image below, Antares - which so dwarfs OUR sun - is itself miniscule compared to the second largest known star, VV Cephei. Mind-blowing!
John Reardon comments:
"There is a galaxy they've discovered that is EIGHT HUNDRED MILLION LIGHT YEARS across! It is just one of an estimated ONE HUNDRED BILLION galaxies in the universe. Now, how's that for feeling small?"
The fact is that we are completely irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things. That means all of our holy books and other religious artifacts could disappear tomorrow, and the rest of the cosmos wouldn't feel the loss in the least.
Note to religious fanatics: Stop taking yourselves so seriously. You are a pitiful joke in the larger scheme of things. No god is concerned about whether or not you pray five times a day with your arses in the air, say the rosary a million times a day, or wear a funny hat or skullcap and so on. These are all simply trappings of your ego, not something the creator of such a vast cosmos could possibly care about in the least.
Above clockwise from left: 1. Scale of planets in the solar system (including Pluto), with Jupiter and Saturn dwarfing the others. 2. Our sun, "Sol," with Jupiter itself made miniscule. 3. Jupiter and Sol, followed by Sirius, Pollux and the massive Arcturus, which makes ou solar system look puny. 4. Finally, Arcturus itself (bottom row, third from the left) is dwarfed by Rigel, Aldebaran, Betelgeus and Antares.
Galaxy Song.
Whenever life gets you down, Mrs.Brown And things seem hard or tough And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft And you feel that you've had quite enough
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned A sun that is the source of all our power
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour Of the galaxy we call the 'milky way'
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars It's a hundred thousand light years side to side It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point We go 'round every two hundred million years And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions In this amazing and expanding universe
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding In all of the directions it can whizz As fast as it can go, the speed of light, you know Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure How amazingly unlikely is your birth And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth
This whistleblower rabbi's been battling against child sexual abuse within the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, which has been going on a long time. Naturally, the abusers are accusing HIM of wrongdoing such as being a "traitor." Notice how they don't blame THEMSELVES for their own evil behaviors.
Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg—who is 63 with a long, graying beard—recently sat down with me to explain what he described as a "child-rape assembly line" among sects of fundamentalist Jews. He cleared his throat. “I’m going to be graphic,” he said.
A member of Brooklyn’s Satmar Hasidim fundamentalist branch of Orthodox Judaism, Nuchem designs and repairs mikvahs in compliance with Torah Law. The mikvah is a ritual Jewish bathhouse used for purification. Devout Jews are required to cleanse themselves in the mikvah on a variety of occasions: women must visit following menstruation, and men have to make an appearance before the High Holidays such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Many of the devout also purify themselves before and after the act of sex, and before the Sabbath.
On a visit to Jerusalem in 2005, Rabbi Rosenberg entered into a mikvah in one of the holiest neighborhoods in the city, Mea She’arim. “I opened a door that entered into a schvitz,” he told me. “Vapors everywhere, I can barely see. My eyes adjust, and I see an old man, my age, long white beard, a holy-looking man, sitting in the vapors. On his lap, facing away from him, is a boy, maybe seven years old. And the old man is having anal sex with this boy.”...
Here the rabbi describes the scene and indicates the elderly child rapist was angry at him for catching in the act of a sin and hit Rosenberg in the face with a sponge on a stick for interrupting his rape of the little boy. Rosenberg states that he'd heard about such behaviors for a long time. The article continues:
The child sex abuse crisis in ultra-Orthodox Judaism, like that in the Catholic Church, has produced its share of shocking headlines in recent years. In New York, and in the prominent Orthodox communities of Israel and London, allegations of child molestation and rape have been rampant. The alleged abusers are schoolteachers, rabbis, fathers, uncles—figures of male authority. The victims, like those of Catholic priests, are mostly boys. Rabbi Rosenberg believes around half of young males in Brooklyn’s Hasidic community—the largest in the United States and one of the largest in the world—have been victims of sexual assault perpetrated by their elders. Ben Hirsch, director of Survivors for Justice, a Brooklyn organization that advocates for Orthodox sex abuse victims, thinks the real number is higher. “From anecdotal evidence, we’re looking at over 50 percent. It has almost become a rite of passage.”
Ultra-Orthodox Jews who speak out about these abuses are ruined and condemned to exile by their own community. Dr. Amy Neustein, a nonfundamentalist Orthodox Jewish sociologist and editor of Tempest in the Temple: Jewish Communities and Child Sex Scandals, told me the story of a series of Hasidic mothers in Brooklyn she got to know who complained that their children were being preyed on by their husbands.
In these cases, the accused men “very quickly and effectively engage the rabbis, the Orthodox politicians, and powerful Orthodox rabbis who donate handsomely to political clubs.” The goal, she told me, is “to excise the mother from the child’s life.” Rabbinical courts cast the mothers aside, and the effects are permanent. The mother is “amputated.” One woman befriended by Dr. Neustein, a music student at a college outside New York, lost contact with all six of her children, including an infant she was breastfeeding at the time of their separation.The child sex abuse crisis in ultra-Orthodox Judaism, like that in the Catholic Church, has produced its share of shocking headlines in recent years.... Seven years ago, Rabbi Rosenberg started blogging about sex abuse in his community and opened a New York City hotline to field sex abuse complaints. He has posted appeals on YouTube, appeared on CNN, and given speeches across the US, Canada, Israel, and Australia. Today, he is the lone whistleblower among the Satmar. For this he is reviled, slandered, hated, feared. He receives death threats on a regular basis....
I had a very good (deceased) friend who was raised an Ultra-Orthodox Jew, a female who endured sexist and misogynistic abuse, so I have some insider knowledge about the issues within this highly xenophobic (and inbred) community. This business about separating the mother from her child is EXACTLY what my Ultra-Orthodox friend told me. It's a major reason she fled the community. Her son was ripped from her arms and had his penis mutilated against her will. She said she knew that "they" were doing it in order to destroy the mother-child bond, as she felt like she had betrayed her baby by failing to protect him from harm.
Of course, Rosenberg's sordid tale doesn't end there, as there is more at the article, including the sad reality that this cult keeps its members ignorant about the outside world, displaying the worst form of xenophobia. In this way, the educated rabbis remain rich and powerful and prey on the less educated and impoverished members. For his honest endeavors in helping save children from this heinous abuse, which is estimated to affect at least half of all the boys in the community, Rosenberg has been abused widely, including having bleach thrown in his face, chemically burning it and temporarily blinding him.
Hopefully, the exposure of this disgraceful and shameful child rape/pedophilia will prove too embarrassing for this fanatical community, and its members will do something about it. However, the good rabbi is not very hopeful, since the closed ranks of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish child rapists remain powerful.
From temples to pyramids to statues, ancient techniques moved giant blocks.
The temple of Angkor Wat, the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, and the famous statues on Easter Island were all built without the conveniences of modern technology. Ancient peoples didn't have access to forklifts, hydraulic cranes, or flatbed trucks. So how did they build the temples and statues that we admire today?
In some cases, all they needed was rope, a little manpower, and some ingenious carving. Other construction projects required harnessing the seasons, people, and animals to transport stone blocks weighing many tons to construction sites.
A new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that ice roads lubricated with water enabled workers in 15th- and 16th-century China to slide stone blocks to Beijing in order to build palaces in the Forbidden City. (See "Beijing's Forbidden City Built on Ice Roads.")
Making nature work for them is a common theme in the techniques experts think ancient peoples used to build their monuments and temples.
"We forget that ancient people are just as smart as we are," said Terry Hunt, an archaeologist at the University of Oregon who studies the Polynesian culture of Easter Island. "In fact, they may have been better focused because they didn't have our distractions."
Here are some of the ingenious ways in which ancient workers hauled, slid, and walked the huge stone pieces needed for their big engineering projects from quarries to construction sites.
Easter Island Statues
Harnessing physics and gravity may help explain an enduring Polynesian myth about how the stone statues of Easter Island (map), otherwise known as moai, "walked" from the quarries to the coast.
Erecting stone statues is common in Polynesian cultures as a way of paying respects to the ancestors, said Carl Lipo, an archaeologist at California State University, Long Beach.
When Polynesians first arrived on Easter Island—or Rapa Nui—in the 1200s, they brought the practice with them. They carved and erected the moai pretty much from the time they arrived on the island until sometime between 1722, when Europeans first arrived, and 1774, said Lipo.
But how they managed to move statues carved from volcanic rock—weighing 5 to 80 tons (4.5 to 73 metric tonnes)—the 6 to 8 miles (10 to 12 kilometers) from a quarry to their resting places has been a contested subject for some time.
Theories range from simply dragging the moai to a display area, or ahu, to mounting them on a kind of sled and rolling them on tree trunks. (Watch a video demonstrating some of these theories.)
One hypothesis, put forth by noted researcher, author, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Jared Diamond, posits that Easter Island residents used a kind of "ladder" to help transport their statues....
Time and again, devotees prove that religious fanaticism causes sociopathic behaviors, including intense human-hatred, misogyny and violence. The hatred and bile with which religious fanatics attack those who question, critique or reject the ideology they follow are relentless and depraved.
This sociopathic behavior in defense of an unfeeling ideology often borders on and carries over into abject evil, with fanatics insulting, abusing and killing nonbelievers.
Such human-hating behavior in defense of ideology should not be tolerated and is a major motivator for those of us who criticize religious fanaticism in the first place. We will not live in fear of vicious and violent haters who value old books and invisible gods over real, living, breathing and feeling human beings and other creatures.
"We will not live in fear of vicious and violent haters who value old books and invisible gods over real, living, breathing and feeling human beings and other creatures."
This is really an amazingly beautiful story that I could watch over and over again. I love the little child's comments at the end. Oh yes, you must watch all the way to the end, or you will miss the most moving part of the tale.
UPDATE: Here is the link to Mythicist Milwaukee, where they've got the MP3 of my radio program online. Note that Alan worked as an attorney, so he has a unique style in "interrogating" his guests. Also, note that he chimes in quite a bit. Overall, it was a pleasant and interesting show, I think.
I will be doing a live radio program tonight, 10/27/13, for an hour beginning at 9PM EST/8PM CST/6PM PST/1 AM GMT. The program is hosted by Alan Eisenberg out of Milwaukee. We will be discussing the recent Facebook fracas, in terms of the issue of virginity testing.
Eisenberg is an old-time reporter, and he's surprised this isn't big news. While my FB account has been restored, the issue of virginity tests remains germane. The program will be available globally, streaming live, at:
The radio station itself reaches from the Milwaukee area to Chicago, but you can listen through the internet as well. The program will also be archived on the same site, if you miss it live.
UPDATE: Facebook has now reinstated my account! THANKS SO VERY MUCH TO FB AND ALL SUPPORTERS! Please ignore the petition, which will now be closed. This blog post will be left as a chronicle of the story.
UPDATE: Mythicist Milwaukee has created a post with my statement below on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MythicistMKE/posts/531727783586698 Please visit, like and share. Don't forget to use hashtags #AcharyaS and/or #DMMurdock in FB or Twitter posts about me, where possible.
Facebook has announced it will be allowing violent and graphic decapitation videos on its site, claiming that "raising awareness" of this violence will "help reduce it."
If such is the case, then allowing graphic photojournalism of an anthropological event, such as virginity testing of little girls in Africa, should have the same effect. Indeed, it was always my intent to raise awareness to this issue in order to help reduce it.
My FB banning stands, despite the thousands of petition signatures and emails to Facebook's admins and despite this interestingly timed news about the beheading videos. Their now clearly arbitrary censorship is illogical and offensive, frankly.
Facebook, please reinstate my account ASAP. You now have the testimony of hundreds of users that my FB page was highly valuable for the same social activism that you purport to be promoting with this new policy. The message now is that graphic VIOLENCE is okay, but graphic images of human bodies are not okay. I must also ask, since when does desensitizing people to such gore help reduce it? If that's the case, why not have violent video games in every classroom?
I'm reminded also of the New Yorker banning, dubbed "Nipplegate," in which cartoon nipples were deemed offensive. The powerful New Yorker account was reinstated - why not mine? Cartoon nipples and anthropological virginity testing are over-the-top offenses, but posting what amounts to "snuff films" is not? What if the beheading victims are nude?
I ask again, please give me my account back! I will abide by FB's rules, although I will not be posting decapitation videos at any time, regardless of whether or not they "help reduce violence."
Meanwhile, Facebook allows a horrible image of violence committed against women in the Congo, one of the most dangerous places on Earth to be a woman - I ask you, how is this FB page not in violation of the same TOS my profile purportedly was? WARNING: Gruesome images at the link below.
UPDATE: Facebook has now reinstated my account! THANKS SO VERY MUCH TO FB AND ALL SUPPORTERS! Please ignore the petition, which will now be closed. This blog post will be left as a chronicle of the story.
Upon investigation, we have determined that you are ineligible to use Facebook. You can view our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities at the following address:
Unfortunately, for safety and security reasons, we cannot provide additional information as to why your account was disabled. This decision is final.
Thanks for your understanding
The Facebook Team
So, they give me a huge list to go through and can't tell me why they've disabled my account, but it's apparently gone for good. Well, FB has just become impoverished greatly. I will be making my new home on Twitter, Tumblr and Google+, which I don't care for as much, but all that hard work is now down the drain. I also can be found regularly on my Superconsciousness Yahoo group, as well as here at my blog and on my forum.
My Facebook account has been permanently disabled because - I'm guessing here - I shared a photo of little African girls suffering a "virginity test." After I contacted Facebook, I received the following form response, in which, naturally, FB doesn't give the specific reason:
Hi,
Your account has been disabled because you violated the Facebook Terms.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to reactivate your account or respond to your email directly.
As we can see, there is no recourse, no ability to communicate, no consideration for the many years and thousands of posts I've made on FB, along with the several pages I created there, including my business pages for Stellar House Publishing and my books.
The (uncensored) photo I posted on Facebook is graphic, as it reveals what I consider to be the horrible TORTURE of little girls. It was published in the mainstream media, perhaps in 2009. I found the photo on Google Images, and include a blurred edition here - I don't want to lose my blog too! Since it was in the MSM, evidently published in a magazine, and since I am a lifelong scholar of anthropology, I considered the photojournalist image to be an anthropological news item, like those published in National Geographic for the past century. Apparently, by FB standards it was something else.
As we can see from the blurred edition to the right, the image is of a person with a row of little girls in front, lying on their backs with their lower bodies naked and legs spread, while she (?) feels around inside them to make sure their hymens are intact. These little half-naked girls are lying on the ground out in the open, in public, with others crowding around and also performing these tests. To me, such an act would an utter humiliation.
For exposing what I consider to be hideous, sexist child abuse, apparently, I'm banned from FB for LIFE.
"For exposing this sexist child abuse, apparently, I'm banned from Facebook for LIFE."
Just looking at this image, blurred or not, is so very upsetting to me. I cannot stress enough how this traumatizing tradition needs to be stopped! But now, instead of being part of the solution, Facebook's policies here are only helping to keep this misogynistic behavior alive.
The photo in question may have been taken in Zululand, South Africa, where such virginity tests have been performed for centuries, with some tribes defying a ban enacted years ago. Here are other photos apparently from the same magazine as the one with the little girls in it:
I felt pretty ridiculous blurring out their breasts, but apparently that's the direction we're going in now - is NatGeo is banned from Facebook too?
Malawi?
Another site with the first of the images above, "Virginity test in Malawi Africa," claims that this photographed ritual occurred on February 19, 2009 in Malawi, among a Christian congregation, as part of "initiation." Certainly, this ritual would be considered an "initiation," comparable to the circumcision of the boys. I object to both rituals, as they are harmful physically, mentally and emotionally.
Pleasing to the gods?
I found another version of the photo labeled with the site identification of Naijapals.com, which is a Nigerian movie site. Below is another image from that site.
Spiritualist who ply their trade in Lagos have warned that the state will experience another deluge of torrential rainfall and flooding of Biblical proportions unless 50 virgins can be found for a ritual to appease the gods.
I have many freethinking Nigerian supporters, and I see Nigeria as one of the places globally where the "light" can come in, so to speak. Let us hope that media suppression such as Facebook's behavior here does not end this budding African "Age of Enlightenment."
Why I posted the image
I posted the uncensored, shocking photo on Facebook because it is important to see the utter indignity these poor girls must suffer - this horrible abuse is now being done in the West. How can we battle it, if we can't see what it is? As we can see from this Google Images search, the photograph is still there - is Facebook going to ban Google Images as well?
An article about "Virginity Tests" on the website Stop Violence Against Women states:
"Researchers have found evidence that such tests increase violence against women, including those found to be virgins, as there is a widespread belief that men with HIV can be cured of their disease by having sexual intercourse with a virgin."
This abuse of girls can be found in many areas, including among Muslims and Christians in other countries. To reiterate, such virginity examination is now spreading to the West. In fact, I attached the apparent FB-offending photo to an article about the battle in Canada to put an end to this practice there: "'Degrading' virginity tests on women must stop, Quebec doctors’ group urges." In that article appeared the following quotes from Canadian medical authorities:
"The practise is outrageous, repugnant, irrelevant and unacceptable."
--Dr. Charles Bernard, president of the Collège des médecins
"It's a taboo practice, and it's hidden."
--Dr. Marie-Ève Bouthillier
And it will stay hidden, if Facebook disables accounts that are trying to draw attention to it. Please, Facebook Team, reconsider your decision and allow me to continue my important activist work at your site! If I understand correctly that my account was disabled because of TOS "nudity" violation, I apologize for my oversight and promise to be more careful in the future.
Reinstatement
I have a longstanding account on Facebook, with over 10,000 fans, friends and supporters across several pages. I would have hoped for the courtesy of a warning about the image, with its deletion, as happened when I posted an uncensored image of the FEMEN topless activist group - also an important news item that was photographed by the respected Getty archives and found on numerous websites. That image was deleted, and I received a warning. This time, nada. Just lifetime banning. If I understand correctly that my account was disabled because of TOS "nudity" violation, I apologize for my oversight and promise to be more careful in the future.
If you would like to see my FB account reinstated, please go onto Facebook and start a campaign about my profile: https://www.facebook.com/acharyas If you contact Facebook, please politely tell them that my account is important to you and that you want to see it reinstated. Perhaps a petition would be helpful, or contacting the media. Please include the hashtags #AcharyaS #DMMurdock in all posts on Facebook or Twitter about me and my work, so that you and others can network. Thank you.
I can only hope this whole sordid affair will bring more attention to a very serious and widespread issue that is degrading and humiliating girls and women globally.
"I can only hope this whole sordid affair will bring more attention to a very serious and widespread issue that is degrading and humiliating girls and women globally."
In reality, how about we ban this horrible and offensive practice, instead of the people who are exposing it?
If you watch the video above, "Please respect my religion!" you will see that it is part of my religion to expose heinous and abusive ideas, practices and traditions. My religious rights are now being violated by this censorship, which prevents me from bringing my daily work to a broader audience. My work is to make the world a better and safer place for innocents, including and especially children. I have now lost a major venue by which to do this work.
"The Unruh Civil Rights Act is a piece of California legislation that specifically outlaws discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, marital status, or sexual orientation. This law applies to all businesses such as hotels and motels, restaurants, theaters, hospitals, barber and beauty shops, housing accommodations, and retail establishments."
Any lawyers out there?
Commentary
Loads of great comments here and on the petition. I wish I could publish them all - here's one from Ophelia's blog:
Here are other great comments, from the petition page - there are loads more there:
??? So, violence against women is okay by Facebook, but female body parts and raising awareness about sexist abuse of little girls are not okay? Am I missing something here?
Meanwhile, Facebook allows a horrible image of violence committed against women in the Congo, one of the most dangerous places on Earth to be a woman - I ask you, how is this FB page not in violation of the same TOS my profile purportedly was? WARNING: Gruesome images at the link below.
What people are saying about Acharya S/D.M. Murdock
"Your scholarship is relentless! ...the research conducted by D.M. Murdock concerning the myth of Jesus Christ is certainly both valuable and worthy of consideration." —Dr. Kenneth L. Feder, Professor of Archaeology, Central Connecticut State University, Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience In Archaeology
"I find myself in full agreement with Acharya S/D.M. Murdock... I find it undeniable that...many, many of the epic heroes and ancient patriarchs and matriarchs of the Old Testament were personified stars, planets, and constellations..."—Dr. Robert M. Price, The Pre-Nicene New Testament
"I can recommend your work whole-heartedly!"—Dr. Robert Eisenman, James the Brother of Jesus and The New Testament Code, RobertEisenman.com
"Well-referenced, with numerous quotations from renowned Egyptologists and classical scholars, Acharya's penetrating research clearly lays out the very ancient pre-Christian basis of modern Christianity. Those who espouse Christianity beware! After digesting the evidence, you will never again view your religion in the same light." —Dr. Robert M. Schoch, Professor of Natural Science College of General Studies at Boston University; Author, Pyramid Quest, Voyages of the Pyramid Builders and Voices of the Rocks
"Acharya S deserves to be recognized as a leading researcher and an expert in the field of comparative mythology, on a par with James Frazer or Robert Graves—indeed, superior to those forerunners in the frankness of her conclusions and the volume of her evidence." —Barbara Walker, The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets and Man Made God
"I've known people with triple Ph.D's who haven't come close to the scholarship in Who Was Jesus?" —Pastor David Bruce, M.Div, North Park Seminary, Chicago, HollywoodJesus.com
"Thirty years ago, when in divinity school, I might have had second thoughts about becoming an Episcopal priest if a book like D. M. Murdock's Who Was Jesus? had been available to me." —Bob Semes, Retired university professor of History and Religion, Founder and Executive Director of The Jefferson Center
"In addition to presenting in Suns of God the troubling history of religious wars in an easily followed narrative, Acharya goes a step further, explaining as only she can how a once-simplistic idea has been carried into our modern world with terrible and nearly unimaginable results." —Rev. Dr. W. Sumner Davis, Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society; Member, American Geophysical Union; Affiliate, New York Academy of Science
"Ms. Murdock is one of only a tiny number of scholars with the richly diverse academic background (and the necessary courage) to adequately address the question of whether Jesus Christ truly existed as a walking-talking figure in first-century Palestine." —David Mills, Atheist Universe
"Thank you, Acharya, for the important work you are doing. Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of the Christ just might be the best short introduction to Biblical scholarship yet." —David Bergland, 1984 Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate, Libertarianism In One Lesson
"...I have found her scholarship, research, knowledge of the original languages, and creative linkages to be breathtaking and highly stimulating." —Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham, Pastor, Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX
"Acharya S has done a superb job in bringing together the rich panoply of ancient world mythology and culture, and presenting it in a comprehensive and compelling fashion." —Earl Doherty, The Jesus Puzzle
"Acharya S is a shining light of truth in a sea of deceit."—Rob McConnell, X Zone Radio/TV, Ontario, Canada
"The Christ Conspiracy—very, very scholarly and wholly researched—is a book for today..." Rev. B. Strauss, ex-Catholic Priest, Chicago, IL
"Amidst the global chaos of George Bush's War on Terror, largely founded on religious intolerance and simplistic notions of good and evil, Acharya S is the voice of reason." —Joan D'Arc, Paranoia
"D.M. Murdock could well be the most brilliant, insightful and rigorous theologian writing today." —Robert Tulip
"Acharya S is the ranking religious philosopher of our era." —John K.
"Acharya S/Murdock deserves an award for her hard work and courage. She is the Galileo of our day!"—Charles Johnson
"Acharya S knows more about the ancient Mysteries than any living scholar." —Christopher Knowles
"Acharya S is an amazing researcher with a tremendous amount of energy and appetite for constant discovery of newer horizons. " —Dr. O.P. Sudrania
"Acharya Murdock's work is so important, so clear and so timely!" —Theresa Weiss, PowerPlaces.com
"I am Hindu, and I read the Bhaagavatham in which the life of Krishna is detailed. I also read your works, and I endorse you. Keep up the good work." —Murali Chemuturi
Excerpted from the essay/ebook:
Cool! Now, if you would like to know the MYTHOLOGY that accompanies such ruins, you'll want to have 
