Following is a great quote from the Barbara G. Walker's new book Man Made God (151).
Barbara's summary here pretty much says it all. It's really that simple. All the fussing and personal attacks still haven't changed that fact.
...And according to Acts 4:13, the apostles were all "unlearned and ignorant men" who could not have been responsible for writing the gospels or anything else. Therefore those who put apostles' names to their gospel writings were forgers, and all the gospels are essentially fakes.
The truth is that the gospels are not reliable "historical" accounts to tell us what Jesus was—or even if he was. But it is fairly clear that he was connected with the myths of pagan saviors, who were mostly nature deities, representing the eternal cycles of life and death. In this respect their myths might point toward an updated religion more firmly founded on the realities of our world.
Once the Jesus myth is more widely understood as a composite relic of a credulous past, we may be able to go forward toward a more satisfying set of spiritual hopes and insights, and leave behind the simplistic magics of a less enlightened people. We have "modernized" nearly every other aspect of our Western culture. Perhaps it is time to modernize its religion into a form that enlightenment may embrace without insulting its own intelligence....
For more excerpts from this amazing book, see Man Made God.
Comments (30)
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|2010-03-30 11:19:01 AmyOK, when will I be able to buy it? I have not been this excited about a book in a long time.
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Once the people realize that bible is fictional book and all the characters in that book are fictional, then maybe stop killing each others.
Then again, I would not bet on it as this planet it is savage planet.
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|2010-03-30 16:08:23 John Reardon - Simple, really...Yes, it all seems so simple. So simple, in fact, one must surely wonder why we have not left these myths behind long ago. Let's face it, no one today worries what Thor thinks, or cringes at the might of Zeus. No one pays the least attention to the musings of Horus. So why the attraction to this other desert deity? It is just amazing to me the power of brainwashing.
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|2010-03-30 18:50:20 Acharya SYes, John, it's made that simple sense to me for a long time.
And still the personal attacks come in fast and furious.
These are cultists who will say and do anything to suck us into their cultic beliefs.
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|2010-03-31 16:15:17 Jeff HansenAcharya, have you collaborated any with her on this issue? There's some potential synergy in any project involving the two of you.
I ordered her "encyclopedia" for a friend for a decent price, assuming that it would be a cute little book we could read thru in a day. The online pictures were misleading. It was huge.
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|2010-03-31 22:28:21 Acharya SHi Jeff -
Not independently of this book, but I did tighten up some language and add many citations concerning this particular subject in her book.
As I do with my own works, I put my all into this one - even more so in some ways, since I've included 120 illustrations in this one, second only to The Gospel.
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|2010-03-31 17:25:56 Rev. Reggie - The Jesus MythI would have probably agreed with you many years ago; however, when I gave my life to Jesus , I stopped smoking pot and I stopped whoring around with women and I stopped drinking and being a black militant. So I will have to strongly disagree with you guys. Plus; Gods Spirit came into my life and changed me almost overnight. I became a new person of love and goodness and I have been with Him for almost 36 years now. And He talks to me almost single day and He has blessed me so much that I cannot and will not deny such a good personal God that answers my prayers and takes good care of me and my family!!
And I also know that once I did; my spirit will come out of my dead body and I will shoot straight up to heaven (after I have visited my wife and mother and be with them for a little while in their bereavements) and enjoy my wonderful new home that is made of gold and silver and very precious stones and linen!!
So if you want to go ahead and deny the existence of God; it will be extremely detrimential for your eternal soul !!
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|2010-03-31 17:46:58 Acharya SThat's very nice for you. Alas, such anecdotes do not prove that the god of the cosmos came to Earth 2,000 years ago through the womb of a young virgin girl, healed the blind and raised the dead, walked on water, transfigured on a mount, raised himself from the dead and flew off into heaven.
For many thousands of years, millions of human beings have had similar healing experiences with a huge variety of entities, including tree and water spirits. There were many who swore by the healing power of Isis, for example, among many others, including a number of Hindu gods to this day. Yours simply has another face.
Again, it does not prove that this supernatural tale actually happened on Earth.
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|2010-03-31 23:21:18 HectorOne thing that has really puzzled me for a while is why do African Americans look up to the bible with such high esteem.
This is just a hypothesis and maybe others will agree.
The myth of Noah cursing his son Ham with dark skin was probably the inspiration for African slavery/racism.
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|2010-04-01 01:17:33 JH Chrestos - Take the faith challengeAre you sure you gave up the ganja? To know something it must actually be true. Truth is what the evidence says it is. All the evidence says that jesus most likely never existed. It only takes life in reality to understand that invisible jewish zombies aren't real, never were real, never will be real no matter how mentally sick you are or will become. I challenge your faith right here and now. Find a lake or pond. Say the following "god let me walk on this water, I have faith that you will come through because you are oh so big." Then take a step out onto the water. Let me know how that works out for ya.
Btw there is no hell either.
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With all due respect Rev. Reggie, as the Wizard told the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion (also mythological beings) - you had that ability within you all along. What you lacked was belief in yourself and your own abilities.
Social and economic pressures, as well as a literal belief in the Bible's inherent message, that we are worthless without the acceptance of a mythological creator, can easily lead us to internalize the mistaken belief that without outside help from someone stronger than ourselves, we are helpless to change our lives.
Churches and TV Evangelists fill their coffers and line their pockets with the money of those who lack the confidence to believe in themselves, and would prefer that they remain that way.
I'm pleased you have replaced what must have been a chaotic lifestyle with one of greater tranquility and peace of mind - my only regret is that you felt you needed a mythological, magical being to achieve that transcended state.
Someone once said, "Two hands working are worth a thousand clasped in prayer."
pax vobiscum
archaeopteryx
in-His-own-image.com
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|2010-04-01 00:44:59 Anonymous - idkyou know what idk but u guys are soooooo crazy to dis respect your meker like this it infuriates me. The bible is real and a true story. you guys must not have a life to just sit at the computer all day and critisise other religions like that. there is proof jesus is real and the real masiah. look it up.And someday when you bow at the feet of THE REAL GOD you just remeber that you were worned of whats coming you that if you dont believe it you will spend eternal life in HELL.
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|2010-04-01 03:41:54 Acharya S"The bible is real and a true story."
That is what you have been told, but you do not know that for a fact, and there is absolutely no proof for such a claim. In fact, it has already been proved many times over that much of the Bible is a myth.
Knowing these important facts - which have been kept from humanity for some 2,000 years - is crucial to the evolution of mankind. Hundreds of millions of people have been mentally enslaved and murdered by this erroneous ideology.
Sitting around at your computer complaining about people bringing forth enlightening and vitally important facts from the mists of history is truly a waste of time, in my opinion.
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|2010-04-01 11:50:21 tarish kaushik - truth, myth and all that jazz!I think that there is new GOD now which all living beings can bow down to and thank everyday. This is the WORLD WIDE WEB of internet users who connect and scrutinize and examine and expose the truth a little bit everytime with logic, science, and nature and humaneness and the touchstone of cross examination.
Never again will the truth be hidden by narrow minded coteries of power brokers in religion, and governance, as has been the case for the two thousand years of desert cults of 'jeeeeeesooooos' and 'moremad'.
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I know this is probably futile but you do realize you're using the authority of the bible to disprove the authority bible?
According to Acts the Apostles were all unlearned and ignorant men. Okay, Acts was written by Luke, the same Luke who wrote the gospel of Luke. So if you accept Luke's writings as valid, then you also accept Luke's gospel as valid. if you do not accept Luke's gospel as valid, then why do you accept the Book of Acts as valid?
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|2010-04-02 03:34:16 Acharya SNot at all. The point is that, while it is pretended that the authors of the gospels were the apostles, who often wrote eloquent and educated Greek, the gospel tale has them as ignorant oafs. Hence, there is a discrepancy, as both cannot be true.
Since the Bible is clearly a composite work from a school, and since even the Bible asserts the apostles were illiterate ignoramuses, it can be stated with a tremendous amount of certainty that the gospels were not written by those whom it is pretended.
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It may be important to note that Luke was a physician, thus a rather well educated man. He was also not one of the original 12 apostles. Paul, while not a writer of a gospel was extremely well educated.
You're also presuming that people who were once ignoramuses can never be anything but. It's never too late to learn to read? Or find access to a scribe? (Luke, Paul, some other convert who can write?) Nah, that's impossible.
Also, (in your scenario) why would the authors of the gospels portray their religious heroes as idiots?
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|2010-04-02 18:30:57 Acharya SI am well aware that the author of Luke-Acts is an educated person - and that's the whole point. Who is Luke? He's not mentioned in the gospels at all. In fact, the evidence - such as the Lukan prologue - points to him not having been anywhere near the events in question.
If you would like to read more about the Lukan prologue, please see Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ
Quote:Also, (in your scenario) why would the authors of the gospels portray their religious heroes as idiots?
Acts doesn't even show up in the literary/historical record until the end of the second century, so its author was probably building on the idiocy the apostles display in the gospels and Christian tradition of that century.
You're going to seriously suggest that these country bumpkin dunderheads learned fluent Greek late in life? I guess that fits right in with the supernatural claim of the Holy Ghost being the true author!
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I see what you're saying, Matt, and you're right - if using the Bible to prove the Bible is circular reasoning, so must be using the Bible to disprove the Bible, but I'm afraid that's as far as my agreement can extend.
Who was Luke? Was he an Apostle? No, he was a Syrian, who by the geographical errors found in the Acts, can be reasonably assumed to never have set foot in what is now Israel, and certainly did not live in the days ascribed to the times of Jesus (his Greek name) or Yeshua (his actual, Jewish name).
His two works, "The Gospel According to Luke" and "The Acts of the Apostles," were written together and presumably intended by the author to be published together, but the "Luke" gospel was so nearly identical to the gospels of "Matthew" and "Mark," that the three were lumped together at the beginning of the New Testament.
These become known as the synoptic gospels - "syn" = "alike" and "optic" = "looks" - in other words, the three gospels looked alike, and for good reason - all three were copied from the same source, an anonymous source about whom little is known, that has come to be called, by scholars of the Bible, simply "Q".
"Mark," whoever he was, wrote his, first, copying directly from the "Q" document.
Then "Matthew" - the Greek name for "Levi," the tax collector, who WAS listed as an apostle of Jesus (and likely the only one of the twelve who could read or write), copied his directly from "Mark," which tells us that the REAL Levi didn't actually write "Matthew," since the real Matthew, having been there, would have written from his own point of view and would have had no need to copy "Mark".
Lastly, "Luke" copied his, using both "Mark" and "Q" as his sources. All three of these were written nearly a hundred years after the date alleged to be the date of Yeshua's birth.
Haven't you ever wondered why, in the first three gospels, Yeshua is seen recruiting disciples from fishing boats (Peter, Andrew, James and John), promising to make them "fishers of men," while in the fourth gospel, purportedly written by "John," brother of James and one of those supposedly recruited from a fishing boat, telling us, no, that's not the way it happened at all - we were all four disciples of John, the Baptist, looked across the river, saw Yeshua, talked with him overnight, and decided to leave John and join him?
Scholars can also confirm that the actual "James" didn't write the Gospel of James either, but at least the author, whoever he may have been, was a lot more original than the first three.
pax vobiscum,
archaeopteryx
in-His-own-image.com
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|2010-04-06 13:52:23 Ella StreetThat's the beauty of the gospel. The world expected God's son to come as a King, lavished in riches, instead God sent a servant. The apostles were skilled workers but not from the expected "upper class." Satan loves to use this argument to dismiss the possibility that God can change men! However, God reveals himself to his own. Maybe that's why you can't understand his ways. Get close to him and he will reveal himself! I have had personal experiences that mere words cannot express other than to say they were supernatural. But then again, the world cannot comprehend what heaven holds true.
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"That's the beauty of the gospel. The world expected God's son to come as a King, lavished in riches, instead God sent a servant."
You're absolutely right, Ella - that is indeed the beauty of the gospel! It's an incredible story, of a god who loved his creations so much that he sent his son, half-Man, half-god, to live among them, to see what they saw and feel what they felt, and to face fear and death as each of them ultimately must - but not just a passive, passing-out-of life, but a cruel, tortured, ignominious death, far more horrible than most of us will ever have to face.
And that's exactly why the story has lasted as long as it has.
But first, let me tell you another beautiful story. Early in the history of this country (the USA) little George Washington was given a hatchet as a birthday gift. He, sadly chose to use his new gift to chop down one of his father's prize cherry trees. Mr. Washington, realizing the culprit could only have been his son, asked little George if he knew who did it. Little George said, "Father, I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet."
I read this story, as a child, in my elementary school history book. It was later determined that the story was pure fabrication, concocted by Reverend Mason Locke Weems, who in addition being a self-appointed itinerate preacher, had also been a sailor, a medical student, an accomplished player of the fiddle, author, and a seller of Bibles. Ironically, it seems that the good Reverend Weems concocted the lie to teach his Sunday School class of innocent little boys and girls, the value of always telling the truth.
Historian Karal Ann Marling wrote of a woman she had interviewed, who maintained she had memorized Weems story in it's entirety, from childhood, who told Marling, "If the tale isn't true, it should be. It is too pretty to be classified with the myths."
And that, Ella, is largely why the concept of Jesus is still with us today - if it isn't true, it should be - it's too pretty to be classified with the myths."
Unfortunately Ella, its beauty doesn't make it true.
pax vobiscum
archaeopteryx
in-His-own-image.com
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|2010-04-10 14:03:40 JeffreyHi Acharya,
I'm very interested in your research and over easter there have been several 'Jesus' documentaries (about the "missing years: 12 - 30" and the "Trial of Jesus"
and during that first documentary everything seemed so speculative and all they could say about him comes from the gospels (which are religious, and not historical documents, that were written several decades after the supposed death of Jesus by people who were not eyewitnesses) and the second documentary was also speculation about why he was arrested and who sent him to death (I was wondering why jews get so much blame for killing another jew, jesus, when it was Pontius Pilate who authorised his death it seems).
I've never been indoctrinated with religion (I consider myself atheist) and have always figured Jesus was simply a purely "religious" figure like a Zeus or Dionysis so I'm very interested in reading your book(s) and investigating the origins of not just christianity but the other abrahamic faiths (the fact that people any developed countries today can still accept the supernatural claims of religious texts just intrigues me).
Thanks.
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|2010-04-10 16:36:45 JeffreyI also wanted to ask, if there is basically no non religious evidence for a historical Jesus then why hasn't the purely mythological concept of Jesus been accepted by mainstream academia yet?
Is it simply because historians have too much "respect" for contemporary religious belief and are afraid to dig too deep or be too honest out of fear of offending christians?
Thanks!
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|2010-04-10 20:12:15 FTLQuote:Jeffrey "I also wanted to ask, if there is basically no non religious evidence for a historical Jesus then why hasn't the purely mythological concept of Jesus been accepted by mainstream academia yet?
Is it simply because historians have too much "respect" for contemporary religious belief and are afraid to dig too deep or be too honest out of fear of offending christians?"
Give these forum threads a good going over:
The Evemerist vs. Mythicist Position
Religion and the PhD: A Brief History
"Professional NT Historian is taking on the mythicists"
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|2010-04-16 13:31:34 chuk
i'll just CHUK this in......the loving gospels have produced wars and intolerance for centuries...making the rich richer and the poor poorer ! God does what ? doesn't even blink an eyelid while we squirm and suffer ? don't even hear him breathing ! i think your deluded to believe in something so intangible .anything that you do for you or your family , only gets done if you move your ass ...give your money to the church and your wife should slap you silly !
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|2010-05-31 21:50:16 Twilly - re: Rev Reggie, RE: "Gods Spirit came into myarchaeopteryx wrote:Social and economic pressures, as well as a literal belief in the Bible's inherent message, that we are worthless without the acceptance of a mythological creator, can easily lead us to internalize the mistaken belief that without outside help from someone stronger than ourselves, we are helpless to change our lives.
Not only that, but once you accept a mythological creator, you are expected to prove your worthiness by repeatedly begging for forgiveness. Classic mass mind control.
archaeopteryx wrote:Churches and TV Evangelists fill their coffers and line their pockets with the money of those who lack the confidence to believe in themselves, and would prefer that they remain that way.
And, because they secretly know jesus is a myth, it makes them even more despicable. Talk about thieves in the temple, LOL!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqPgkCEYXPU
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|2011-03-24 23:51:53 PixThe four gospels in the bible are anonymous. They have no idea who actually wrote them. They are just called Mathew Mark Luke and John.
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|2011-04-29 19:06:31 john - Encounters . legitimate real time experience withIntellectuals . Nothing wrong with intelligence [great or small] , but so many of the people in this string will only have the question of Gods realness answered in only 2 possible ways . Intense study with an open mind to the possibility the bible is legit , an so hear an examine the voices of people who have come to faith thru intense study an honestly looking at their findings . Or #2 An encounter with the living God of the bible . This last one is really what it's all about . For some of you guys out there , #1 will only take you so far , an so without the encounter of Gods presence you won't ever know . Take it seriously , if there is a God , it's the most incredible relation to enter into . Don't be timid , dive in , what have you got to lose .
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|2011-10-26 18:59:10 tarish kaushik - Re:what have you got to lose ?Dear Acharya,
I once had put up a funny poster on my clothes cabinet in my bedroom, I was in my early twenties, studying, goofing, playing a lot of sports, and sleeping off much too.
That poster read: " OF ALL THE THINGS I'VE LOST,.... I MISS MY MIND THE MOST".
Funny poster and caricature of a man without his thinking in tune with reality, nevertheless, it reminded me to be to be grounded.
Now, twenty five plus years later, I am struck with the aptness of the poster message to the blind followers of religious man-made dogma. All I can say is that belief in the delusionist Abrahamic desert cults of Jerusalem and Mecca fame leads one to lose one's critical thinking faculties.
The sympathetic non-believer onlooker will immediately realize the tremendous loss of mind which any deluded cult follower faces.
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