My friend Minas Papageorgiou has passed along the news of his "Mythicism Conference" held in Athens, Greece. Looks like it was a great success. Congrats, Minas, and keep up the good work - μια χαρά!
Be sure to read my interview with Minas as well!
Mythicism event in Greece
by Minas Papageorgiou
This is a short reportage from the first Mythicism event here in Greece which took part on January 23, 2010, here in Athens.
The "Ektativolos" hall quickly got crowded yesterday by people gathered to hear the speech about the "Problem of the historic existence of Jesus/The problem of the true history of Jesus". The 70-80 seats did not prove to be enough for the number of attendants, so some of them had to stay stand during the whole event.
They all gathered to take part in the first speech organised in our country about a subject currently being characterised as "hot potato" throughout Europe and America - a conclusion easily reached if someone takes into account the number of books published, conventions held and television and radio shows being broadcast yearly about the same subject around the world.
During the first part of the event, Minas Papeorgiou and Tasos Xalios stood behind the podium and introduced and analysed the subject through 4 distinct presentations:
1) Introduction to the subject of the "Problem of the historic existence of Jesus/The problem of the true history of Jesus" and why the research around this field is especially important today. (by Tasos Chalios)
2) A travel back in time, from 1780 up to today, through a presentation about the works and throughts of top apademics, scientists and theologists who doupted the historical Jesus. (by Minas Papageorgiou) Minas Papageorgiou also made a thorough presentation on the works of modern writers such as Acharya (D.M Murdock), Robert Price, Kenneth Humphreys, Earl Doherty, Frascesco Carotta, Lena Einhorn etc.
3) The quest for the Historical Jesus: Search for testimonies and references to Jesus during the first post-Christianic years. Notes on the forgery of epistles and bible passages by the first christian apologists concerning the historical presence of Jesus on earth. Archetipes and archetypal elements of Pagan legends found in the Jesus as described in the Gospels.
Comparison of Jesus as presented by Paul against the Jesus as presented in the Gospels. A walkthrough on the artistic representation of Jesus throughout time. How the Gregorian - B.C. and A.C. - calendar system affects our perception regarding to the historical Jesus (by Minas Papageorgiou)
4) Objects used by the Christians in order to certify the historic existence of Jesus. Stories about the Mandilion,the Holy Cross, the Holy Grail, the Shroud of Turino etc. (by Tasos Chalios)
During the second part of the event the attendants had the chance to watch "The God who wasn't there" on Greek subtitles. A documentary presented to the greek audience for the first time.
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|2010-06-26 21:46:51 KCinLA - Minor typo "23th" - Should be "23rd"I am seeing this typo more often now, January 23th, 2010 is not correct (according to what I have researched). It should be shown as January 23rd, 2010.
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|2010-06-27 15:47:05 Acharya SThank you for your close reading. Minas is not a native speaker of English, and I do believe he does a very good job.
As far as I know, it should be "January 23, 2010," not "January 23rd, 2010."
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|2010-06-26 21:54:31 KCinLA - Typo - 'Comparison'I found a typo at the beginning of the one of the last few paragraphs (3rd from the bottom):
IS: Comparion of Jesus ...
SHOULD BE: Comparison of Jesus ...
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|2010-06-26 22:06:11 KCinLA - It was all Greek to meWow, I just went to your source for this story and like the expression "It's all Greek to me" was what I saw. Thank goodness for Google's Translation service.
I went there to see is they had the misspelled word (comparison), but had to enable the translator and so I assume maybe you translated on your own (since I know that you know Greek).
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|2010-06-27 15:51:51 Acharya SNo, I didn't translate the notice. I simply passed along Minas's English notice with a cursory scan, because I am perpetually short of time. I have corrected the typos.
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|2010-06-27 18:02:06 Jeff HansenVery good development there. wish it would've been closer to Rome, though. I'm assuming that there isn't a video with english subtitles out there but please correct me if I'm wrong.
Any chance of a similar symposium happening here? I feel that if this position became a bit more organized & hosted a formal conference or two it would gain momentum quickly. Something about those formalisms & academic trappings makes the mainstream scholars feel like they're gonna miss the bus if they don't take a serious look at it.
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|2010-06-28 03:53:55 Acharya SHi Jeff -
There has always been a chance - I've been interested in doing this for YEARS. But such endeavors require money, and no one has stepped forth in this sort of way. Everything I have done over the years has been on a shoestring budget.
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|2010-06-27 21:30:31 Pais - Is there and English translation of this?Wow! I'd love to have the info presented in that conference (in English). I've been searching for the earliest evidences of the "historical Jesus" from the mythisist position, of course not as a real historic person, but the earliest traces of this legend.
Those seeking evidence from an evemerist view, that there must really have been such a person from then, but say, rather badly misunderstood, need look no further than that the names were changed from the stories of Apollonius of Tyana.
But from a more mythisist view, where and when, at what point were the names changed? Were the Apollonian histories and myths edited then by Eusebius and his compinches, with then names changed with a wave of a hat over to the IES faction of the jewish diaspora? or was that faction already called "catholic"?
Or was Marcion in the 2nd century already using that name (IES) in the fragments of Mark? or of Lucian?
I find this subject very interesting.
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|2010-06-28 03:56:34 Acharya SThank you for your interest. I don't know whether or not there is a video available in Greek or English.
If you are interested in this subject, my writings answer pretty much every question you have asked and more so. You can find my books and articles at these sites:
http://truthbeknown.com
http://stellarhousepublishing.com
The books and ebooks you see to the right of this post ====> cover all these subjects.
Enjoy!
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|2011-02-23 11:44:20 BluThough I visit this site often, as well as your Truthbeknown website, this is my first time commenting. I apologize for veering off topic from this particular article but first off I want to say that I just finished reading Barbara Walker's "Man Made God." What a great read! Enlightening as well as entertaining. I have also read two of your books, Acharya, "The Christ Conspiracy" and "Who Was Jesus?" I offer the same affirmative critique of your works as well. Between the two of you I have gained a wealth of knowledge of Christianity and religion in general, knowledge that has been nothing less than mind-altering and life-affirming.
For most of my adult life I have been a skeptic of Christianity and indeed of all religions. Even if the Christian God were real, I rejected him just by nature of his being so vain, venal, and vindictive (sorry for the obvious alliteration but all of those “v” adjectives just seemed to fit so well!). Even with the new-age version of the Christian God, these more so-called progressive types of Christians still seem hell-bent on praying to a god who is male and who still condemns people to an eternity of torture for the mere “sin” of non-belief. And as for Jesus, even if he were real, he seemed to be nothing more than a raving ego-maniac/messia-wannabee who wasn't really too sure of himself, spouting off contradictory statements, as if he couldn't make his mind up which was the right thing to say. But even with all of my skepticism, I still clung - like most people continue to do, I think – to the notion that JC was an historical figure and thus something/someone to be reckoned with, at least intellectually if not spiritually. Somehow it never occurred to me that the person of Jesus Christ might never have existed. But after reading yours and Barbara Walker's books, I felt as if my eyes had truly been opened to certain aspects of Christianity and religion that I had not been aware of before. Now I feel that I am truly free of the last vestiges of the shackles of Christianity that still had a hold, albeit a tenuous one, on me. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on such an important topic and in a field that is in dire need of people letting the “truth be known.”
Now, as regards the mythicism conference in Athens: while it is indeed encouraging to see any sort of gathering of people who are open to learning the truth, my initial reaction to seeing that it was 70-80 + people in attendance was.... “What?! That's all?? In a city the size of Athens??” Seems like it should have been more in the area of 700 – 800 people! But I know how strong and hypnotic the Christ myth is, not only here in America but all over the world. Most of my family consists of very devout Christians and I honestly don't know what it would take to get any of them to even consider attending a conference whose theme had even the slightest inference that Christ was not real. I would love to see a conference like that take place here in the buckle of the Bible Belt where I live. I could almost guarantee that there would be at least 70-80 people protesting outside with signs, decrying how this was the work of the devil. Whether or not that many people would attend the conference itself is another question. 'Tis a pity, I think.
