Christian Apologist: "ZEITGEIST is Right"

In an article posted on March 25, 2009, conservative Christian website WorldNetDaily.com claims that the film "ZEITGEIST" is an "'Antichrist' movie tricking Christians." The article by Joe Kovacs goes on to cite the opinions of Christian apologist Richard Rives, who ironically runs a website called "ZEITGEISTisRight.com"

According to WND, Rives "has himself been educating the public about the impact heathen sun worship has had on traditional Christianity." Indeed, he has published a book called Too Long in the Sun, which highlights the usurpation of Pagan solar religious traditions by Christianity. As a fundamentalist Christian, however, Rives's purpose is to distinguish between true biblical teachings and supposedly later attachments to Christian tradition from heathenism.

In Rives's videos and on his "ZEITGEIST is Right" website, he specifically names me, D.M. Murdock aka Acharya S, as the "scholar who provided data for the movie ZEITGEIST." On his book website, Toolong.com, Rives has posted articles concerning the connection between "Traditional Christianity" and Pagan sun worship, such as regards the Persian sun god Mithra, the Roman sun god Sol Invictus and the solar holidays of "Christmas" and Easter. In effect, Rives is verifying that various important aspects of Christianity were taken from sun worship and that ZEITGEIST is correct in its identification thereof.

However, again, Rives delineates between the Christianity of tradition and that of the Bible, reiterating that Christ's winter-solstice birthday, for example, is not in the New Testament. Rives also claims that Christ's crucifixion and resurrection occurred not during Easter but during Passover, which was changed to coincide with Easter. In his analysis, Rives says:

"Today Contemporary Christianity has not only allowed truth to fall, but it has thrown truth in the street as a gesture of religious tolerance and compromise. It has given the adversaries of scripture exactly what they need to substantiate their claims that what most present as Christianity is nothing more than redefined pagan mythology. Educated theologians know that; yet they continue to present a compromised gospel filled with pagan tradition that never had anything to do with Christ."

While we wholeheartedly concur with Rives's assessment concerning "Traditional Christianity" adopting various Pagan holidays and doctrines, we disagree that the gospel story itself is devoid of such influences. Indeed, my work in dissecting the gospel story and demonstrating its "borrowing" from pre-Christian religions is extensive and covers much more than simply Christmas and Easter. As one glaring example, the Virgin Mother concept unquestionably existed in the Pagan world long before Christianity was created - yet, there it is in black and white in the New Testament. Furthermore, such biblical doctrines as having 12 followers, healing the sick, raising the dead, walking on water, transfiguring, resurrecting and ascending are all present in pre-Christian Pagan religion and mythology as well. This fact is demonstrated thoroughly in my book Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection, which draws from thousands of pre-Christian Egyptian texts and the works of highly credentialed scholars in relevant fields.

As concerns labeling me or ZEITGEIST's producer Peter Joseph "antichrists," the word "Christ" simply means "Anointed One." It is not the exclusive name of a Jewish son of God who allegedly lived 2,000 years ago. The term was also used long prior to the Christian era, in the Greek Old Testament or Septuagint, for example, as applied to anointed figures such as Saul, David, Solomon and various priests - all of these are deemed Christs. Moreover, the word "christ," or "christos" (χριστος) in the original Greek, was likewise utilized in non-biblical, pre-Christian literature as well. "Anti" means to be against; however, while I do make the case that many of these characters are mythological in nature, I am not "against" them. Hence, I am not "antichrist" at all.

I feel for the sincere Christian who has been taught what amounts to falsified history, and I truly appreciate that Christian apologist Richard Rives has the integrity to admit that Part 1 ZEITGEIST is right in its overall premise of Christianity taking over Pagan sun worship.

Pat Condell: Free speech is sacred

Famed atheist vlogger Pat Condell, whom I count among my friends, is just so, so important. He doesn't have any position--he's not a president or prime minister. But Pat may be more important than all world leaders combined.

Astonishingly, just as I am working on a new book that emphasizes our freedoms as holy tenets, here comes Pat spelling it all out in a most brilliant manner. Pat has just made himself the high priest of the most important religious movement ever to hit planet Earth: Freedom.

I have taken the liberty of transcribing the juicy bits most appropriate for my current project. Regarding the obscene and blasphemous attempt by Islamists to criminalize criticism of their cult by their "defamation of religion" U.N. resolution, Pat remarks:

Now, to defame something, first of all you have to say something untrue about it. So, for example, if I say that religion is the art of sugar-coating a turd and selling it as a donut, well, that's not defamation because of course it is absolutely true.

In this video “Free speech is sacred,” Pat also says:

The only actual defamation I can detect here is defamation of humanity by religion, because religion is bearing false witness against us to our detriment - and that is defamation. Religion is telling us a poison story about ourselves, because it doesn't want us to like ourselves one little bit. So it denigrates us from the moment we're born, as unworthy, unclean and stained with sin, persuading us that there's something that we need to be saved from. And indeed there is: The curse of religion, which for its very survival depends on keeping us enthralled to a view of reality that's so childish, so stunted, so utterly and transparently false, it amounts to nothing less than a malicious assault on our very identity as human beings, which I believe makes religion a crime against humanity.

Pat also calls himself a “freedom-worshipper.” He further says:

I claim free speech as my religion. Yes, I'll have a slice of that pie too, thank you, along with all the attendant rights and privileges, of course. Because I can assure you that I venerate free speech as highly as anybody on this planet venerates their god or their scripture or their prophet, and any attempt to suppress free speech is deeply insulting and grossly offensive to me on a personal level. I feel violated to the very core of my being, which seriously hurts my feelings. Whenever I hear free speech being comprimised or restricted - or even heavily criticized - I take that as a grave personal affront and as a grotesquely insensitive attack on my most cherished values: Freedom of thought, freedom of speech, freedom of identity - this is my holy trinity. Each one an intrinsic aspect of my god. Freedom, the holiest of holies. Yes, it bloody well is. It is absolutely sacred and inviolable beyond any negotiation or compromise now and forever. Amen.

Amen indeed. Be sure also to see my blog post from 2006 concerning the U.S. Constitution and the freedoms it represents: A Truly Sacred Scripture.

Dead Sea Scrolls Not Written by Essenes

In my books I have repeatedly addressed the decades-old contention that the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were written by the esoteric Jewish sect of the Essenes, demonstrating that the evidence shows otherwise. A recent article in TIME highlights the claim by Jewish scholar Dr. Rachel Elior that likewise views the Dead Sea Scrolls as a product of someone other than the Essenes:

Scholar Claims Dead Sea Scrolls 'Authors' Never Existed

This title, of course, is not only sensational but also erroneous, in that the Essenes were evidently not the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the first place. Someone obviously wrote the scrolls, so they certainly existed. Elior, however, is taking this contention one step further and saying that the Essenes themselves never existed. As TIME relates:

As Elior explains, the Essenes make no mention of themselves in the 900 scrolls found by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947 in the caves of Qumran, near the Dead Sea. "Sixty years of research have been wasted trying to find the Essenes in the scrolls," Elior tells TIME. "But they didn't exist. This is legend on a legend."

While I would wager that an esoteric sect of the "Essenic" nature certainly did exist in Judea, as it did elsewhere around the Mediterranean, including at Lake Mareotis in Egypt, I definitely agree that the evidence points elsewhere as to the authorship of the scrolls. In my book The Christ Conspiracy (1999), I fleshed out the scholarship that logically attributes the scrolls to the Zadokites, a certain group of Sadducees, as the authors deemed themselves.

In a chapter entitled, "Essenes, Zealots and Zadokites," I write:

The idea of a monolithic Essene community from which Christianity issued was...given fuel with the discovery in 1947 of the caches of scrolls in caves near the ruined site of Qumran along the Dead Sea in present-day Jordan. However, there is yet another debate as to whether or not Qumran was indeed an Essene community....

In reality, the archaeological finds indicate Qumran was not an Essene community but a waystation for travelers and merchants crossing the Dead Sea. In Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?, Norman Golb evinced that Qumran was a fortress, not a monastery... In addition, Golb posited that the scrolls were not written by any Essene scribes but constituted a collection from libraries in Jerusalem secreted in caves throughout eastern Palestine by Jews fleeing the Roman armies during the First Revolt of 70 CE.... The Dead Sea collection is in fact eclectic, representing more than one sect or priesthood, competitors, in actuality.... (Acharya, The Christ Conspiracy, 301)

Although the DSS represent an eclectic collection, some of the original scrolls--those composed possibly using the inkpots found at Qumran--were written by individuals who could be categorized as Zealots and who, again, identified themselves as Zadokites, after the Old Testament priest Zadok, founder of the Sadducees. In this regard, in The Christ Conspiracy, I further state:

At the end of the second century BCE, Galilee was violently subjugated by the Judeans... After this invasion and forcible conversion, the ranks of the Herodian outpost Qumran supposedly swelled, evidently with Samaritans and Galileans, or Zealots "from Damascus," who also were the Sadducees, or "sons of Zadok," i.e., "the priests who keep the covenant," as the Zealots of the scrolls identified themselves. Indeed, Solomon Schechter, the discoverer of the Cairo edition of one important scroll also found at the Dead Sea--the "Zadokite Document," also known as the "Damascus Rule" or "Damascus Covenant"--considered the Dead Sea Zadokites an "offshoot" of the Sadducean sect, "possibly the Dosithean schism," thereby equating this Sadducean offshoot with the Samaritans. (Acharya, CC, 306)

In this same manner, TIME recently related:

So who were the real authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls? Elior theorizes that the Essenes were really the renegade sons of Zadok, a priestly caste banished from the Temple of Jerusalem by intriguing Greek rulers in 2nd century B.C. When they left, they took the source of their wisdom — their scrolls — with them. "In Qumran, the remnants of a huge library were found," Elior says, with some of the early Hebrew texts dating back to the 2nd century B.C.

In consideration of this current debate, it is wise to keep in mind that scholarship on various subjects is not always set in stone, as we can see in this instance. The Essene authorship of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been treated as if factual for several decades; yet, not only was there no evidence for such an attribution but the scrolls themselves pointed elsewhere, with the authors identifying themselves as Zadokites.

Moreover, this Zadokite attribution, which I developed in a book published in 1999, unravels some of the difficulties in discerning Christian origins, which I also detailed in that same book, tracing many influences upon Christianity not only to the Zadokites but also to other sects within the Mediterranean region as a whole.

While Dr. James Charlesworth rebuts Elior's statements by claiming that the term "Essenes" would not appear in the scrolls, because it is a "foreign word." Be that as it may, Josephus specifically refers to three separate sects, the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes, which indicates he believed that the Sadducees/Zadokites and Essenes were not the same group. Says, the Jewish historian:

At this time there were three sects among the Jews, who had different opinions concerning human actions; the one was called the sect of the Pharisees, another the sect of the Sadducees, and the other the sect of the Essenes..." (Ant., XIII, V, 9)

To this day, the majority of people perceive these two as distinct groups, for a variety of reasons, including their "different opinions concerning human actions." It is my contention, however, that all three were instrumental in the creation of Christianity.

For more information, see:

The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold
Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled
Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ
Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection

Easter: The Resurrection of Spring

I have posted an illustrated article entitled "Easter: The Resurrection of Spring" that you may enjoy! This article is an excerpt from my new book Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection.

Easter: The Resurrection of Spring
by Acharya S/D.M. Murdock

Although it is believed to represent the time of Jesus Christ's resurrection, the festival of Easter existed in pre-Christian times and, according to the famous Christian saint Venerable Bede (672-735 AD/CE), was named for the Teutonic or German goddess Eôstre, who was the "goddess of dawn" and who symbolized the fertility found abundantly during the springtime of the year....

The "Christos" is not only the sun triumphing over the darkness as the day becomes longer than the night, but it is also the sun's light in the moon, as the moon waxes and wanes monthly.... In any event, the deity reborn or raised up at the vernal equinox or springtime is a recurring theme not representing a "historical" personage but, rather, a natural phenomenon, i.e., Spring.

For the complete article, see:

http://stellarhousepublishing.com/easter-resurrection.html

Enjoy!

Also, be sure to check out my "Easter special" at the following link!

http://stellarhousepublishing.com/special.html

Don't miss it!

Acharya/D.M. Murdock

P.S. The special is for U.S. only, but Christ in Egypt is now available internationally through Amazon!

Clothing Exchanges & Toy Swaps

I realize this isn't my usual fare, but in these difficult economic times, I think this is an extremely important idea whose time has come.

I have recently participated in book exchanges or swaps, as well as a Christmas gift exchange, whereby people bring their unwanted items to a central location, such as a school, church, armory or other public place, in order to exchange them with others who do likewise. There are tables set up, the items are placed on them, people take what they want for FREE! Simple!

Book swaps may be becoming more common in schools, and hopefully the Christmas gift exchange will catch on as well. But one of the most important items people need is clothing, especially those with school-aged children! So...

I have planted the seed in the mind of school officials to create a clothing exchange or swap, during which parents can bring their children's outgrown clothes to a central location, such as the school gym, and exchange them for FREE!

I would like to see this idea spread far and wide. It's easy - and it's free. You could potentially get an entire year's wardrobe for your child absolutely free. I understand that some towns have clothing banks where lower income families can get free clothing, and I have seen a very fine one indeed. But what about towns that don't have decent clothing banks? And what about people with higher incomes who still can't afford the endless stream of clothes needed for their children?

Clothing exchanges/swaps are the perfect answer! And think about all the packaging and assorted other resources we can save by not running down to our local megamart and buying yet more STUFF from foreign countries? I for one am sick to death of plastic wrap and all the rest that comes with new products. How much of that junk is ending up in our waterways, our oceans and so on? How much more plastic do we need to choke and kill our wildlife?

Spare the packaging, save money, better your community - do a clothing exchange!

Toy Swaps/Exchanges

And another great idea whose time is come is a TOY EXCHANGE. If you're like many parents, you have boxes upon boxes of TOYS that are driving you crazy. Gather those toys together in a central location and swap them with others! Again, we're talking about junk, packaging, plastic pellets killing wildlife. Don't throw out those old toys, exchange them for FREE.

You can also agree with your children's friends' parents to exchange used but unbroken toys as gifts at birthdays! If everyone is on board, no one should be offended by not receiving plastic-swathed, new toys to add to the heaps in their homes. Explain that you are interested in both the economic and environmental low impact of giving and receiving used toys at birthday parties.

None of this is difficult or costly to organize. I'm sure you can come up with more exchanges and swaps in your town or city. Just put the idea out there! Spread it around. We have enough STUFF in this country. We don't need to spend our hard-earned and increasingly scarce dollars on these items that are still perfectly good and useful.

Start free clothing, book, toy and gift exchanges and swaps in your neighborhood, town, city and state today!

Radio Show on the Horus Jesus Connection

I've got a brand-new radio program with Jan Irvin of Gnostic Media!

Christ in Egypt: An Interview with D.M. Murdock aka Acharya S

In this two-hour show, I go into great and juicy detail about my new book Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection. This new book essentially proves the Egyptian and Horus elements as found in "ZEITGEIST, Part 1." These elements were in turn from my book The Christ Conspiracy, such as:

• Horus was born of the virgin Isis-Mery on December 25th.
• Horus/Osiris's birth was heralded by a bright star in the east, followed by "three kings."
• Horus was baptized by "Anup the Baptizer," who was decapitated.
• He had 12 followers, helpers or disciples.
• And much more!
  

In the program there's also a little editorializing and commentary about the religious fanaticism that dominates in some places, like on other people's radio shows...

Think link above is directly to my podcast, but you can see the whole GM page here.

Enjoy!

And then when you're ready to get a copy of my book, go here:

Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection

Don't miss this one!

D.M. Murdock/Acharya S

P.S. There's a never-before seen photo of me on Gnostic Media as well!