Who is Acharya S? And what is Truth Be Known? "Acharya S" is the pen name of independent scholar and author D.M. Murdock, who owns Stellar House Publishing, LLC. Ms. Murdock writes books about the origins of religion and mythology, with an eye to the astrotheological meanings of religious ideas and myths. Her book about the origins of Christianity called The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold has been read widely and critiqued over the past decade.
In response to the commentary about The Christ Conspiracy, Acharya/Murdock wrote Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled and Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ. This latter book, which analyzes the gospel story and includes the words of many important Christian scholars, has been well received by a number of experts and scholars in the field of Christian origins. Murdock has also written many articles and done interviews and radio programs addressing a wide variety of issues raised by her work and its criticism.
In 2007, the internet movie "ZEITGEIST" went viral and was viewed by many millions of people. The first part of the movie was based significantly on Acharya's work and, because of its popularity, has been heavily criticized, particularly by Christian fundamentalists. Over the years since then, Acharya/Murdock has responded many times with a series of articles, videos and a number of ebooks and books, including the massive study of the connection between the ancient Egyptian religion and Christianity entitled, Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection. This important book has been endorsed by a New Testament scholar and a renowned archaeologist. Other recent works of Acharya/Murdock's include Jesus as the Sun throughout History, The Gospel According to Acharya S and The 2010 Astrotheology Calendar.
As a "mythicist," Acharya S is not anti-religion, nor is she interested in creating atheists. Indeed, Murdock enjoys religion, not as a believer in it but as an observer of some of its great contribution to human culture, especially as concerns its simple and logical origins. These origins revolve largely around natural phenomena that are observable by human beings globally over the past many thousands of years. These observations beginning in remote antiquity have been recorded in numerous ways, including art, architecture, calendars, myths, rituals and traditions. The mythical and astrotheological origins of much religion are becoming increasingly obvious with the fascinating finds from the ancient world such as Stonehenge, the Pyramids, Newgrange and much more globally.
Unfortunately, we have lost so much of our ancient culture, and it continues to be threatened by battles over ideology and resources. Let us hope in the future that we can do a better job preserving and restoring our shared common heritage. Acharya's work is designed to prevent further cultural loss and to bring forth amazing and enriching information long buried under layers of dirt and dust, as well as banished from the mass human psyche through cultural conditioning and biases often found in mainstream religions.
Online since 1995, Acharya S and Truth Be Known have been dedicated to bringing to the public lost, hidden and buried treasure in the form of fascinating knowledge that has spurred the creation of a number of astounding cultures and civilizations such as those of ancient Egypt, Sumeria, Greece, Babylon and India. For more information about these amazing subjects, see Acharya's websites TruthBeKnown.com, StellarHousePublishing.com and FreethoughtNation.com.
Right now, I'm collecting on a daily basis - several times a day, sometimes - news from around the world that concerns religion in general as well as specific religions, such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and so on. I am also gathering news items about atheism, secularism, humanism and freethought. I'm keeping an eye on news items about archeology, archaeoastronomy, astrotheology and mythology as well.
This news posting will be an ongoing function of my new website "Freethought Nation." I will be forwarding my forums there as well, and I intend to have a blog where I and others will post news with commentary. Of course, on the blog will be a comments area for visitors to leave their thoughts as well.
If anyone would like to help with this endeavor, let me know, as I do not have the time or tech know-how to make it all happen alone!
Be sure to stop back on a regular basis, as I will be posting news items there continually, with the newest posts at the top. And tell your friends about it!
"ZEITGEIST, Part 1" - Debunked or Refuted? A Video Response
The intriguing internet movie "ZEITGEIST" has been an astounding hit, with over 15 million views worldwide in English and several other languages. In the past several months, there have been many claims on websites and in forums and videos all over the internet that the first part of ZEITGEIST has been "refuted" and "debunked." Contrary to these claims, the facts continue to demonstrate otherwise.
First of all, let me clarify that I was not involved in the creation of ZEITGEIST, other than providing a few images and consulting on Part 1 at the last minute, the result of which was the final, "Official" version. However, my work did serve as a significant inspiration for Part 1. I had no involvement in Parts 2 and 3, and make no comment thereupon in this article.
Because of my work's influence on Part 1 of ZEITGEIST, a number of the debunking sites have been directed largely at me and my contentions formulated over the past 15 years. While we would expect a debate as to the facts, the vitriolic and bilious nature of these refutations reflects a severe weakness of intelligent argument. Moreover, the detractors - whether theists or atheists and other freethinkers - quite often HAVE NOT ACTUALLY STUDIED MY WORK, and there has not been one "refutation" site to our knowledge that has proceeded from an informed and unbiased perspective, accurately presenting facts based on serious research. Despite pretending to be experts on the subject in general and my work in particular, none of these individuals has given any indication that he or she has read my Companion Guide to ZEITGEIST, Part 1, which already deals with a number of the facts purportedly "debunked" and which sets the tone for further discussion of the claims in ZEITGEIST. Because such individuals are not aware of the facts and evidence in my books, they apparently feel the need to attack me personally, demonstrating a lack of substance and objectivity on their part, despite their pretenses to the contrary.
It should be noted that I am not and have never been adverse to reading Christian material or factual rebuttals to my work or that of anyone else. Over the years, I have continually factored such information into my work. In reality, I was born and raised a Christian, from a family of Christians dating back many hundreds of years. My mother's family landed in America in 1630, as Puritans, and my mother was the longtime secretary, choir director and soloist of our Protestant Congregationalist church. I was also briefly a born-again Christian - I know the material very well. Who could miss Christian proselytizing? In America, it is available all over the place - in our books, newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, movies - we are inundated with Christianity. But if anyone dares to raise their small voice of objection or alternative perspective, they are beaten down with disparagement and vituperation. (Such vitriol, by the way, continues, as several people have attempted to post vicious and insulting comments here - be advised that such posts will not be passed through, but they do prove my point about religious fanaticism causing hatred and incivility towards other human beings.)
In this regard, what I am adverse to is going to a website or video and seeing or hearing libel and defamation against me, as well as the inaccurate portrayal of my work - and so far, none of the Zeitgeist-debunking material we have encountered has been free of this type of invective and abuse.
Unlike my detractors in their refutations, I do not engage in vitriol and calumny in this work. Instead, I provide FACTUAL MATERIAL from primary sources and the work of highly credentialed and qualified scholars. While it is true that ZEITGEIST does not thoroughly identify the various primary-source images it uses in its claims, the important point is that such sources do exist. Furthermore, ZG's creator, Peter Joseph, did not set out to present a scholarly documentary on the topic in the 25 minutes that comprise Part 1. Of course, those who think they can adequately cover the last 5,000 years of religious history in under 25 minutes are free to make their own video.
Despite all the efforts to refute the information and sources in Part 1 of ZEITGEIST, the bottom line will remain the same:
When the subject matter is examined scientifically and in depth, there continues to be no credible evidence for the existence of the gospel character named Jesus Christ, and the preponderance of scientific evidence points to him being as mythical a character as the Greek god Hercules and the many other deities of the Roman Empire of the time.
While people who take such a position are widely subjected to ridicule and derision, based on all the evidence this conclusion is demonstrably the most reasonable and logical. Furthermore, in a truthful world where we should not be compelled to reside in BLIND BELIEF, this perspective should be allowed to exist without its holders being derogated and abused, as well as dunned with impossibly high standards of proof, while claims in the religious arena require little to no proof at all! In addition, rather than attacking living, breathing human beings, in my work I tackle deleterious ideologies that have caused the deaths of hundreds of millions of people.
To demonstrate the utter lack of quality in the assaults on my credibility and character that somehow "prove" the existence of Jesus Christ, I have been labeled not only a "liar," "fraud" and "poor scholar," but also a "Freemason," an "Illuminati," a "CIA agent," a "Mossad agent" and a "Zionist" - utterly ridiculous notions so undeserving of dignifying that I have hitherto not addressed them. Nor am I a member of any Theosophical Society or any organization having to do with Luciferians, etc., ad absurdum - other silliness slung my way. These claims are entirely laughable, needless to say. Not to mention that these folks are BEARING FALSE WITNESS AGAINST ME, which breaks one of the 10 Commandments!
"Thou shalt not bearfalsewitness against thy neighbour." (Exodus 20:16; Matthew 19:18)
Rather than providing credible, scientifically valid evidence and proof for their assertions, detractors thus continually engage in an endless stream of ad homs and other fallacies to distract away from the issues raised in "ZEITGEIST, Part 1." One of the contentions constantly bandied about as if it constitutes some great triumph is the notion that Jesus Christ was not born on December 25th or the winter solstice; therefore, the comparisons with other gods are inapt. The fact will remain that many millions of people over the centuries have been taught to believe that a Jewish son of God named Jesus Christ not only existed but was born on December 25th. This straw-man argument merely serves to prove our point that Jesus is not the "reason for the season." This and the equally fallacious "three kings" argument are addressed in my Companion Guide, along with much else.
What it comes down to is this - who has reason, logic and common sense on their side? The people who claim that there is an invisible Jewish guy floating all over the sky, or those who assert that this implausible figure is a myth based on previous myths? And if this story is based on myth - which logic and reason suggest it is - what were the myths? That is all I am doing with my work. No CIA, Illuminati or Mossad is necessary for an individual to have such an understanding and to attempt to share it with others. It is sheer common sense, period.
Not a few of the debunking sites rely on shallow "encyclopedia surfing" that will not reveal pertinent facts because of a well-oiled censorship machine that has been in place since long before the Inquisition and that remains to this day to a large extent - as we can see from these frantic and hysterical attempts at debunking, which rely almost entirely on ignorance based on censorial behavior by authorities over the centuries and millennia. Such censorship is responsible for a massive amount of destruction of primary sources - this shameful, deliberate devastation is what we should recall every time a debunker cries out for "primary sources!" Meanwhile, detractors themselves provide NO primary-source evidence for their own extraordinary claims. Furthermore, much of the pertinent data I provide in my books cannot be found in English but appears in other languages, such as Greek, Latin, German, French, as well as Hebrew and Egyptian, of course. Unless someone can work within these languages, he or she may never encounter this important information.
In addition, scholars in relevant fields operating within mainstream institutions themselves are frequently hemmed in by a variety of factors that will not allow them even to contemplate the data discovered through intensive research into comparative religion and mythology. In previous eras not long ago, one could not only lose one's occupation for delving deeply into the issues and having the audacity to broadcast such discoveries, but one could also be subjected to imprisonment on charges of heresy and blasphemy, among other even less savory situations. Mainstream scholars have also been urged not to "rock the boat," as well as to preserve the status quo - and their livelihoods frequently depend on conformity. Moreover, many scholars these days are so specialized that they do not cover the broad diversity of subjects involved in this particular field of research. Scholars in past eras were less specialized - and they did in fact make these connections within comparative religion, as my research demonstrates.
The Horus-Jesus Connection
Rather than relying on the typical shallow "encyclopedia surfing" of the debunking sites, or scholarship that skims the surface because of prejudices and occupational concerns, if you would like to get a taste of deeper and fascinating research on the subject that BACKS UP THE HORUS CLAIMS OF ZEITGEIST, you will want to read my ebook:
In this 49-page ebook, I use mostly primary sources and the work of individuals highly credentialed in their relevant fields. This ebook shows exactly where some of the most well-known claims regarding the Egyptian god Horus can be found in ancient testimonies and texts.
If you go to my Zeitgeist page, you will find a series of excerpts that reveal the quality of the material I am presenting in the Guide.
We are also working on a short video on the subject, likewise addressing whether or not ZG, Part 1 has been "refuted" or "debunked." Again, I can assure you that it has not.
In addition, I am also close to finishing a much larger work on the subject that I’ve been diligently laboring upon - Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection. Thoroughly covering every contention found in ZEITGEIST regarding Horus, Christ in Egypt will be well over 400 pages, with dozens of illustrations and, again, mostly primary sources and the work of highly credentialed scholars, comprising a bibliography with over 500 entries. Again, I have managed to dig up some incredibly exciting and important research!
Many of us are delighted by the amazing success of ZEITGEIST, for the major reason that it has generated tremendous interest in what I consider to be some of the most intriguing subjects on the planet - comparative religion, mythology and astrotheology - but what has unfortunately been swept under the carpet for too long, in favor of biased, ethnocentric fallacies reducing the grandeur of the cosmos to petty fish tales.
If you have an interest in the direction humanity is going, you might want to know that I believe and hope it is towards a reawakening of the HIDDEN KNOWLEDGE I and others are bringing to light regarding religion and mythology - and this new development is another major step in that direction.
