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"The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ"

Rocky — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:39:55 GMT

"The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ"
by Acharya S/D.M. Murdock newly updated version and free e-book
http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/originsofchristianity.pdf

Newly Updated "The Origins of Christianity"
http://www.freethoughtnation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2946

http://www.freethoughtnation.com

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Soul Hunger: The reason of faith, according to Karen Armstrong

Will Beat Hippie Raver — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:44:39 GMT

www.odemagazine.com

MICHAEL BRUNTON
Ode
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009 ISSUE

The reason of faith

Religion isn’t easy, Karen Armstrong says: “You have to practice quite hard, like you do with any art form.”

Modern science knows how to fix a hole in the heart. It can diagnose a hole in the ozone layer and prove the existence of black holes at the edge of the universe.

But when it comes to explaining what's often described as the "God-shaped hole" in our lives, neither quantum physicists nor geneticists nor neuropsychologists appear to quite have the measure of it.

If anything, the rate of scientific advance in recent decades has only served to polarize religious debate. At one extreme is a resurgent atheism—epitomized by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, who've both written best-selling books denouncing religious belief—which trusts that this hole, like every hole, will be filled in time by knowledge. At the other extreme is religious fundamentalism—epitomized by political spats over headscarves and creationism—which believes this hole is brimful of scriptural truth. For most of us in between, the hole in the soul gnaws away at our subconscious, like a hunger. And all of us, believers and non-believers alike, rush to fill the void with words.

One way or another, according to Karen Armstrong, "We talk far too much about God these days." Which might sound a bit rich coming from the English author of almost 20 books on religion as well as two memoirs about her becoming—and then unbecoming—a Catholic nun, who has been decked with religious prizes and who regularly lectures the high and mighty of church and state around the world. What's more, according to her new book The Case for God, the things we say when we do talk about religious faith are often "facile," "stupid" or "primitive." Ammunition, perhaps, for Armstrong's critics, of whom she has had her share, ever since her breakthrough book, A History of God, in 1993.

In that and the books that followed, Armstrong has traced the tangled roots of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, liberally reinterpreted the lives of Muhammad, Buddha and Jesus, and dived headlong into the maelstrom of theological debate around fundamentalism, both before and after 9/11. Some have criticized her idealistic interpretation of the Koran; religious academics berate her for shortcomings of scholarly rigor; atheists dismiss her for refusing to engage in debate on their terms.

Yet Armstrong's consistently eloquent arguments for compassion and commonality as an antidote to Islamophobia and the "clash of civilizations" have struck a chord, particularly in the U.S., where she has addressed both houses of Congress. She's also increasingly in demand on the lecture circuit in countries like Pakistan and Egypt, and is to be found on book stalls in 40 languages around the world. Drawing together the main threads of her previous research, The Case for God is Armstrong's most concise and practical-minded book yet: a historical survey of how rather than what we believe, where we lost the "knack" of religion and what we need to do to get it back.

"A lot of the arguments about religion going on at the moment spring from a rather inept understanding of religious truth," says Armstrong, settling into her theme and a winged easy chair in her early-Georgian home in north London. The furnishings and decoration suggest Jane Austen may have just stepped out of the room. Like Austen, and in a polished English accent, Armstrong is sharp-witted, quick to ridicule nonsense, and a good storyteller. "Our notion changed during the early modern period when we became convinced that the only path to any kind of truth was reason. That works beautifully for science but doesn't work so well for the humanities. Religion is really an art form and a struggle to find value and meaning amid the ghastly tragedy of human life."

Armstrong's The Case for God begins with the cave paintings of Lascaux in the French Dordogne, made some 17,000 years ago—seemingly religious art works in which the hunter assuages his unease at killing his prey through shamanic rituals in honor of the Animal Master. Such myths were born because, Armstrong writes, "As meaning-seeking creatures, men and women fall very easily into despair. They have created religions and works of art to help them find value in their lives, despite all the dispiriting evidence to the contrary."

From that point on, the religious impulse took the form of creation myths like Tao and Brahman from the East, on through the gods of ancient Greece and eventually the emergence of the world's three main monotheisms—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—and their founding scriptures. But none of them, says Armstrong, were meant to be taken literally. "The cosmology of the ancient world was telling you about the nature of life here and now. Genesis is not about the origins of life. There were many other creation stories current in Israel at that time and no one was required to believe in that one."

Reason, science and logic—what the Greeks called "logos"—were also evolving as ways of understanding the world, but always in concert, not competition, with the stories—the mythos—they relied on to deal with the mysteries of the human psyche. Pythagoras, for example, a founding father of mathematics and astronomy, sought the geometric truth of the universe from within a religious community dedicated to Apollo and the Muses. He also called himself a philosopher and expected his students to lead an ascetic and monastic kind of life, undergoing rites of purification and silence "in a search," Armstrong writes, "for transcendence and a dedicated, practical lifestyle."

In conversation, Armstrong spins the threads of her research with agile, unhesitating precision, leaping across centuries of scripture, philosophy and theology. She dissects the writings of Denys the Areopagite, the pseudonymous 5th-to-6th-century Christian theologian; explains the roots of Greek words like pistis (faith); pauses to unpick the purpose of Socratic dialogue or the classical atheism of Ludwig Feuerbach, the 19th-century German philosopher and proto-Marxist.

But through all the twists and turns, the notion of transcendence is the one she returns to time and again as the beating heart of all pre-modern theology. "The idea was that when we spoke about God we were speaking of something that lies beyond words," says Armstrong. "People like Thomas Aquinas would say we can't talk about God as a creator because we can only have in our heads the idea of a human creator and that can't apply to God. We can't even say that God exists because our notion of existence is too limited to apply to God. People were instructed to think about this in those terms."

In Armstrong's scheme of things, it was with the dawning of the Age of Reason that the problems started. As philosophers and mathematicians both, Descartes and then Newton well understood that science and religion—logos and mythos—were discrete realms in the search for universal truth. But when the foundation for modern science was laid, the conceptual nature of truth itself began to blur.

"Newton and Descartes started to try and prove that God existed in the same way as they would try and prove something in the laboratory or with their mathematics," says Armstrong. "And when you try and mix science and religion you get bad science and bad religion. The two are doing two different things. ... Science can give you a diagnosis of cancer. It can even cure your disease, but it cannot touch your grief and disappointment, nor can it help you to die well."

Newton seeded not only the idea that God was reducible, says Armstrong, but also that understanding religion would be easy. So easy that by 1900, the German mathematician David Hilbert could confidently assert that precisely 23 problems remained to be solved in order to complete the Newtonian view of the universe. More than a century later, few of us can even comprehend those problems, let alone calculate the answers or grasp the significance of all the things we've learned since. Worse, as our theories about the universe grow ever more abstract, a sense of bewilderment is replacing the sense of transcendence. "It's not easy to talk about transcendence, just as it's not easy to play or listen to a late Beethoven quartet," says Armstrong. "You have to practice quite hard, like you do with any art form. Religion is hard work."

And as with great art, the realization that God defies understanding can be a source of the profoundest joy. For Einstein that sense of the existence of something impenetrable was, as he wrote in a 1930 essay, "the sower of all true art and science" and "the centre of all true religiousness." Armstrong herself calls this experience "the stunned appreciation of an otherness"—a state she says she can occasionally glimpse in the long, silent and solitary hours of study that fuel her writing.

In her studies, Armstrong, at 64, now finds what countless hours of obligatory prayer as an unhappy Catholic nun in her teenage years had flatly failed to bring into focus. Suffering a lost vocation and physically frail, she considered her eventual departure from the convent in 1969 as a relief of sorts. But coming to terms with the world outside and the God she'd left behind triggered a profound spiritual trauma. After a diagnosis of epilepsy and disastrous spells teaching at a university, Armstrong's convalescence proper began in 1981—it's still underway, she says—when she poured her pain into a memoir of her convent days, Through the Narrow Gate. A second volume Beginning the World related her adjustment to the outside world, but Armstrong later recanted it because of the false heartiness she'd adopted to satisfy both her publisher and her own delusion of contentment.

In fact, Armstrong's adjustment wasn't going well, and a brief spell as an erudite but pungently skeptical presenter of religious TV programs in the U.K.—egged on by the producers, she claims, to say ever more outrageous things—did little to help matters. But in the course of that work, Armstrong found herself drawn back to the theological texts underpinning the monotheistic religions and to what they really mean. To do that, says Armstrong, "I had to put my clever, post-Enlightenment, Oxford-educated, aggressively logos self on the back burner, and enter into the mind of someone like Muhammad, who believed he'd been touched by God. Because if I didn't sympathetically and compassionately feel with him, I would miss the essence of it and just write another clever riposte."

A report by the Pew Forum, a U.S. research body on religion and public life, recently painted a startling picture of religious faith in America. About half the population appears to have changed religious affiliation at least once, while the number of believers unaffiliated with any particular faith is rising faster than those of any of religion. Yet more than half of those who grow up unaffiliated later choose to join one. Of the reasons people give for this restlessness, far more cite disenchantment with their religious institutions than a loss of faith per se.

Across Europe, in contrast, while many still identify with a religious denomination, Pew's Global Attitudes Project report last year showed that only a fraction value religion as "very important" in their lives, compared to America, where 55 percent consider it so. In secular-minded France, only 10 percent take that view. Even in traditionally Catholic Spain, the figure is only 19 percent. Among young Europeans, religion's importance appears to be still on the wane. That's somewhat true in America, although 49 percent of adults under 40 value it like their parents and grandparents do, while in places like Egypt (69 percent), Turkey (88 percent) and Pakistan (95 percent), many more young people are keeping the faith.

That longing for spiritual uplift and communion, along with the sense of being let down, have no doubt driven the popularity of New Age beliefs in the U.S. and elsewhere in recent decades. It may also have contributed to the rise in eco-consciousness and the emergence of a "Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability" (LOHAS) demographic, said to include some 40 million people in the U.S., socially responsible green consumers interested in spiritually tinged practices like alternative medicine and personal development.

Armstrong for one isn't surprised at these shifts. "We—the British and the northern Europeans—are beginning to look endearingly old-fashioned in our secularism. The rest of the world is becoming more religious." But while God-centered religion may not own the copyright on transcendence, she warns, "None of it is of any value unless you translate it into practical compassionate action for others. In Buddhism, yoga is properly about the dismantling of egotism; if you just do these things to lose weight or to get a warm glow, that's not religion."

For Armstrong, it's compassion that's the defining virtue of religion, the Golden Rule articulated by Confucius two and a half millennia ago as "Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you." Practicing compassion is, she says, a form of "ethical artistry" that requires the dethroning of ego—a virtue, Armstrong believes, that's alive and well for the majority of the faithful in all religions, but one often singularly lacking in the higher echelons of the various faiths she addresses.

Last year, that message earned Armstrong a prize from the TED Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering big ideas, allowing Armstrong to promote a Charter for Compassion that aims to get religious leaders to commit to a program of compassionate principles (see sidebar). For some religious commentators, like the U.S. rabbi Brad Hirschfield, the Charter amounts to little more than "a ‘Kumbaya' moment" for "a world filled with hate-driven faith." Armstrong disagrees, believing the abundant supply of compassion among religious communities the world over will win out. She does have a poor opinion of religious committees though, and admits she was nervous before the first meeting of the high-profile, multifaith, multinational body convened to draw up the Charter. Until, that is, the first speaker got up and said, "We must include a sentence saying that we, that religious people, have failed." Everyone agreed, nodding, says Armstrong with a grin. "As soon as I heard that, I thought, ‘We're going to be all right.'"

Michael Brunton is a writer living in London who agrees with Voltaire on the necessity of god and gardening.

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

Allah the Pagan Moon God

Rocky — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:28:53 GMT

Allah the Pagan Moon God

Was Allah a Pagan Moon God/Goddess? The evidence says yes.

Why am I not a Muslim? Pagan Islam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1JuG6oBajw

ISLAM A PAGAN RELIGION founded 1429 years ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krWvDL4t56Y&feature=related

Who created Islam 1/3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZYnwKP6LsQ&feature=related

Does Islam incorporate Pagan rituals?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYM-SUUDcng&feature=related

Allah the pagan moon God
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u9L6eRau-g

Was Allah The Moon God of Ancient Arab Pagan?
http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/01/21/was-allah-the-moon-god-of-ancient-arab-pagan/

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

The 2010 Astrotheology Calendar

Rocky — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:14:09 GMT

The 2010 Astrotheology Calendar

An Astrotheology Press/Stellar House Original

"The 2010 Astrotheology Calendar—brought to you by Astrotheology Press, a division of Stellar House Publishing—provides valuable and amazing information about holidays celebrated from ancient times to today that are largely based in astrotheology and nature worship. In addition to recording a number of fascinating celebrations from a variety of cultures marked on various days of each month, the Astrotheology Calendar highlights certain dates in the accompanying explanatory text. These highlighted days include the solstices, equinoxes and "cross-quarter days," as well as various dates that reflect important developments in the field of comparative religion and mythology..........."

Click here for more info -
http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/2010calendar.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 2 replies

2012 isn't the end of the world, Mayan elder insists

Rocky — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:14:32 GMT

2012 isn't the end of the world, Mayan elder insists

By Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – Sun Oct 11, 2009

"MEXICO CITY – Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world.

Or is it?

Definitely not, the Mayan Indian elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff."

It can only get worse for him. Next month Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.

At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Curious? Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared.

"It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."

Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.

A significant time period for the Mayas does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years.

But most archaeologists, astronomers and Maya say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, Internet doomsday rumors and TV specials such as one on the History Channel which mixes "predictions" from Nostradamus and the Mayas and asks: "Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope?"

It may sound all too much like other doomsday scenarios of recent decades — the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, the Jupiter Effect or "Planet X." But this one has some grains of archaeological basis.

One of them is Monument Six.

Found at an obscure ruin in southern Mexico during highway construction in the 1960s, the stone tablet almost didn't survive; the site was largely paved over and parts of the tablet were looted.

It's unique in that the remaining parts contain the equivalent of the date 2012. The inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation.

However — shades of Indiana Jones — erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible.

Archaeologist Guillermo Bernal of Mexico's National Autonomous University interprets the last eroded glyphs as maybe saying, "He will descend from the sky."

Spooky, perhaps, but Bernal notes there are other inscriptions at Mayan sites for dates far beyond 2012 — including one that roughly translates into the year 4772.

And anyway, Mayas in the drought-stricken Yucatan peninsula have bigger worries than 2012.

"If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn't have any idea," said Jose Huchim, a Yucatan Mayan archaeologist. "That the world is going to end? They wouldn't believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain."

The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy

Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012.

"It's a special anniversary of creation," said David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin. "The Maya never said the world is going to end, they never said anything bad would happen necessarily, they're just recording this future anniversary on Monument Six."

Bernal suggests that apocalypse is "a very Western, Christian" concept projected onto the Maya, perhaps because Western myths are "exhausted."

If it were all mythology, perhaps it could be written off.

But some say the Maya knew another secret: the Earth's axis wobbles, slightly changing the alignment of the stars every year. Once every 25,800 years, the sun lines up with the center of our Milky Way galaxy on a winter solstice, the sun's lowest point in the horizon.

That will happen on Dec. 21, 2012, when the sun appears to rise in the same spot where the bright center of galaxy sets.

Another spooky coincidence?

"The question I would ask these guys is, so what?" says Phil Plait, an astronomer who runs the "Bad Astronomy" blog. He says the alignment doesn't fall precisely in 2012, and distant stars exert no force that could harm Earth.

"They're really super-duper trying to find anything astronomical they can to fit that date of 2012," Plait said.

But author John Major Jenkins says his two-decade study of Mayan ruins indicate the Maya were aware of the alignment and attached great importance to it.

"If we want to honor and respect how the Maya think about this, then we would say that the Maya viewed 2012, as all cycle endings, as a time of transformation and renewal," said Jenkins.

As the Internet gained popularity in the 1990s, so did word of the "fateful" date, and some began worrying about 2012 disasters the Mayas never dreamed of.

Author Lawrence Joseph says a peak in explosive storms on the surface of the sun could knock out North America's power grid for years, triggering food shortages, water scarcity — a collapse of civilization. Solar peaks occur about every 11 years, but Joseph says there's evidence the 2012 peak could be "a lulu."

While pressing governments to install protection for power grids, Joseph counsels readers not to "use 2012 as an excuse to not live in a healthy, responsible fashion. I mean, don't let the credit cards go up."

Another History Channel program titled "Decoding the Past: Doomsday 2012: End of Days" says a galactic alignment or magnetic disturbances could somehow trigger a "pole shift."

"The entire mantle of the earth would shift in a matter of days, perhaps hours, changing the position of the north and south poles, causing worldwide disaster," a narrator proclaims. "Earthquakes would rock every continent, massive tsunamis would inundate coastal cities. It would be the ultimate planetary catastrophe."

The idea apparently originates with a 19th century Frenchman, Charles Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, a priest-turned-archaeologist who got it from his study of ancient Mayan and Aztec texts.

Scientists say that, at best, the poles might change location by one degree over a million years, with no sign that it would start in 2012.

While long discredited, Brasseur de Bourbourg proves one thing: Westerners have been trying for more than a century to pin doomsday scenarios on the Maya. And while fascinated by ancient lore, advocates seldom examine more recent experiences with apocalypse predictions.

"No one who's writing in now seems to remember that the last time we thought the world was going to end, it didn't," says Martin, the astronomy webmaster. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of memory that things were fine the last time around."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091011/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_apocalypse2012

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Belief and the Brain study by Sam Harris

Rocky — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:58:05 GMT

Belief and the Brain study by Sam Harris

Belief and the Brain
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007272

Fact Impact
"New study of the brain shows that facts and beliefs are processed in exactly the same way."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/216551

I thought the last two paragraphs had particular significance:

"Harris proves what is self-evident from observing countless faith-versus-reason debates: each side believes firmly in its own truth claims; each side believes that the other's truth claims are absurd. If Harris is saying that Christians and atheists regard their beliefs the same way they regard uncontested facts ("tables and chairs"), it's no wonder that few conceptual bridges are ever built or crossed. (He even noted, with asterisks as to its significance, what he called the "blasphemy reaction": that when atheists disagreed with a Christian belief, or when Christians affirmed one, their pleasure centers lit up—proof that the combatants in the faith-versus-reason wars really do enjoy the fight, equally.)

But for those of us who yearn for resolution, Harris's experiments offer a glimmer of hope. While the brains of believers and nonbelievers do not differentiate between beliefs about God and about mathematics, the believers themselves do, a little. Participants retrieved their religious beliefs and their historical facts from the same place and in the same way, but they showed less certainty when thinking about the religious statements. It took them a little longer to push the button, and a part of the brain having to do with uncertainty, or cognitive dissonance, lit up. If even the strongest believers are a little unsure about God, and the strongest atheists are a teeny bit anxious that they might be wrong, there's room, perhaps, for one person to begin to try to imagine the world view of another, no matter what the brain sees as true. "

I thought this was really interesting. The study makes sense to me because in my own experience the theist vs. atheist debate really does seem endless. Common sense, facts & evidence that actually exist seem to have no effect. That's why I think the mythicist position may do well as a bridge between theism vs. atheism.

What is a Mythicist?
http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/mythicist.html

I'm also reminded of this study which is NOT the same:

God on the Brain
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/godonbrain.shtml

* Join the "Separation of church and state" tribe
http://separationofchurchstate.tribe.net

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

New Film about Hypatia: Agora

Rocky — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:48:20 GMT

New Film about Hypatia: Agora

Hypatia - new film 2009
http://www.freethoughtnation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2835

New Film coming out - "Agora"
(with Rachel Weisz as Hypatia) - Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSTkMYECxX4&feature=channel

This film could be significant because it describes the barbaric history of Christianity"

The synopsis:

"4th century AD Egypt under the Roman Empire...Violent religious upheaval in the streets of Alexandria spills over into the city's famous Library. Trapped inside its walls, the brilliant astronomer Hypatia and her disciples fight to save the wisdom of the Ancient World... Among them, the two men competing for her heart: the witty, privileged Orestes and Davus, Hypatia's young slave, who is torn between his secret love for her and the freedom he knows can be his if he chooses to join the unstoppable surge of the Christians."

The death of the beautiful Hypatia marked the end of the Greek Philosophy and Science. After her murder Europe entered the Dark Ages.

Pagan Destruction Chronology (314-870 C.E)

"415 A.D.:

In Alexandria, Egypt, the mob urged by the bishop Cyrillus, attacks a few days before the judaeo-christian Pascha (Pesach-Easter) and hacks to pieces the famous and beautiful philosopher Hypatia. Pieces of her body are paraded by the christian mob through the streets of Alexandria, and are finally burned together with her books in a place called Cynaron. On 30th August, new persecutions start against all the Pagan priests of North Africa, who end their lives either crucified or burned alive. "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLzbxJ0RNFY

Official Web Site http://agorathemovie.com

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Bible scholar takes Jesus mythicist position

Rocky — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:13:42 GMT

Bible scholar takes Jesus mythicist position

Here's an examiner article about Dr. Robert Eisenman, a well-known Bible scholar, who has summarized 'The Christ Conspiracy' in the Huffington Post.

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-17009-Freethought-Examiner~y2009m9d14-The-Christ-Conspiracy-in-the-Huffington-Post?#commentswww.yahoo.com

So here's a biblical scholar acknowledging that Jesus is a myth i.e. the Mythicist Position.

* What is a Mythicist?
http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/mythicist.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Acharya S on Peter Joseph's BlogTalkRadio 9/9/09

Rocky — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:06:17 GMT

Acharya S on Peter Joseph's BlogTalkRadio 9/9/09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwZL5_DGv7Q&feature=channel

Show begins Wednesday September 9th at 3PM Eastern (12PM Pacific)

Acharya appears from 4PM Eastern (1PM Pacific)

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Peter-Joseph

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 3 replies

"Suns of God" lecture video clip

Rocky — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:18:25 GMT

"Suns of God" lecture video clip of Acharya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnpmssN7NiQ&feature=channel

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

The Mythicist Position:

Rocky — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:08:28 GMT

I have been searching for a well thoughout mythicist position to counter the theist, atheist and Euhemerus or Evemerist positions and was surprised that I was unable to find a good one anywhere. One may find these terms in dictionaries and encyclopedias but no mention of a well thoughtout mythicist position. I thought that was very odd - so I sent D.M. Murdock an e-mail and asked her about it and she organized what I consider the perfect mythicist position that works for me. It will be published in her latest book "Christ in Egypt." It takes us beyond the neverending theist/atheist debate to create a far more interesting position to take. Lets see what you think.

For those who don't know, here's some brief info about Euhemerus.

"Euhemerus was a Greek philosopher who lived about 330-260 BC who is known mainly for his radical interpretations of the Greek myths, which he felt were part of a long historical tradition by which the Gods were originally men, known for some great historical feat or some important social and cultural advancement and later raised to god-hood. This view was current in Greek intellectual circles and was popular in the early Christian period as well, probably as a way of defusing the idea of pagan religion."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euhemerus

http://www.reference.com/browse/Euhemerism

This thesis developed by Euhemerus may be called "euhemerism," "evemerism" or the "evemerist position," defined as follows:

"Evemerism represents the perspective that many of the gods and goddesses of antiquity had been real people, such as kings, queens and other heroes and legendary figures, to whose biographies were later added extraordinary and/or supernatural attributes."

So, the info above may easily be found. However, you won't find any valuable information on a well thoughout mythicist position at all - I find this utterly WEIRD! I have to wonder if it's due to censorship or suppression.

The Mythicist Position:

"Mythicism represents the perspective that many gods, goddesses and other heroes and legendary figures said to possess extraordinary and/or supernatural attributes are not "real people" but are in fact mythological characters. Along with this view comes the recognition that many of these figures personify or symbolize natural phenomena, such as the sun, moon, stars, planets, constellations, etc., constituting what is called "astrotheology." As a major example of the mythicist position, various biblical characters such as Adam and Eve, Satan, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, King David, Solomon & Jesus Christ, among other figures, in reality represent mythological characters along the same lines as the Egyptian, Sumerian, Phoenician, Indian, Greek, Roman and other godmen, who are all presently accepted as myths, rather than historical figures."

- From "Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection" by D. M. Murdock
http://stellarhousepublishing.com/christ-in-egypt-table-of-contents.html

Now, I really like this mythicist position. I'm going to submit it as an entry into dictionaries and encyclopedias.

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

"The Gospel According to Acharya S"

Rocky — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:19:24 GMT

"The Gospel According to Acharya S"
http://stellarhousepublishing.com/gospel.html

The latest book by Acharya S/ D.M. Murdock

http://www.cafepress.com/freethoughtgear

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Was Krishna's Mother a Virgin?

Rocky — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 20:44:34 GMT

Was Krishna's Mother a Virgin?

http://forums.truthbeknown.com/viewtopic.php?t=1597

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

Total Onslaught: The Islamic Connection

Rocky — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:07:02 GMT

Total Onslaught: The Islamic Connection
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=7282213372966227768

Total Onslaught- The Islam-Catholic Connection Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpNWt2aJxaQ

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Was Horus "Crucified?"

Rocky — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:00:27 GMT

Was Horus "Crucified?"

http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/washoruscrucified.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Blog: Is Jesus a Myth?

Rocky — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:25:48 GMT

Blog: Is Jesus a Myth?

http://tbknews.blogspot.com/2009/05/is-jesus-myth.html

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Adam’s Calendar

Rocky — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:08:58 GMT

Adam’s Calendar

The Oldest Man-made Structures on Earth.

Older than the Giza pyramids

Older than Stonehenge

A 75,000 year-old stone calendar - In the cradle of humankind

A new discovery of an ancient circular monolithic stone calendar site in Mpumalanga has proven to be at least 75,000 years old, pre-dating any other structure found to date. Southern Africa holds some of the deepest mysteries in all of human history. What we are told is that at around 60,000 years ago the early humans migrated from Africa and populated the rest of the world.

Who were these first humans? What did they do? And where did they disappear to?

It estimated that there are over 100 000 ancient stone ruins scattered throughout the mountains of southern Africa. Artefacts that have been recovered from these ruins show a long and extended period of settlement that spans to over 200,000 years. The most spectacular examples of these ancient ruins are RIGHT HERE within walking distance. Modern historians have been speculating about the origins of these ruins, often calling them ‘cattle kraal of little historic importance’. The truth of the matter is that closer scientific inspection shows that we actually know very little about these spectacular ancient ruins. It is a great tragedy that thousands have already been destroyed through sheer ignorance but forestry and farmers have now started to protect these ruin. Adam’s Calendar is the flagship among these ruins because we can date this monolithic calendar with relative certainty to at least 75,000 years of age based on a number of scientific evaluations. Adam’s Calendar also presents the first tangible evidence of consciousness among the earliest humans in the ‘Cradle of humankind’. The site is built along the same longitudinal line as Great Zimbabwe and the Great Pyramid. It is also aligned with the rise of Orion’s belt some 75,000 years ago.

Adam’s Calendar

This is possibly the only example of a functional, mostly in-tact monolithic stone calendar in the world."

http://www.adamscalendar.com/Welcome.html

http://www.adamscalendar.com/Movie.html

"This remarkable stone structure was originally a large circular structure resembling but predating Stonehenge by many thousands of years. Adam's calendar is built along the same longitudinal line as Great Zimbabwe and the Great Pyramid. It is also aligned with the rise of Orion's belt when it rose horizontally on the horizon some 75,000 years ago. Adam's calendar takes us further back in time closer to the emergence of Homo sapiens, than any other structure ever found to date, and it will force historians and archaeologist to reconsider ancient human activity and consciousness."
http://www.adamscalendar.com/Pod_Ruins/Entries/2009/1/11_Adam%E2%80%99s_Calendar.html

Adam's Calendar youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH1wgwe6udo

Astronomical Alignment (you need to see these photos)
http://www.makomati.com/ruins.htm

An Extract From Adam's Calendar - The Book
http://www.makomati.com/calendar.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Jesus as the Sun throughout History

Rocky — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:33:01 GMT

Jesus as the Sun throughout History by D.M. Murdock/Acharya S

"From the earliest times of Christian history, Jesus Christ has been identified with the sun. This fact is readily demonstrated through the study of ancient texts, including the Bible and works of the early Church fathers, as well as Christian traditions, rituals, architecture and artifacts. From a wide variety of sources, it is clear that associating, identifying and equating Christ with the sun began in ancient times and has continued abundantly over the many centuries since then. Includes many primary sources and quotes from credentialed authorities.

The 37-page ebook available for instant download and printing. Be sure to check out the long excerpt!"

http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/jesusasthesun.html

Be sure to check out the long excerpt!
http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/jesussunexcerpt.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

The Star in the East and Three Kings

Rocky — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:03:27 GMT

The Star in the East and Three Kings

"Over the centuries, various supposedly scientific theories have been put forth concerning this purported phenomenon that turn out to be all for naught, because this theme reveals itself to be an old mythical motif. In actuality, many ancient gods, kings and heroes were said to have been born under a 'bright star' or some other sort of celestial sign, indicating their greatness and role as 'savior' as well. Despite protests to the contrary, this heavenly theme is obviously astrological and astrotheological in nature, dating back centuries to millennia prior to the common era. Indeed, like so many other religious and mythological correspondences, the "bright star" and the "three kings" represent motifs that long predate Christianity and are found within Egyptian religion, symbolizing the star Sirius as well as those of the constellation called Orion, along with their relationship to the Egyptian deities Osiris, Isis and Horus."

For the rest, see:

http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/star-east-three-kings.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Egypt’s pyramids point towards city of Sun God

Rocky — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:50:56 GMT

Egypt’s pyramids point towards city of Sun God

"Washington, April 1 (ANI): A new study has suggested that some of Egypt’s most magnificent pyramids were deliberately designed to follow a pattern of invisible diagonal lines, which would point towards Heliopolis, the city of the Sun God.

These invisible lines would connect most of the funerary complexes raised by the kings of the Old Kingdom between 2630 and 2323 BC, Giulio Magli, professor of archaeoastronomy at Milan’s Polytechnic University, told Discovery News.

“Following these diagonals, it appears clear that the arrangement of the monuments was carefully chosen in order to satisfy a number of criteria, which include dynastic lineage, religion and astronomical alignments,” he said.

The study examined the chronology and geographical location of all the pyramids of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties, from the Step Pyramid of Djoser (2630-2611 B.C.) to the now-collapsed pyramid of Unas (2356-2323 B.C.), both in Saqqara.

“Our starting point was the so-called ‘Giza diagonal,’ an ideal line which connects the southeast corners of the three main pyramids and points to Heliopolis. This was an important religious center sacred to the sun god,” Magli said.

While the pyramids of Khufu, the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, and his son Khafre were easily aligned along the diagonal, the pyramid of Menkaure, Khufu’s grandson, had to be built very far into the desert to sit on the line of sight toward Heliopolis.

“But, there is more. As a consequence of this intentional alignment, the second smaller pyramid becomes invisible from Heliopolis, its mass being covered by Khufu’s larger pyramid,” Magli said.

As to why Khafre positioned his pyramid so that it becomes invisible from the city sacred to the sun god, Magli said that the illusion might indicate a sign of respect for the sun god, and it might also have also launched a “symbolic invisibility” model which governed the planning of the pyramids up to the end of the Fifth Dynasty.

“Under this model, the funerary monuments of the pharaohs stand one after another, marking the dynastic link with the preceding pharaoh,” Magli said. “They are linked by a diagonal which points to Heliopolis,” he added.

The northwest corners of three chronologically successive pyramids in Abu Sir - those identified with the tombs of Sahure, Neferirkare and Neferefre - align on a diagonal similar to that of Giza.

Magli found that the Abu Rawash, Giza, and Abu Sir diagonals point to three stars - Sirius, Crux-Centaurus, and Canopus, respectively.

These stars sat in alignment over the pyramids when viewed from Heliopolis."

http://www.sindhtoday.net/world/81652.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Jesus in India?

Rocky — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:48:32 GMT

Jesus in India?

http://tbknews.blogspot.com/2009/04/jesus-in-india.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Israel celebrates blessing of the sun

Rocky — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:05:49 GMT

"Beit Shemesh, ... The city's name, Hebrew for "house of sun," is assumed to have been inspired by sun god worship during the early Canaanite period."

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Israel celebrates blessing of the sun

L.A. Times
By Richard Boudreaux

Tens of thousands gathered for the Blessing of the Sun in Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount can be seen in the background as Jews recite the every-28-year blessing.

Jews come together at events marking Birkat Hachamah, which celebrates the sun's return to the exact position it occupied at the time of Creation.

Reporting from Beit Shemesh, Israel -- Our attire was about as casual as it can get for a religious celebration.

At dawn Wednesday, about two dozen runners in shorts and T-shirts charged up a hill and stopped on a ridge overlooking the Elah Valley, the biblical site of David's triumph over Goliath.

Across this spectacular vista, at this very moment, according to Talmudic calculations, the rising sun was returning to the exact position it occupied at the time of Creation. The solar phenomenon is said to recur every 28 years.

Prayer sheets were distributed, and Ari Ferziger, a lean, athletic corporate lawyer, called the group to attention.

"You're supposed to look at the sun and notice it but then look to the side," he instructed, gesturing into a cloudless sky. "We're not worshiping the sun. We're worshiping its creator."

With that, the Beit Shemesh Running Club began its Birkat Hachamah, or blessing of the sun, a joyous ritual of early morning praying, singing, clapping and dancing replicated Wednesday by observant Jews at outdoor venues across Israel and the world.

The club's six-minute observance was coupled with an eight-mile run along dirt trails in the Judean hills around Beit Shemesh, one of Israel's premier hiking and biking spots. The city's name, Hebrew for "house of sun," is assumed to have been inspired by sun god worship during the early Canaanite period.

I had asked about the event and Chaim Wizman, the club's founder and coach, had invited me to take part. As a competitive long-distance runner, I couldn't resist. And as an American gentile, I welcomed the chance to share this passion, and my attraction to milestones, with Israeli Jews.

Besides, a trail-running religious event seemed a newsworthy example of how times have changed since the last blessing of the sun, on April 8, 1981.

Thanks to the Internet and alarm over global warming, what was once a relatively simple and arcane celebration associated with black-clad ultra-Orthodox Jews has become more widespread, and infused with environmental and new age messages.

"What is it we're celebrating, essentially?" Wizman asked during the run. "We're celebrating the pristine state of nature at the moment of Creation, right? The world was created that way, you know, and we blew it. Now, the objective of mankind, in the Torah's view, is to re-achieve that pristine state."

Wizman speaks with the authority of an ordained rabbi. Like most of his teammates, he belongs to the modern Orthodox stream of Judaism, religiously observant but more accommodating to secular influences. The team admits women, and a few joined Wednesday's run.

For this band of mostly middle-aged runners, hitting the trail affirms a spiritual connection to nature and the land of Israel, to which many have immigrated. They deemed it an ideal way to mark Wednesday's celebration, which happened to coincide with the eve of Passover. Similar themes cropped up at other sun-blessing venues in Israel, including an arts, music and "healing" festival in Safed.

Even so, tens of thousands of worshipers crammed the traditional site, Jerusalem's Western Wall. And an observance in the West Bank turned violent as Palestinian rock throwers clashed with Jewish settlers greeting the sun in Bat Ayin, where last week a Palestinian killed an Israeli teenager with a pickax. Israeli soldiers intervened Wednesday and opened fire, wounding 12 Palestinians.

By contrast the scene in Beit Shemesh was idyllic.

The running course meandered past fields of wildflowers, vineyards, fruit orchards, an olive grove planted eight centuries ago, a honey farm stocked with beehives, Crusader-era ruins, and biblical battlefields where the Israelites fought the Philistines. We also passed a heavily guarded military installation and what my hosts suspect is a nuclear missile silo.

There was no danger of getting lost. Among the group was Lt. Col. Ophir Dor, who designs global positioning systems for the Israeli military.

Along the way, we shared reflections on our own lives: what had changed over the last 28 years and what we envisioned for the year 2037.

"Guys, just think how old you're going to be next time this happens," Wizman told them early in the run.

"In 28 years, hopefully I'm speaking Hebrew," said Rich Levitas, a 49-year-old American-born Web designer who is struggling with the language a decade after moving here.

"Let's not get carried away," a fellow runner quipped.

"And also in 28 years, maybe I can finally break three hours in the marathon," added Levitas, whose best time for the 26.2-mile race is 3:04.

Rael Strous and Johnny Burg were 10th-graders from South Africa in 1981 when their tour group insisted on joining the sun blessing at the Western Wall on its final morning in Israel. The group raced to the airport afterward, barely making the flight home.

Years later Strous and Burg found themselves living in the same neighborhood of Beit Shemesh, working as a psychiatrist and a lawyer, respectively.

Yitz Corn, a 43-year-old information technology consultant, reflected on the intergenerational passage of life and his father's death a few years ago at age 76. He said he had taken up running shortly afterward, with the hope of living longer, and had since lost 60 pounds.

"My son is 14," he said. "Hopefully I'll be there for him at the next Birkat Hachamah, when he'll be almost 43."

Like most everyone blessing the sun this time, Strous is aware that the ancient calculation of its 28-year cycle has been proved inexact. But to him, it's close enough to justify the tradition.

"You long for something that comes every so often, a phenomenon of belonging together at a cosmic level," he said during our charge up the hill. "That kind of event challenges us to grow, to feel part of something bigger. That's the essence of it: being part of something greater than yourself."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-israel-sun-blessing9-2009apr09,0,5791431.story

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

"Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection"

Rocky — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 19:40:58 GMT

"Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection" - Book Description, Table of Contents and Book Cover:

At Stellar House Publishing
http://stellarhousepublishing.com/christ-in-egypt-table-of-contents.html

At the forum
http://forums.truthbeknown.com/viewtopic.php?p=14384#14384

http://stellarhousepublishing.com/christinegyptcoverlarge.jpg

"Destined to be a classic enjoyed by both the professional scholar and the lay person, this comparative religion book contains a startling perspective of the extraordinary history of the Egyptian religion and its profound influence upon the later Christian faith. Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection uses a massive amount of primary sources and the works of highly credentialed authorities in relevant fields to demonstrate that the popular gods Horus and Jesus possessed many characteristics and attributes in common.

Drawing from thousands of ancient Egyptian texts in an assortment of translations along with the original language, as well as modern research in a number of other languages, controversial independent scholar of comparative religion and mythology D.M. Murdock puts together an astonishing amount of fascinating information that shows many of our most cherished religious beliefs and concepts did not appear suddenly out of the blue but have long histories in numerous cultures found around the globe, including and especially in the glorious Land of the Pharaohs.

D.M. Murdock, also known as "Acharya S," is the author of the bestselling books The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold; Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled; and Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ. Ms Murdock's books focus largely on the history and origins of religion, dating back thousands of years and encompassing religious ideologies and beliefs of a wide variety that nevertheless reveal common cultural heritage and a keen interest in and reverence for the natural world.

Christ in Egypt will be around 600 pages and contains over 2,200 footnotes/citations, utilizing over 750 sources that include books by respected publishers and peer-reviewed journals. There will also be dozens of illustrations."

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 4 replies

Christian Apologist: "ZEITGEIST is Right"

Rocky — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:56:24 GMT

A new blog:

Christian Apologist: "ZEITGEIST is Right"

http://tbknews.blogspot.com/2009/03/christian-apologist-zeitgeist-is-right.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Double-Crossed by the Bishop

Rocky — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:08:05 GMT

Double-Crossed by the Bishop

On March 4th 2009, Acharya S (D.M. Murdock) was a guest on "The Sacred Division" radio show, hosted by Bishop James Long. She was asked by them to be on the show to discuss her new book titled "Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection" and they told her that they had 1.2 million listeners. She wasn't feeling well but she did the show anyway.

However, it soon became clear that Bishop Long had another agenda. Here are a couple excerpts spliced together in a short youtube video. One is towards the beginning of the show around 10 minutes into the show & the other starting at 5:15 on the youtube version is from around 1 hour into the full version show - where the Bishop gets pissed-off and disrespectfully hangs up on the guest and continues to insult her after he hangs up on her. Later, he incites hatred and violence against the makers of Zeitgeist and all those who had any part in it.

You can listen to the full version by clicking on the link in the information box on the right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP3g66IdSVQ

"Acharya on The Sacred Division" - blog
http://spacemanjupiter.blogspot.com

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Easter: The Resurrection of Spring

Rocky — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:13:19 GMT

Easter: The Resurrection of Spring

Excerpted and Adapted from
Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection
http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/easter-resurrection.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

Radio Show on the Horus Jesus Connection

Rocky — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:15:00 GMT

Radio Show on the Horus Jesus Connection

with Gnostic Media Podcast # 021 March 09, 2009

http://tbknews.blogspot.com/2009/03/radio-show-on-horus-jesus-connection.html

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Who Is Gerald Massey?

Rocky — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:14:10 GMT

Who Is Gerald Massey?

Excerpted from
Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection
http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/who-is-gerald-massey.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

UN "Blasphemy Resolution"

Rocky — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 06:13:27 GMT

UN "Blasphemy Resolution"

UN Sets Dangerous Precedent with "Defamation of Religions" Resolutions

February 13,2009

"The basic human right to freedom of expression is increasingly under threat as countries introduce and enforce laws that have been wrongfully legitimized by numerous United Nations resolutions on "defamation of religions." In a statement sent to the UN Human Rights Council today, Freedom House and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty strongly urged members of the council to reject any further resolutions when they meet in Geneva for the upcoming 10th Session March 2-27, and to further reject any attempts to create international instruments or mechanisms that would prohibit "defamation of religions."

The statement explains how such resolutions directly violate international law and can encourage countries to increase the repression of religious minorities, political dissidents and human rights advocates. It points to a 2008 joint report by two UN special rapporteurs that soundly rejects the premise that the rights of religious believers are violated by merely hearing statements critical of their faith: "Defamation of religions may offend people and hurt their religious feelings but it does not necessarily or at least directly result in a violation of their rights."

Several recent high-profile cases have highlighted the growing conflict between freedom of expression and so-called religious "defamation." This month, Indian authorities arrested the editor and the publisher of the Statesman, after Muslims protested the newspaper reprinting an article from the United Kingdom's Independent titled, "Why should I respect these oppressive religions?" The article decried the erosion of the right to criticize religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

In another case, Random House backed out of a deal last year to publish "The Jewel of Medina," a fictional novel about one of the wives of Muhammad citing concerns that "the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community" and that it could "incite acts of violence." In September, Gibson Books announced it would publish the book in the United Kingdom, but the publisher's home and office were fire bombed three weeks later. The book was eventually published in the United States by Beaufort Books.

"Although we are sympathetic to the stated goals of the resolutions of combating intolerance, racism, and religious hatred, we believe that such resolutions do not serve to achieve these goals but rather limit the ability of individuals to raise questions, concerns, and even criticisms at a time when people of all faiths need to engage in more, not less, dialogue," said Freedom House and the Becket Fund.

The full text of the statement follows:

Concern over UN Resolutions on "Combating Defamation of Religions"

1. On the occasion of the 10th Session of the Human Rights Council, Freedom House and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty express concern over the resolutions on "combating defamation of religions" adopted by the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly since 1999[1]. We urge members of the Council to reject such resolutions in the future and further urge them to reject attempts to create international instruments or mechanisms that would prohibit "defamation of religions."

2. Although we are sympathetic to the stated goals of the resolutions of combating intolerance, racism, and religious hatred, we believe that such resolutions do not serve to achieve these goals but rather limit the ability of individuals to raise questions, concerns, and even criticisms at a time when people of all faiths need to engage in more, not less, dialogue. Moreover, we believe these resolutions directly violate existing international law regarding the fundamental freedoms of expression, thought, conscience and religion.

3. In particular, the resolutions should be rejected on the grounds that 1) the term "defamation of religions" is overly vague, open to abuse, and inconsistent with traditional defamation legislation; 2) the resolutions attempt to provide rights to a belief or idea rather than an individual or group of individuals in contradiction of existing international law; 3) the concept of "defamation of religions" restricts freedom of expression beyond accepted limitations defined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; 4) the concept of "defamation of religions" violates the universal right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; and 5) the concept of "defamation of religions" falsely equates religious belief with race.

Problems with the definition of "defamation of religions"

4. The term "defamation of religions" has not been clearly defined and is therefore subject to misuse and abuse. The legal term "defamation" is typically defined as the spreading of mistruths intended to harm an individual's reputation and livelihood. However, by attempting to apply such a definition to ideas or religious beliefs, which by their very nature conflict with opposing ideas or religious beliefs, it is impossible to evaluate whether ideas or religious beliefs represent truths or mistruths. As was noted in the Becket Fund's "Issues Brief for the OHCHR" of June 2008, "religions make conflicting truth claims and indeed the diversity of truth claims is something that religious freedom as a concept is designed to protect."[2] Thus, the concept of "defamation of religions" can be defined as the expression of ideas or beliefs that simply conflict with or offend the ideas of others.

5. Further, because the resolutions call on States to enact necessary legislation to prohibit the advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred, it would be left up to governments to define whether ideas expressed are offensive or, in the language of the resolution, "defame" a religious belief. Governments would thus be forced to pick and choose among competing faith claims.

6. In countries with domestic laws that use equally vague or poorly defined language to restrict individuals from "defaming" or "defiling" religions, the government often "picks" the majority religion over minority religions. These laws are frequently applied to punish individuals from expressing questions, concerns and criticisms of the majority religion.[3] The application of similar legal mechanisms at the international level would not only legitimate such existing problematic domestic legislation, but would result in a greater proliferation of such legislation to other countries.
Problems with providing rights to a belief or idea rather than individuals

7. International law regarding freedom of religion and expression, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), has been established to protect individuals and in some case groups of individuals from the violation of their rights. Thus, Articles 18 of both the UDHR and the ICCPR states, "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion." (Emphasis added.) Articles 19 of both documents define the right of "everyone" to freedom of opinion and expression free from interference. (Emphasis added.)

8. These documents lay out the right of individuals to hold and express beliefs and ideas and are designed to protect them from discrimination based on their beliefs. However, these documents are not intended to protect the beliefs themselves from criticism or even attack.

9. As the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief together with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance wrote in a joint report presented at a special seminar on this topic held by the OHCHR in October, 2008.

"Defamation of religions may offend people and hurt their religious feelings but it does not necessarily or at least directly result in a violation of their rights, including their right to freedom of religion. Freedom of religion primarily confers a right to act in accordance with one's religion but does not bestow a right for believers to have their religion itself protected from all adverse comment."[4]

Violations of freedom of expression

10. Article 19 of the ICCPR states that, "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice."

11. The right to free expression and the right to impart information and ideas of all kinds is not intended to be absolute, but rather is restricted by Article 20 of the ICCPR, which calls on signatories to create law prohibiting the "advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence." While this language of the ICCPR is itself overly vague and could be better defined, it is our belief that the term "defamation"-because it can be interpreted so broadly-does not necessarily cross the line of inciting discrimination, hostility or violence.

12. In other words, because the definition of "defamation" can be interpreted to include ideas or beliefs that simply conflict with or offend the ideas of others, the term oversteps the restrictions on free expression laid out in international law and places unnecessary and dangerous restrictions on the ability of individuals to freely express conflicting beliefs or to address disagreements through peaceful public debate. Such restrictions will have the opposite effect of increasing religious intolerance and hatred than what the resolutions on "combating defamation of religions" are purportedly designed to combat.

Violations of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion

13. Article 18 of the ICCPR protects not only the freedom to have or adopt a particular religion or belief, but also protects an individual's freedom to manifest his religion or belief.[5] As stated in General Comment No. 22, the freedom to manifest religion includes the sharing of beliefs, thoughts, and ideas.[6] It is this right to manifest belief that allows for inter-religious dialogue efforts to occur within the walls of the UN and around the world. Initiatives like the UN's Alliance of Civilizations[7] and the Saudi Culture of Peace initiative rely upon the free exchange of ideas and beliefs. Yet such initiatives are in direct contradiction to the concept of "defamation of religions."

Conflation of Race and Religion

14. The conflation of race and religion diminishes the uniqueness of both race and religion. Unlike immutable race, religion involves the freedom to follow one's conscience, and implies dialogue and debate with others about the truth claims involved. Treating racial and religious discrimination as the same thing thus confuses racist hate speech with debate about (sometimes controversial) competing truth claims. Whereas one can easily identify and narrowly define racist hate speech, it is not nearly so simple to define what falls into the category of "defamation of religion," which as currently characterized can include any controversial truth claim about someone's religion. Race-based speech restrictions have never been used to cut off discussion about racial identity, whereas the "defamation of religion" measures by definition prohibit controversial discussion of religious belief.

Notes:

1. Commission on Human Rights Res. 1999/82, 2000/84, 2001/4, 2002/9, 2003/4, 2004/6, 2005/3; Human Rights Council Res. 4/9, 7/19; General Assembly Res. 60/150, 61/164, 62/154, 63/3.

2. "Combating Defamation of Religions," Becket Fund for Religious Liberty Issues Brief, p. 5 (submitted June 2, 2008).

3. In Egypt, bloggers, such as Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, have been arrested for posting criticisms of Islam. In Pakistan, defiling Islam is punishable by death and insulting another's religious feelings can result in a ten-year prison sentence. In Saudi Arabia, all Saudis are required by law to be Muslim. Source: Freedom in the World 2008, Freedom House (2008).
In Russia, television stations of have been sued for blasphemous content in the popular television show "South Park." Source: "Russian prosecutors in bid to ban South Park" The Times, September 8, 2008. Available at
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4704089.ece (February 1, 2009).

4. Asma Jahangir, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief and Doudou Diene, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, "Conference Room Paper #4," presented at the Expert seminar on the links between articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR): Freedom of expression and advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (October 2-3, 2008).

5. ICCPR Article 18: "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching."

6. CCPR General Comment 22: 30/07/93 on ICCPR Article 18: "The freedom to manifest religion or belief may be exercised 'either individually or in community with others and in public or private'. The freedom to manifest religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching encompasses a broad range of acts."

7. http://www.unaoc.org/content/view/63/79/lang,english/

http://newsblaze.com/story/20090213150511zzzz.nb/topstory.html

U.N. Anti-Blasphemy Resolution Curtails Free Speech, Critics Say http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,432502,00.html

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 3 replies

Skeptic Mangles ZEITGEIST

Rocky — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:53:35 GMT

Acharya has responded to Callahan's article -

Skeptic Mangles ZEITGEIST
(and Religious History)
http://stellarhousepublishing.com/skeptic-zeitgeist.html

She mops the floor with him demonstrating that when it comes to the facts surrounding Zeitgeist part 1 he doesn't know what he's talking about after all.

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David Mills author of "Atheist Universe"

Rocky — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:38:43 GMT

Best-selling author David Mills of "Atheist Universe" has recently written a review of D.M. Murdock's book titled "Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ." Folks here may appreciate his review:

Here are a few of his comments:

"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. This question, and many others related to New Testament reliability, are directly confronted and satisfyingly answered in 'Who Was Jesus?' I loved this book. It is absolutely superb in every way, from the eloquence of the writing to the integrity of the scholarship. This book should be required reading in every American classroom....

"My personal recommendation is that 'Who Was Jesus?' should be the first book purchased and studied by anyone, atheist or true believer, who wants to debate Jesus' existence and the Bible's veracity.... You should therefore make this book priority reading even over 'The God Delusion,' 'God is Not Great' and other excellent but, in my opinion, less important books than Murdock's....

"To summarize: D.M. Murdock's 'Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ' is unquestionably one of the finest and most enjoyable books I've ever read."

Check out the full review here -
http://stellarhousepublishing.com/david-mills-wwj.html

and here http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/whowasjesus1.html

Here is Davids website - http://davidmills.net

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

"Zeitgeist Debunked? Don't Make Me Laugh!"

Rocky — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:42:35 GMT

LOL, check out this new video: "Zeitgeist Debunked? Don't Make Me Laugh! (Part 1)" by ChelevSaRa - it's in 3 parts. I like the guys comical tones throughout the 3 part series.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72FMrK7985c

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

We three kings... new video

Rocky — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:06:04 GMT

We three kings...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6GjJ82EpcGE

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Pope Admits Jesus is the SUN

Rocky — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:10:27 GMT

Pope Admits Jesus is the SUN

An interesting article today on the Italian newspaper "La Stampa":

Benedetto XVI: «Lui e altri scienziati ci hanno fatto capire le leggi naturali»
21 December 2008

Google translate from Italian:

Benedict XVI: "He and other scientists have made us understand the natural laws'
December 21, 2008

CITY OF VATICAN
Benedict XVI recalled this morning at the Angelus before Christmas the figure of Galileo Galilei and other scientists who made us to understand the laws of nature and therefore the work of the Lord.

The fact that today, Dec. 21 - Ratzigner explained to the crowd of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square - in the same time, falls the winter solstice, gives me the opportunity to greet all those who participate in various ways to initiatives for the year world of astronomy, 2009, held in the 4th centenary of the first comments to the telescope by Galileo Galilei. Among my venerated predecessors of memory - continued the Pope - were devotees of this science, as Sylvester II, that taught, Gregory XIII, and we owe our calendar, and St. Pius X, who knew build solar watches '.

If the heavens, according to the fine words of the Psalmist, telling the glory of God, "even the laws of nature, which over the centuries many men and women of science have made us understand better and better, I am a great stimulus to contemplate with gratitude the work of the Lord. Benedict XVI then recalled that astronomy has an important role in the scan time of prayer during the day and the Piazza San Pietro with its obelisk is a sundial that marks the hours of the day. The mystery of salvation, as well as historic - said the Pope - has a cosmic dimension: Christ is the sun of grace, with its light, and transfigures the universe turns on hold. The location of the feast of Christmas itself is linked to the winter solstice, when the days, in the northern hemisphere, start to grow longer again.

In this regard - added the Pope - perhaps not everyone knows that Piazza San Pietro is also a sundial: the great obelisk, it casts its shadow across a line that runs on the pavement toward the fountain toward this window, and in these days the shadow is the longest of the Year. This reminds us - added the pontiff - the role of astronomy in the scan time of prayer. The Angelus, for example, is recited morning, noon and evening, and the meridian, which formerly was used for knowing the "true noon" is governing watches."

source: http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/cronache/200812articoli/39412girata.asp

Other sources:
http://www.zenit.org/article-16611?l=italian
http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Cronaca/?id=3.0.2838599856
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=14060&size=A

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Encyclopedia Mythica

Rocky — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:02:33 GMT

Encyclopedia Mythica

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Atheists' Holiday sign stolen/ found at Xian Radio Station

Rocky — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:51:32 GMT

Atheists' Holiday sign stolen/ found at Xian Radio Station

A sign similar to these photos in this link -
http://www.ffrf.org/news/2008/reasonsgreetings_madison.php

reads:

“At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF.org) co-president AND former Preacher of 20 years, Dan Barker flew to Olympia, Wash. to dedicate the first Winter Solstice display at the Washington State Capitol.

It was STOLEN Dec 5th and later found supposedly in a ditch and brought to a Christian radio station.

Another FFRF co-founder said:

"The incident will not stifle the group's message, Gaylor said. Before reports of the placard's recovery, she said a temporary sign with the same message would be placed in the building's Rotunda. Gaylor said a note would be attached saying, "Thou shalt not steal."

"I guess they don't follow their own commandments," Gaylor said. "There's nothing out there with the atheist point of view, and now there is such a firestorm that we have the audacity to exist. And then [whoever took the sign] stifles our speech."

Washington State Patrol Sgt. Ted said police are checking security cameras.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/12/05/atheists.christmas/?iref=mpstoryview

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 2 replies

Secular Solstice and Equinox Celebrations: Community without the Dogma

Rocky — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:26:58 GMT

Secular Solstice and Equinox Celebrations: Community without the Dogma

A great way to create a community without all the dogma is through Secular Solstice & Equinox Celebrations.

I think Freethinkers should challenge traditional religious holiday celebrations. Such as "Christmas" and "Easter" for example. There are perfectly valid and scientific reasons to celebrate the solstices and equinoxes. And especially the winter solstice and the spring equinox ... without any need for religious under pinnings at all. We do *NOT* need religion to celebrate these natural phenomena whatsoever.

Challenge Religious Tradition with Secular Solstice and Equinox Celebrations. Today, we find Freethinkers getting involved in the winter solstice fun:

"ATHEISTS: There has been a recent increase in solstice observances by Atheists in the U.S. For example, The American Atheists and local Atheist groups have organized celebrations for 2000-DEC, including the Great North Texas Infidel Bash in Weatherford TX; Winter Solstice bash in Roselle NJ; Winter Solstice Parties in York PA, Boise ID, North Bethesda MD, and Des Moines IA; Winter Solstice Gatherings in Phoenix AZ and Denver CO: a Year End Awards and Review Dinner (YEAR) in San Francisco, CA."
http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm

1st Ever Winter Solstice Webcast:

"For the first time ever, the 2007 Winter Solstice illumination of the passage and chamber at Newgrange will be streamed live on the internet.

The webcast and an exhibition at the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Centre celebrates the 40th Anniversary of the re-discovery of the Winter Solstice Phenomenon at Newgrange by Professor O’Kelly in 1967.

The Winter Solstice event from inside the chamber at Newgrange will be broadcast on the mornings of Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd December 2007. If conditions are good the rising sun will illuminate the passage and chamber between 8:58am and 9:15am GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)."

"Each year the winter solstice event attracts much attention at Newgrange. Many gather at the ancient tomb to wait for dawn, as people did 5,000 years ago."
http://www.newgrange.com/webcast.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Standing with Stones

Rocky — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:31:11 GMT

Standing with Stones

"A clip from the new DVD 'Standing with Stones'. More info at: http://www.standingwithstones.com Over two years in the making, this film is an entirely independent production conceived and executed by two men with a passion for ancient megalithic sites. Rupert Soskin and Michael Bott have created a totally unique film that goes beyond Stonehenge to deliver a stunning journey through England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, visiting over 100 extraordinary Neolithic & Bronze Age sites along the way."

Trailer for 'Standing with Stones' DVD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bop3NpuYgKc&feature=related

http://www.standingwithstones.com

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Freethought Radio Dec 6th: Barbara Walker

Rocky — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:17:33 GMT

Freethought Radio Dec 6th: Barbara Walker

Weekend of December 6, 2008
Guest: Author Barbara G. Walker
Topic: The Winter Solstice - The Reason for the Season

"Dan and Annie Laurie will announce various Winter Solstice initiatives of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, air news clips about FFRF Winter Solstice Displays at State Capitols and its new "Reason's Greetings" billboards (including Bill O'Reilly ranting against them), and play a little tongue in cheek seasonal music.

They will also interview scholar and author Barbara G. Walker, about the real meaning of the season and everything they didn't teach you about the origins of "Christmas" in Sunday School! Walker is Freethought Today's columnist and author of the monumental Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets"

"Freethought Radio streams live over Air America. In most locations, the show airs Saturdays, 1-2 p.m. Eastern. Check your local listing to confirm times.

Freethought Radio is streamed live at The Mic 92.1, Madison, Wis., every Saturday from 11 a.m. - noon CDT."

http://www.ffrf.org/radio/

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Creator of Zeitgeist: viewed 50 MILLION times

Rocky — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:29:24 GMT

Creator of Zeitgeist: viewed *50 MILLION* times

Peter Joseph, the creator of the Zeitgeist Movie said on "Coast to Coast" that Zeitgeist has now been viewed around *50 MILLION* times.

This would of course, include views worldwide in several languages. Listen to it at 3:45 in part 1, on youtube titled,

"Peter Joseph Interview Nov. 15th '08"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaF43UO9Aro

That is absolutely fantastic!!!

For a short re-cap, checkout this video clip titled, "ZEITGEIST, Part 1" (3rd video down) at this website:

http://www.truthbeknown.com/videos.html

Also be sure to checkout, "Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection"
http://stellarhousepublishing.com/christ-in-egypt-table-of-contents.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

The Bibles Buried Secrets - PBS Documentary

Rocky — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:43:15 GMT

The Bibles Buried Secrets - PBS Documentary

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/program.html

---

The Bible is Myth?!

"In November 2008, PBS will air a TV special claiming that the biblical patriarch Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were not historical persons but were "myths." The documentary will also declare the fabulous Israelite Exodus to be mythical, rather than representing a miraculous "historical" event...."

http://tbknews.blogspot.com/2008/07/bible-is-myth.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Christ_Conspiracy/message/11847

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Astrotheology in Illinois

Rocky — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:45:07 GMT

Astrotheology in Illinois

"The Cahokia community was constructed abruptly at around 1050 A.D., when about 10,000 people suddenly moved to this sparsely populated land for no historically documented reason, Pauketat's research contends.

"Cahokia has some kind of power that people somehow want to be there or emulate it," he said.

When those early Native Americans moved to Cahokia, they developed a new style of house, and the citizens of the newly formed city created cultural objects with a new level of intensity, Pauketat said.

Pauketat believes so many people flocked to Cahokia so suddenly because a new religion, which offered something to its followers, may have been formed at the time.

"It must be more than a charismatic person saying 'hey come follow me' to pull this off," said Pauketat.

Evidence of missionary work in surrounding cities is present in the archeology of the area, and there even appears to be some Mexican influence on Cahokia's culture.

Signs of human sacrifice, originally a part of Mexican culture, are quite present in the city and the surrounding dig sites. According to Pauketat, pits of sacrificed women were found buried underneath large wooden posts and appear to be the end result of a Cahokian ritual.

Mexican influence on Cahokia can also be seen in the material culture found at the dig site. Earrings in the shape of human heads are distinctly Mexican, yet they were found during excavations of the city. Pauketat also believes that Mississippians traveled to Mexico, brought back its culture, and incorporated it into the Cahokian way of life.

Very strong cosmic references also exist in the layout of the city and surrounding area.

Every building in Cahokia has a layout perfectly aligned to a rare cosmic event that only happens every 18.6 years, called a lunar standstill, said Pauketat. Some structures built at Cahokia are even aligned with different cosmic events such as the solar or lunar solstice.

Pauketat's research at Cahokia's sister site, Emerald City, shows that the buildings there are aligned with the lunar standstill as well.

http://tnjn.com/2008/nov/13/professor-shares-analysis-of-a/

That should be Emerald Mound, not Emerald City (though it may well have been home to a Wizard...)

More on Cahokia:

http://www.cahokiamounds.com

And on Emerald Mound:

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/mounds/eme.htm

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The Jesus Challenge

Rocky — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 03:29:10 GMT

The Jesus Challenge

Whether you may be a Christian who believes in the biblical Jesus or a freethinking skeptic who believes in a historical Jesus, there are some questions that must be answered:

* Why don't we have the original Gospels in their original language written by the hand of actual eye witnesses of Jesus with the correct authorship and dates on them?

* Why were the Gospels originally written in Greek when Jesus supposedly spoke Aramaic?

* Why do Christians uphold the King James Version of the bible as the inerrant word of God when it contains literally thousands of errors?

* How many Christians can read the bible in its original languages i.e. Hebrew and Greek?

* The Gospels as we have them today did not enter the historical or literary records until toward the end of the second century around 180CE - WHY? Prior to that the Gospels were anonymous. That's 150 years after the supposed death of Jesus!!! How can this be if they're suppose to be written by eye witnesses?

* The canonical Gospels are not considered reliable accounts of history by biblical scholars - WHY?

* The epistles of Paul were written long after Jesus supposedly lived and resurrected from the dead - why do they lack any facts about Jesus' life?

* Why didn't Jesus/God leave behind valid, convincing evidence to alleviate Christians from persecution and ridicule and to convince the rest of the world of his existence?

* Why didn't anyone ever describe what Jesus looked like?

* If Jesus was a "carpenter" why don't we have anything created by his hand?

* Why isn't there any artwork, writings or carvings by the hand of Jesus or anything to demonstrate a historical Jesus?

* Where are the court documents for the trials & crucifixion of Jesus proving a historical Jesus?

* Why doesn't the 10 commandments unmistakably forbid war, tyranny, taking over other people’s countries, slavery, exploitation of workers, cruelty to children, wife-beating, stoning, treating women--or anyone--as chattel or inferior beings, government corruption?

* There are over 20 passages in the bible claiming that Jesus was famed far & wide: Mt 4:23-25, 5:1, 8:1, 8:18, 9:8, 9:31, 9:33, 9:36, 11:7, 12:15, 13:2, 14:1, 14:13, 14:22, 15:30, 19:2, 21:9, 26:55; Mk 1:28, 10:1; Lk 4:14, 4:37, 5:15, 14:25 - Why didn't any contemporary historians write anything about Jesus?

* Why do Christians hold-up the writings of Josephus (37-100 CE), Pliny the Younger (62-113 CE), Tacitus (c. 56-120 CE), Suetonius (c. 69-c. 122 CE), as the very best so-called "evidence" for Jesus when even *IF* we consider their writings authentic they are far too late to be considered eye witnesses as they were all born after Jesus' supposed death?

* If Jesus lived and the bible is true then why the need for Christians destroy all the Pagan temples, writings, history and kill the Pagan Priests?

* If Christianity is the one true faith then, why isn't the world convinced?

* The cross is the most important symbol to Christians representing eternal life - how is that any kind of a new divine revelation when the cross/ankh existed in ancient Egypt symbolizing eternal life?

* The primary passage for the Rapture is 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. Christians are gleefully awaiting Jesus' 2nd coming & rapture etc - WHY, when Jesus said "...There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." (Matthew 16:28 KJV) ? Or in Matthew 24:34 Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."

Jesus is implying that he would return within the lifetime of his contemporaries, and indeed the Apostles expected Jesus to return before the passing of their generation. Isn't that a failed prophecy? If not, then why did Jesus lead them to believe he would return before their own death? Shouldn't he have said something?

* Why should anyone accept the biblical story of Jesus as historical fact when 1.) There's no valid scientific evidence supporting it and 2.) We have similar concepts via Pagan religions long prior to Christianity.

* Where's the genealogy of Jesus' family tree? Where are his family today? And why didn't anyone in Jesus' immediate family write anything at the time about Jesus at all to pass on? We have no writings from any siblings or descendants claiming any heritage whatsoever.

How in the world can anyone believe the biblical character named Jesus existed when it appears he simply appeared for 30 to 33 years and just vanished with out a trace - and I guess his immediate family disappeared too as there is no trace left, no genealogy of Jesus' family tree to track down.

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God in the Box Film

Rocky — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 05:12:02 GMT

This looks like it will be a very interesting documentary:

God in the Box Film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5lj09GubwE

P.S. You'll see a clip of Acharya at 2:05 through 2:45

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

The Venus Project

Rocky — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:16:12 GMT

The Venus Project

"The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. There are many people today who are concerned with the serious problems that face our modern society: unemployment, violent crime, replacement of humans by technology, over-population and a decline in the Earth's ecosystems. As you will see, The Venus Project is dedicated to confronting all of these problems by actively engaging in the research, development, and application of workable solutions. Through the use of innovative approaches to social awareness, educational incentives, and the consistent application of the best that science and technology can offer directly to the social system, The Venus Project offers a comprehensive plan for social reclamation in which human beings, technology, and nature will be able to coexist in a long-term, sustainable state of dynamic equilibrium.

The plans for the Venus Project offer society a broader spectrum of choices based on the scientific possibilities inherent in current technology and direct that knowledge toward a new era of peace and sustainability for all cultures. Through the implementation of a resource-based economy, and a multitude of innovative and environmentally friendly technologies directly applied to the social system, The Venus Project proposals will dramatically reduce crime, poverty, hunger, homelessness, and many other pressing problems that are common throughout the world today.

One of the cornerstones of the organization's findings is the fact that many of the dysfunctional behaviors of today's society stem directly from the dehumanizing environment inherent in the existing monetary system. Moreover, the currently utilized random implementation of automation and other technologies have resulted in a fragmented, self-defeating trend occurring throughout the manufacturing and high-tech sectors of today's global economy--namely the technological replacement of human labor by machines. The Venus Project proposes a social system in which automation and technology would be intelligently applied and integrated into an overall social design where the primary function would be to maximize the quality of life rather than profits. This project also introduces a set of workable and acceptable human values that are more appropriate and in balance with our present state of technology."

http://www.thevenusproject.com

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

I "love religion" by Acharya S

Rocky — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:57:46 GMT

I thought some here might appreciate this recent comment by Acharya S

I "love religion" by Acharya S

-------------------------

Hi there -

Well, it seems some people were pretty amazed by my last message, in
which I clarified that I am not "anti-religion," per se, but that I "love
religion."

One person asked, "What's to love?" Another individual thought I was
backing down from my long-held position of being a fierce critic of
religion.

Not to worry! I will NEVER stop criticizing the depraved aspects of
religion. But, again, I am not "anti-religion" in that I want it all
stamped out and banned.

As I have explained many times over the years, I have been fascinated
with the world's religions since I was very young. I have dedicated my
life to studying religion - and exposing BOTH the good and bad aspects
of it. In short, one generally does not dedicate one's life to
something one hates. (Obviously, a case could be made for various
occupations.) Hence, I say I love religion, because it fascinates me as the most
profound mental exploration a human being can engage in.

I thought I would pass along a "little" side project I've been working
on, while I'm finishing up my book "Christ in Egypt," that illustrates
my passion - and LOVE - for religion. Call it MYTHOLOGY, if that makes
you feel better!

http://forums.truthbeknown.com/viewtopic.php?t=2271

On my forum, I have been discussing various ancient Egyptian hymns and
spells, including this lovely prayer to the Sun:

You are the light, which rises for humankind;
the sun, which brings clarity,
so that gods and humans be recognised and distinguished
when you reveal yourself.
Every face lives from seeing your beauty,
all seed germinates when touched by your rays,
and there is no-one who can live without you.
You lead everyone, because they have a duty to their work.
You have given form to their life, by becoming visible.

(Dr. Jan Assman, "Egyptian Solar Religion of the New Kingdom," 78.)

Now, THIS is what I love about religion - the beauty, poetry and grace.
There is much more of the same, as well as other passages from the
Egyptian texts that reveal religious and spiritual concepts found in the
later Christianity, on my forum -

http://forums.truthbeknown.com/viewtopic.php?t=2271

Go take a look!

Acharya S/D.M. Murdock
http://TruthBeKnown.com
http://StellarHousePublishing.com
http://TBKNews.blogspot.com

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Bill Maher Raises Horus from the Dead

Rocky — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:09:28 GMT

Enjoy the blog - "Bill Maher Raises Horus from the Dead"

http://tbknews.blogspot.com/2008/10/bill-maher-raises-horus-from-dead.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Rowan Atkinson Amazing Jesus - VIDEO

Rocky — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 05:29:46 GMT

Rowan Atkinson Amazing Jesus - VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTzXJMU1sLc&feature=related

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Oldest New Testament Bible heads into cyberspace

Rocky — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:40:54 GMT

Oldest New Testament Bible heads into cyberspace

"BERLIN (Reuters) - More than 1,600 years after it was written in Greek, one of the oldest copies of the Bible will become globally accessible online for the first time this week.

From Thursday, sections of the Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the oldest complete New Testament, will be available on the Internet, said the University of Leipzig, one of the four curators of the ancient text worldwide.

High resolution images of the Gospel of Mark, several Old Testament books, and notes on the work made over centuries will appear on www.codex-sinaiticus.net as a first step towards publishing the entire manuscript online by next July.

Ulrich Johannes Schneider, director of Leipzig University Library, which holds part of the manuscript, said the publication of the Codex online would allow anyone to study a work of "fundamental" importance to Christians.

"A manuscript is going onto the net which is like nothing else online to date," Schneider said. "It's also an enrichment of the virtual world -- and a bit of a change from YouTube."

Selected translations will be available in English and German for those not conversant in ancient Greek, he added.

Dating from around 350, the document is believed by experts to be the oldest known copy of the Bible, along with the Codex Vaticanus, another ancient version of the Bible, Schneider said.

The vellum manuscript came to Europe piece by piece from Saint Catherine's Monastery by Mount Sinai after German biblical scholar Konstantin von Tischendorf found a number of folios there in 1844. He was allowed to take some to Leipzig.

Tischendorf returned to the monastery in 1859 with Russian backing and acquired the biggest section of the Bible for his imperial sponsors. It remained in St. Petersburg until the Soviet Union sold it to the British Museum in 1933.

"The first section was clearly a gift to Tischendorf, but that's not so clear in the case of the second portion. The monks all signed a contract at the time, but the rumor persists that they were given a raw deal," said Schneider.

"And there is probably some truth to this."

Subsequent discoveries meant that the original Codex, missing roughly half the Old Testament, is now housed at four locations in Europe and the Middle East.

The project, launched in cooperation with the Russian National Library, the British Library and Saint Catherine's Monastery, also details the condition of the Bible, believed to have been written by early Christians in Egypt.

"I think it's just fantastic that thanks to technology we can now make the oldest cultural artifacts -- ones that were once so precious you couldn't show them to anyone -- accessible to everyone, in really high quality," said Schneider."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080721/lf_nm_life/bible_internet_dc

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 2 replies

There's lots of evidence for Jesus! - VIDEO

Rocky — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:57:11 GMT

I hear people claiming that there is more evidence for Jesus than there is for Julius Caesar, Socrates, George Washington, Micky Mouse, etc....! This short 3 minute video excerpt of a longer video sums it up nicely:

There's lots of evidence for Jesus! - VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1uSR1mqGq4

For the full length video go here:

Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ - VIDEO
http://www.livevideo.com/video/1FDF3828A6ED4FFA99BCBA6AF9D3710F/who-was-jesus-fingerprints-of.aspx

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

"The Bible is Myth?!" blog

Rocky — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:34:44 GMT

The Bible is Myth?!
by Acharya S aka D.M. Murdock

In November 2008, PBS will air a TV special claiming that the biblical patriarch Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were not historical persons but were "myths." The documentary will also declare the fabulous Israelite Exodus to be mythical, rather than representing a miraculous "historical" event.

To readers of my work posted online since 1995, and encapsulated in my books, beginning with "The Christ Conspiracy," all of this cage-rattling will be old hat. In that book, I laid out the case that Abraham and Sarah are remakes of the Indian deities Brahma and Sarasvati, while Moses is likewise a mythical character based on older gods. In "Christ Con," I also show that the Exodus represents not a supernatural event that truly happened on Earth but for which absolutely no evidence has been found. Rather, it too falls in the realm of mythology.

As this article about the PBS documentary relates, the evidence does indeed show that the Bible was composed during and after the so-called Babylonian Captivity of the 6th century BCE. Some parts of it are older, of course, as some of the most fantastic stories could undoubtedly be found in the libraries in Babylon and Egypt. As I also demonstrated in "The Christ Conspiracy" almost 10 years ago, the Bible was not composed by the individuals claimed to be its authors, neither the Old Testament nor the New.

For the rest, please see:

http://tbknews.blogspot.com/2008/07/bible-is-myth.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Acharya S on the radio at Rense.com

Rocky — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:12:32 GMT

Acharya S on the radio at Rense.com

For the next few hours you can enjoy a surprise show with Acharya S on the radio with Jeff Rense for free at : http://www.rense.com/general57/notice.htm

Discussing Acharya's recent blogs "The Bible is Myth?!" and "Oldest New Testament Out of Egypt into Cyberspace"
http://tbknews.blogspot.com

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

4,500-year-old Egyptian boat to be excavated, reassembled

Rocky — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:32:01 GMT

4,500-year-old Egyptian boat to be excavated, reassembled

Ancient Egyptian boat to be excavated, reassembled

CAIRO, Egypt - Archaeologists will excavate hundreds of fragments of an ancient Egyptian wooden boat entombed in an underground chamber next to Giza's Great Pyramid and try to reassemble the craft, Egyptologists announced Saturday.

The 4,500-year-old vessel is the sister ship of a similar boat removed in pieces from another pit in 1954 and painstakingly reconstructed. Experts believe the boats were meant to ferry the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid in the afterlife.

Starting Saturday, tourists were allowed to view images of the inside of the second boat pit from a camera inserted through the a hole in the chamber's limestone ceiling. The video image, transmitted onto a small TV monitor at the site, showed layers of crisscrossing beams and planks on the floor of the dark pit.

"You can smell the past," said Zahi Hawass, director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Experts will begin removing around 600 pieces of timber in November, said professor Sakuji Yoshimura of Japan's Waseda University, who is helping lead the restoration effort with the antiquities council.

The discovery of the boat pits more than 50 years ago by workmen clearing a large mound of wind-blown debris from the south side of the Great Pyramid is considered one of the most significant finds on the plateau. They are the oldest vessels to have survived from antiquity.

The reconstructed ship is on display in a museum built above the pit where it was discovered. It is a narrow vessel measuring 142 feet with a rectangular deckhouse and long, interlocking oars that soar overhead.

The cedar timbers of its curved hull are lashed together with hemp rope in a technique used until recent times by traditional shipbuilders along the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.

The unexcavated boat, made from Lebanese cedar and Egyptian acacia trees, is thought to be of similar design, but smaller and less well preserved.

John Darnell, an Egyptologist at Yale University, said new research into the second boat could fill in some blanks about the significance of the vessels and help determine whether they ever actually plied Nile River waterways or were of purely spiritual import.

"In Egypt, almost everything real had its counterpart meaning or significance in the spiritual world. But there's a lot of debate as to whether these vessels ever were used or not," Darnell said.

Those who argue the vessels may have touched water point to rope marks on the wood that could have been caused by the rope becoming wet and then shrinking as it dried.

But Hawass believes these were symbolic vessels, not funerary boats used to bring the pharaoh Khufu's embalmed remains up the Nile from the ancient capital of Memphis for burial in the Great Pyramid, the oldest and largest of Giza's pyramids.

He said solar symbols found inside the second pit offer more evidence that those who disassembled and buried the boats believed Khufu's soul would travel from his tomb in the pyramid through a connecting air shaft to the boat chambers and that he would use the boats to circle the heavens, like the sun god, taking one boat by day and the other by night."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080721/ap_on_re_mi_ea/egypt_ancient_boat

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That last paragraph is largely what caught my attention!!!

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

Rocky — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:32:35 GMT

Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection

July 6, 2008

"JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

“Some Christians will find it shocking — a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology — while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional part of Judaism,” Mr. Boyarin said.

Ms. Yardeni, who analyzed the stone along with Binyamin Elitzur, is an expert on Hebrew script, especially of the era of King Herod, who died in 4 B.C. The two of them published a long analysis of the stone more than a year ago in Cathedra, a Hebrew-language quarterly devoted to the history and archaeology of Israel, and said that, based on the shape of the script and the language, the text dated from the late first century B.C."

"This should shake our basic view of Christianity,” he said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. “Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06stone.html

Enjoy the entire article.

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

VIDEO: 3 Kings & Sirius pointing to SUNRISE, Xmas 2007

Rocky — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:26:50 GMT

VIDEO: 3 Kings & Sirius pointing to SUNRISE, Xmas 2007

LOL, here's a live video on high speed of the "3 Kings" of Orion's Belt following Sirius on "Christmas" 2007 pointing to the SUNRISE.

"Orion constellation"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-d_6A6t29s

I love it!

It's just as described in the part 1 of Zeitgeist Movie.

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

"Christ in Egypt" Luxor Nativity Scene Excerpt

Rocky — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:33:06 GMT

"Christ in Egypt" Luxor Nativity Scene Excerpt

The Nativity Scene of Amenhotep III at Luxor

Adapted from an Excerpt from Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection by D.M. Murdock aka Acharya S

"... However, in "skimming" Brunner's text, as he puts it, Carrier has mistakenly dealt with the substantially different Hatshepsut text (Brunner's "IV D"), demonstrating an egregious error in garbling the cycles, when in fact we are specifically interested in the Luxor narrative (IV L)."

"In this picture we have the Annunciation, the Conception, the Birth, and the Adoration, as described in the First and Second Chapters of Luke's Gospel; and as we have historical assurance that the chapters in Matthew's Gospel which contain the Miraculous Birth of Jesus are an after addition not in the earliest manuscripts, it seems probable that these two poetical chapters in Luke may also be unhistorical, and be borrowed from the Egyptian accounts of the miraculous birth of their kings."

Dr. Samuel C. Sharpe, Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity (19)

The Nativity Scene of Amenhotep III at Luxor
http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/luxor.html

"Christ in Egypt" (CIE) forum - http://forums.truthbeknown.com/viewtopic.php?t=2104

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

"ZEITGEIST, Part 1" Debunked/Refuted? Acharya Responds

Rocky — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:02:33 GMT

"ZEITGEIST, Part 1" Debunked/Refuted? Acharya Responds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_9ZyddjaM4

The blog:
http://tbknews.blogspot.com/2008/04/zeitgeist-refuted-not.html

The Companion Guide to ZEITGEIST, Part 1 - E-BOOK
http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/zeitgeist.html

The forum:
http://forums.truthbeknown.com/viewtopic.php?t=1953&start=0

Other Free Online videos of Acharya's work:
http://www.truthbeknown.com/videos.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

A variety of Mythologies

Rocky — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:18:15 GMT

A variety of Mythologies

Norse Mythology -

http://www.luth.se/luth/present/sweden/history/gods/Old_norse_myth.html

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/norsemyth/Myth_Norse_Mythology.htm

http://www.google.com/search?q=norse+mythology+stories&revid=935620668&sa=X&oi=revisions_inline&ct=broad-revision&cd=4

Celtic Mythology - http://www.google.com/search?q=celtic+mythology&revid=935620668&sa=X&oi=revisions_inline&ct=broad-revision&cd=3

German - http://www.google.com/search?q=german+mythology&revid=935620668&sa=X&oi=revisions_inline&ct=broad-revision&cd=6

Egyptian - http://www.google.com/search?q=egyptian+mythology&revid=935620668&sa=X&oi=revisions_inline&ct=broad-revision&cd=8

Roman - http://www.google.com/search?q=roman+mythology&revid=935620668&sa=X&oi=revisions_inline&ct=broad-revision&cd=7

Greek - http://www.google.com/search?q=greek+mythology&revid=935620668&sa=X&oi=revisions_inline&ct=broad-revision&cd=2

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

ZEITGEIST Companion Guide Part 1 e-book

Rocky — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:31:20 GMT

I thought folks here would like to know that "The Companion Guide to ZEITGEIST, Part 1" has come out as an e-book.

http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/zeitgeist.html

What are your thoughts after reading this e-book?

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 2 replies

Easter: Christian or Pagan?

Rocky — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:52:11 GMT

Easter: Christian or Pagan?

What is the meaning of Easter? Is it the time when Christ was crucified and resurrected? Or is it an ancient Pagan holiday?

Contrary to popular belief, Easter does not represent the "historical" crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In reality, the gospel tale reflects the annual "crossification" of the sun through the vernal equinox (Spring), at which time the sun is "resurrected," as the day begins to become longer than the night.

Rather than being a "Christian" holiday, Easter celebrations date back into remotest antiquity and are found around the world, as the blossoming of spring did not escape the notice of the ancients, who revered this life-renewing time of the year, when winter had passed and the sun was "born again." The "Pagan" Easter is also the Passover, and Jesus Christ represents not only the sun but also the Passover Lamb ritually sacrificed every year by a number of cultures, including the Egyptians, possibly as early as 4,000 years ago and continuing to this day in some places.

Easter is "Pessach" in Hebrew, "Pascha" in Greek, "Pachons" in Latin and "Pa-Khonsu" in Egyptian, "Khonsu" being an epithet for the sun god Horus. In Anglo-Saxon, Easter or Eostre is goddess of the dawn, corresponding to Ishtar, Astarte, Astoreth and Isis. The word "Easter" shares the same root with "east" and "eastern," the direction of the rising sun.

The principal Mexican solar festival was held at the vernal equinox, i.e., Easter, when sacrifices were made to sustain the sun. In India, the vernal equinox festival is called "Holi" and is especially sacred to the god Krishna. The Syrian sun and fertility god Attis was annually hung on a tree, dying and rising on March 24th and 25th, an "Easter celebration" that occurred at Rome as well. The March dates were later applied to the Passion and Resurrection of Christ: "Thus," says Sir Frazier, "the tradition which placed the death of Christ on the twenty-fifth of March was ancient and deeply rooted. It is all the more remarkable because astronomical considerations prove that it can have had no historical foundation…." This "coincidence" between the deaths and resurrections of Christ and the older Attis was not lost on early Christians, whom it distressed and caused to use the "devil got there first" excuse for the motif's presence in pre-Christian paganism.

The rites of the "crucified Adonis," another dying and rising savior god, were also celebrated in Syria at Easter time. As Frazer states:

"When we reflect how often the Church has skillfully contrived to plant the seeds of the new faith on the old stock of paganism, we may surmise that the Easter celebration of the dead and risen Christ was grafted upon a similar celebration of the dead and risen Adonis, which, as we have seen reason to believe, was celebrated in Syria at the same season."

The salvific death and resurrection at Easter of the god, the initiation as remover of sin, and the notion of becoming "born again," are all ages-old Pagan motifs or mysteries rehashed in the later Christianity. The all-important death-and-resurrection motif is exemplified in the "Parisian magical papyrus," a Pagan text ostensibly unaffected by Christianity:

"Lord, being born again I perish in that I am being exalted, and having been exalted I die; from a life-giving birth being born into death I was thus freed and go the way which Thou has founded, as Thou hast ordained and hast made the mystery."

In the gospel tale, there are two dates for the crucifixion: the 14th and the 15th of the month of Nisan, and within Christianity the date for Easter was debated for centuries. There continue to be two dates for Easter: the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, thus demonstrating that this holiday is not the historical date of the actual crucifixion of a particular man. The dates are, in fact, astronomical, astrological and astrotheological.

In explaining this roving date, one "distinguished churchman," as Catholic Church historian Eusebius called him, Anatolius, revealed the meaning of Easter and of Christ, as well as the fact that astrology was a known and respected science used in Christianity. Said Anatolius:

"On this day [March 22] the sun is found not only to have reached the first sign of the Zodiac, but to be already passing through the fourth day within it. This sign is generally known as the first of the twelve, the equinoctial sign, the beginning of months, head of the cycle, and start of the planetary course.... Aristobolus adds that it is necessary at the Passover Festival that not only the sun but the moon as well should be passing through an equinoctial sign. There are two of these signs, one in spring, one in autumn, diametrically opposed to each other...."

In establishing the "Paschal festival," Church father Anatolius thus based his calculations on the positions of the sun and moon during the vernal equinox.

The need to time the Easter celebration - or resurrection - to coincide with the vernal equinox demonstrates that "Christ" is not an historical personage but the sun. This fact of Easter being the resurrection of the Sun has been well known for centuries, just as "the Savior's" birth at the winter solstice has been recognized as another solar motif. Another obvious clue as to Christ's nature is the fact that the "Lord's Day" is Sunday.

Concerning Easter, in his "Letter I. for 329" Bishop of Alexandria Athanasius (c. 293-373) remarks, "Again, 'the Sun of Righteousness,' causing His divine beams to rise upon us, proclaims beforehand the time of the feast, in which, obeying Him, we ought to celebrate it…" Christ is thus the Sun of Righteousness, with "divine beams."

The Easter calculations were recomputed in the seventh century by the Christian author(s) of the Paschal Chronicle or Alexandria Chronicle, which seeks to establish a Christian chronology from "creation" to the year 628. The Paschal Chronicle determines the proper date for Easter as March 21st and the date of Christ's resurrection as March 25th (or, midnight, March 24, three days after the beginning of the equinox). In his various calculations, the Chronicle author discusses solar and lunar cycles, including the 19-year lunar cycle, by which he reckons the crucifixion and resurrection, concluding: "This is consistent with the prior determinations of reputable men in the calculation of the heavenly bodies." To wit, Christ's death and resurrection are based on astrotheology.

The Chronicle author further confirms that Christianity is a continuation of the ancient "Pagan" astrotheological religion when he states that the "Annunciation of our Lady," i.e., the conception of Christ by the Virgin Mary, likewise occurred on March 25th, the vernal equinox, exactly nine months prior to the December 25th birthdate, the annual rebirth of the sun.

http://www.truthbeknown.com/easter.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 7 replies

"Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ" - VIDEO

Rocky — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:23:57 GMT

This new video just in ...

"Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ" - VIDEO

http://www.livevideo.com/video/1FDF3828A6ED4FFA99BCBA6AF9D3710F/who-was-jesus-fingerprints-of.aspx

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Film "Pharmacractic Inquisition" Links the Origin of Christianity to the Psychedelic Muchrooms

Angelica — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 03:29:08 GMT

Has anyone seen this film? Let me know what you th

Here is the press release:

Zeitgeist Source, Pharmacratic Inquisition film, links Jesus and Psychedelic Mushrooms

(Los Angeles-January 8th 2008)- Gnostic Media releases film Pharmacratic Inquisition, revealing ancient underlying connections between psychedelic plants, astrology and Christianity.

Jan Irvin and Andrew Rutajit, the creators of the film and also source for film Zeitgeist, explore the controversial theory that Jesus and other major religious deities are myths that have been used throughout the last two thousand years to suppress the enlightenment of human civilization. Yet, in the pre-literate world, these myths were anthropomorphized into human/god like beings to symbolize psychedelic sacraments, astrological occurrences and fertility rites.

Psychedelic plants once viewed as sacred are now seen as threatening and dangerous by religious and governmental institutions. The film explores why and how ancient knowledge has been suppressed. The film also has a companion book called Astrotheology and Shamanism. Jordon Maxwell, preeminent speaker and researcher in the field of astrotheology, secret societies and ufology, praises the authors in the book's foreword. He remarks, "taking a no holds barred look at the true history of the world of religion and where our most cherished modern day beliefs and concepts really come from is –I believe- and idea whose time has come."
If interested in an interview with Jan Irvin and Andrew Rutajit on the film Pharmacratic Inquisition contact Angelica and visit www.gnosticmedia.com and www.pharmacratic-inquisition.com

-END-

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Nativity Scene in the temple of Luxor

Rocky — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:01:42 GMT

Nativity Scene in the Temple of Luxor

"The Egyptian Sun God Horus taught that the Christ spirit is in us all, so he was anticipating a mass of Christs. That's what we need to focus on today instead of the polarization that's caused by religious dogma propagated by those who are unaware of the origins of the Christmas season."

"Thousands of years before Mary nursed the baby Jesus, the Madonna and the Child existed in Egypt as Isis holding her infant, Horus. Isis (Sirius) "Virgin of the World." On the walls of the temple of Luxor, there were carved four scenes adopted by the Gospels:

* The first scene depicts a group of angels on a cloud making the annunciation of the coming of the Messiah King to a band of shepherds in the fields

* The second represents a single angel announcing to a young maiden that she is to be the mother of the awaited Messiah.

* A third pictures the Nativity scene, with the two animals, the ox and the ass, present.

* And the fourth shows three Magi kneeling before a babe and offering gifts, at a date as early as 1700 B.C.
http://tinyurl.com/3dyrdo

Acharya's article - http://www.truthbeknown.com/luxor.html

Earl Doherty's thoughts -
http://home.ca.inter.net/~oblio/supp13D.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Sundial Society

Rocky — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 14:26:46 GMT

The North American Sundial Society

"The North American Sundial Society is an association of people from a wide variety of disciplines who are interested in the study, development, history, and preservation of sundials and the art of dialing throughout the continent.

The Society is an association (convened in 1994) for those who view the sundial as something more than a simple garden decoration. There was a time, not that long ago, when an appreciation of dials in all their various forms was an integral part of the scientific and mathematical training of any well-educated person.

NASS hearkens back to such a time and offers sundial enthusiasts at all levels of expertise an opportunity to learn, to interact, and to exchange ideas and information."
http://sundials.org/

Frequently Asked Questions about Sundials - http://sundials.org/faq/

Sun clock - http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/sunclock.html
http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/clock_diagram.html

photos of sundials - http://images.google.com/images?q=sun+dial&hl=en&lr=&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title

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Make the connections -

Archaeoastronomy - http://dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Archaeology/Topics/Archaeoastronomy/

Center for Archaeoastronomy
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~tlaloc/archastro/ae13.html

http://www.jqjacobs.net/mesoamerica/teotihuacan.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 2 replies

Harpur's "The Pagan Christ" documentary aires this week

Rocky — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:01:19 GMT

Harpur's "The Pagan Christ" documentary aires this week

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation will broadcast on Dec. 6 a documentary based on Tom Harpur's The Pagan Christ.

"THE PAGAN CHRIST Thursday December 6, 2007 at 9pm on CBC-TV
repeating Saturday December 8, 2007 at 10pm ET on CBC Newsworld

So, what if it could be proven that Jesus never existed? What if there was evidence that every word of the New Testament – the cornerstone of Christianity – is based on myth and metaphor? Harpur discovered that the New Testament is wholly based on Egyptian mythology, that Jesus Christ never lived, and that – indeed – the text was always meant to be read allegorically."

http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/paganchrist.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 3 replies

The "Historical" Jesus?

Rocky — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:56:45 GMT

The "Historical" Jesus?

"What is the evidence for Jesus Christ? Did he really exist? When were the gospels written?

The Gospel Dates

When scrutinized, the Pauline epistles do not reveal any historical Jesus; nor do they demonstrate any knowledge of the existence of the four canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. As has been proved repeatedly, the gospels themselves cannot be viewed as "history" written by "eyewitnesses." Besides the fact that they date to much later than is supposed, the gospels frequently contradict each other, and, based on the numerous manuscripts composed over the centuries, have been determined (by German theologian Johann Griesbach, for one) to be a mass of some 150,000 "variant readings." In this regard, The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, a Christian book, contains an article written by M.M. Parvis (vol. 4, 594-595), who states:

The New Testament is now known, in whole or in part, in nearly five thousand Greek manuscripts alone. Every one of these handwritten copies differ from the other one It has been estimated that these manuscripts and quotations differ among themselves between 150,000 and 250,000 times. The actual figure is, perhaps, much higher. A study of 150 Greek manuscripts of the Gospel of Luke has revealed more than 30,000 different readings It is safe to say that there is not one sentence in the New Testament in which the manuscripts' tradition is wholly uniform.

Some sources place the figure for the "variant readings" even higher, including The Anchor Bible Dictionary On CD-ROM ("Textual Criticism, NT"), which says, "Perhaps 300,000 differing readings is a fair figure for the 20th century (K.W. Clark 1962: 669)." So much for "God's infallible Word" and his "inspired scribes." Apologists have come up with all sorts of excuses for this manmade mess; their excuses only demonstrate further that man's hand--and not that of the Almighty God--has been involved in the creation of Christianity and its texts at every step."

Enjoy the full article...

http://www.truthbeknown.com/historicaljc.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 4 replies

The Sun god and the Wind god

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:06:50 GMT

One day Vivaswan, the sun god, and Vayu, the god of the wind were debating.

"I am more powerful" said the sun god. "No I am" said the god of the wind. So they decided to have a contest to see who was more powerful and they would choose the next person who walked up the road to do this to. They would see who could get the man to take off his jacket.

Before long a man walked up the road. Vayu went to work first. He started to blow and blow, creating a fierce wind and stormy condition trying to blow off the man's coat. But the more he blew the harder the man held tight to his jacket so he didn't fare too well.

"Now it is my turn" stated Vivasvan. He beamed brightly and powerfully, warming up the day and calming everything down. Before long the man felt better and took off his jacket in order to enjoy the sunny day. So not only is the Sun god more powerful than the god of the wind, but you get better results being warm and friendly to people than you do by being a big blow hard.

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Vivaswan the Sun God

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:43:28 GMT

Vivaswan rides in his chariot around the entire universe each day. He is so bright we cannot see him. This Sun God is actually an expansion of God Himself, although there have been others and not all are. Yes some ancients did believe in Sun Gods, and some people still do today. Modern scientists are wrong.

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

"Astrotheology of the Ancients"

Rocky — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:56:32 GMT

"Astrotheology of the Ancients"

This is an outstanding article of excerpts from the 1st chapter in "Suns of God," with some cool ancient images too:

http://www.truthbeknown.com/astrotheology.html

This needs to be passed around. This is the online article many have been looking for - it contains words such as astrotheology, archaeoastronomy, myth etc. Words that should be familiar to folks worldwide by now, as it pertains to religion but sadly, are not.

"Suns of God" should be at every library and in the hands of every comparative religion professor. It discusses recently discovered ancient primary sources and others between 6,000 and 30,000 years ago. With comments from astronomer and past-director of Los Angeles’s Griffith Observatory, Dr. Edwin Krupp and others.

Get the book "Suns of God" - and be sure to tell the Discovery channel, National Geographic and the History channel to make a documentary on this subject and include Acharya S in it, since she specializes in astrotheology, mythology and has a keen interest in archaeoastronomy. These media outlets are doing a monumental disservice to humanity by not doing such an important documentary like this.

All the issues surrounding religious fanaticism considered, one solution would be a course in the origins of these religions and how they're rooted in astrotheology (Theology founded on observation or knowledge of the celestial bodies such as the sun, moon, planets, stars etc) as well as other natural phenomena.

Archaeoastronomy - "The study of the knowledge, interpretations, and practices of ancient cultures regarding celestial objects or phenomena. The branch of archaeology that deals with the apparent use by prehistoric civilizations of astronomical techniques to establish the seasons or the cycle of the year, esp. as evidenced in the construction of megaliths and other ritual structures."

A course in astrotheology neutralizes the "us vs. them" mentality. It makes it more difficult to create a religious war when one learns that the foundation of their religion was based on the sun or moon.

Acharya S is a top expert in the field of comparative religion and mythology, specializing in astrotheology with a keen interest in archaeoastronomy. Acharya S examines the connections between modern religious belief and our ancient veneration for the Sun throughout her work.

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD: The Papyrus of Ani

Rocky — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 23:53:43 GMT

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD: The Papyrus of Ani
translation by E. A. WALLIS BUDGE
http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ebod/

Enjoy the pics of the plates

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

The Zeitgeist Movie wins at the Artivist Film Festival

Rocky — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:31:39 GMT

The Zeitgeist Movie wins at the Artivist Film Festival

The Zeitgeist Movie has won the top award from the Artivist Film Festival http://www.artivists.org

Acharya appeared on a panel to answer questions about part 1 in front of a packed house at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, CA.

The Zeitgeist Movie has gone "viral" with over 6 million views. And it appears that Acharya is going to come out with a companion guide to the Zeitgeist movie part 1 in the very near future. I'm guessing a couple of weeks or so.

The "Zeitgeist" part 1 video is largely based on Acharya's work (starts @ 9:45 - 35)(Acharya has nothing to do with parts 2 & 3)
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Vedic Astrology & Chess

Rocky — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:37:12 GMT

Vedic Astrology & Chess
By Bhavesh Pattni

"Is Chess a Divine Game? There are some evident correlations between the game of chess and the astrology which lead us to the conclusion that Chess is a game inspired by the Universal Laws, maybe by the planetary movement.

Is Chess another kind of Astrology?

In Chess, we have a board divided into 8 columns and 8 rows, while in Astrology we use the zodiacal circle divided into 12 signs.

In Chess, we have 6 symbols- the pieces (King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Pawn). In Astrology we have 7 symbols- the 7 traditional planets (Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn). There are rules for the movement of these symbols and each has a specific value or interpretation.

The Art of the Player of Chess is to thoroughly study and understand the network of influences and forces on the chessboard, then to elaborate a strategy that will lead him/her to the defeat of the opponent.

The Art of the Astrologer is to thoroughly study and understand the network of influences in the astrological chart, then to elaborate an overall conclusion of it. So far, we seem to have only some general rules that apply to most board games.

Pieces - Planets correlations

Looking deeper into this, one may notice some striking correlations.There are some strong pieces-planets correlations.

The King is obviously correlated with the Sun. When the King is besieged and captured (checkmate), the game is over.The Queen is correlated with the Moon in astrology. The Moon moves the quickest of all planets, so does the Queen on the chessboard. In horary and electional (traditional vedic astrology), the Moon is the most important planet to be considered. So is the Queen in Chess.

The Pawns are like children, which are traditionally ruled by the Moon. When they grow old, that is, when they reach the other end of the chessboard, they become Queens. Therefore the Pawns are also correlated with Moon.

The Bishops are obviously correlated with Jupiter, since Jupiter rules the religion and the religious persons. However, as the Bishops move always diagonally and there is the planet Mars whose glyph or symbol is a circle with an arrow coming out of it in an oblique direction, this is why the Bishops can also be associated functionally with Mars. So, the Bishops' nature is Jupiter/Mars.

The Rooks are also called Castles and are therefore associated with Saturn. But since they move only horizontally or vertically and the ideogram of Venus is in the form of a circle with a cross below it, we may say that the Rooks are functionally associated with Venus. So, the Rooks' nature is Saturn/Venus.

The Knights are also called Horses, and they move atypically by jumping over other pieces, much like flying. Therefore, the Knights may be associated with Mercury, the Roman name of Hermes, the messenger god, with winged sandals.

Houses - Game stages correlations

The astrological development of the game of ChessI'll present next the correlations between the twelve astrological houses of an astrology chart and the development of a game of chess.

The traditional "joys of the planets" are a particularly helpful concept here. It refers to the house where a planet enjoys itself, its energy being really appropriate and useful there. The astrological tradition considers that Mercury has its joy in the 1st house, the Moon in the 3rd house, Venus in the 5th house, Mars in the 6th house, the Sun in the 9th house, Jupiter in the 11th house and Saturn in the 12th house.

The 1st house is associated with the beginning of the game. The players move the first pieces. At this stage, the Knights are very important as they jump over the Pawns and can attack the opponent's Pawns. Mercury (the Knights) has its joy in the 1st house.

The 2nd house is associated with the next stage of the game, the development of the pieces, the building of a structure of defense.

The 3rd house is associated with the construction of a line of advanced Pawns (associated with the Moon), communicating and defending one another. At this stage the Pawns are really important. The Moon has its joy in the 3rd house.

The 4th house is associated with the castling. The King is put behind a wall of Pawns, in a safe place. The first part of a regular chess game is over.

The 5th house is associated with thinking of a strategy of action; here the creativity of the player is put to trial. The main issue now is to strengthen one's position in order to impress the adversary. The Rook (Venus) enters the game for the first time, as it gets out of the chessboard corner through the castling. Venus has its joy in the 5th house.

The 6th house is associated with a stage of preparations. Once the overall strategy has been established in the previous stage, it is now time to put it into practice, first by apparently innocent moves. In the same time, one must be attentive to speculate any bad move of the opponent, while trying to fix any weak points in the defense. The Knights (Mars) should be used to control the diagonals. Mars has its joy in the 6th house.

The 7th house is associated with the attack, with the overt challenge. It is the first house over the horizon and from now on the game will be played openly. The real war begins.

The 8th house is associated with traps and pitfalls, the most dangerous stage of the game, when the attack may fail and this would lead to a decisive counterattack. If the attack is successful, the opponent's defense line will be broken and some of his pieces captured: the 8th house is the turned 2nd house (pieces) from the 7th house (opponent).

The 9th house is associated with important steps toward victory. Once the defense line of the opponent has been broken, at this stage the King (Sun) may be threatened by check. The Sun has its joy in the 9th house.

The 10th house is the stage when the player is already leading and now has to plan the next steps to make toward victory.

The 11th house is associated with the final stage of the game, when the final plan is put into practice. After both sides have captured many pieces, the Knights (Jupiter) have now plenty of space to run across the chessboard. Jupiter has its joy in the 11th house.

The 12th house is associated with the end of the game. The Rooks (Saturn) are supporting from behind the Pawns to advance and transform into Queens, which will checkmate the adversary's King and bring victory. Saturn has its joy in the 12th house.

This is an astrological overview of the game of chess.But, Chess is a game of wits, which is governed by the moves of the players. It represents a mental warfare between two opposing players where the one with an agile mind and strength to succeed, wins this battle of minds. It is a board game played by two players.

By and large, it is believed that chess appeared in India around 5000 B.C. Several interesting legends abound this fascinating game. One of the legend states that the wife of King Ravana invented the game 4000-5000 years ago.

There is also a reference in the Bhavishya Purana about the game. Mahabharata, the great Indian epic, mentions the game of Chaturanga played between the two opposite sides of the Pandavas and the Kauravas.

When horoscope is simply a chart of heavens calculated by the rules of astronomy, it shows certain positions of the planets and zodiacal signs in relation to the earth. Indian astrology is popularly referred to as Vedic astrology. This is not because it is there in the Vedas (Veda means original knowledge and truth). There is no mention of astrology in the Vedas. However, it is one of the Vedangas, i.e., limb or branch of Vedas, and dates back to the Vedic period. Several of the Poojas and remedial measures prescribed in the Indian astrology are as per the Vedic system. Hence, it is called Vedic astrology. Ramayan and Mahabharat are the evidences of Vedic Astrology."

http://ezinearticles.com/?Vedic-Astrology-and-Chess&id=762839

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

"The Great Year" DVD

Rocky — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 20:18:51 GMT

"The Great Year" DVD

I thought this DVD was really interesting. I viewed this DVD titled "The Great Year" which I found interesting. It didn't answer a lot of my questions but the website goes further in that regard. Just goto the "FACTS" section of the website.
http://www.thegreatyear.com

"The Great Year, is the term that some ancient civilizations use to describe the slow precession of the equinox through the twelve houses of the ancient zodiac, a period that takes about 24,000 years. Different cultures refer to this cycle by different names including: the Platonic year, Perfect year, Yuga cycle, Ages of Man or just the equinoctial cycle, but one thing is clear, it was known to virtually every ancient culture throughout the globe. In their epic work Hamlet’s Mill Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend document the great year tale and point out it was the number one topic woven into myths and folklore around the ancient world.

Why were our ancestors so fascinated by this subject that they memorized stories that were passed down for thousands of years and built megalithic structures on every continent to monitor this movement? We think it is because the tales are true! That is, as the Sun curves through space carrying the Earth with it, our bodies and our planet move to a region where they are affected by different cosmic forces that indirectly result in the rise and fall of civilization. As mans consciousness expands and contracts, and the cycle plays out, just like a solar year with its seasons, it results in great ages of enlightenment and dark ages of misery. Indeed, the archaeological record shows a broad decline of ancient civilizations beginning about 5000 years ago, a long world wide dark age and then finally a rise in consciousness with the renaissance continuing to the present day. Were the tales and myths and stone henges really just for amusement and farming? Or is Hamlet’s Mill correct: folklore is the scientific language of ancient times, and they were trying tell us of the dark days to come, and trying desparetly to preserve knowledge in the pyramids and megaliths and temples so carefully aligned to the heavens incorporating sophisticated mathematical principles.

This is the story of the Great Year and new scientific evidence to support it. Recent solar system studies seem to indicate that precession is indeed caused by a curving motion of our sun through space. While not yet widely accepted, if true it a startling finding confirming the wisdom of the ancients."
http://www.thegreatyear.com/thegreatyear/index.shtml

History and Celestial Time
By Walter Cruttenden
http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/CruttendenW1.php

A book written after the DVD was made -
"Lost Star of Myth And Time" by Walter Cruttenden
http://www.loststarbook.com

"Discoveries like the ancient Greek Antikythera computer (1500 years before the invention of precision geared devices) the Baghdad batteries (2000 years before Volta ‘invented’ the battery) or dental and brain surgery artifacts found in ancient Pakistan (8000 years out of historical sequence) appear ‘anomalous’ within our current paradigm of history. However, they are not unexpected according to the ancient cyclical view...."
http://yugaproject.org

http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/002598.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

Acharya S - "Suns of god"

Rocky — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 14:15:44 GMT

Acharya S ~

She is a Historian, Archeologist, Mythologist and Linguist. Member of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece Associate Director, Institute for Historical Accuracy & the Author of "The Christ Conspiracy:the greatest story ever SOLD" & "The Suns of god".

http://www.truthbeknown.com/

http://www.truthbeknown.com/whatsnew.htm

http://www.truthbeknown.com/origins.htm

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 16 replies

Ancient Solstice Festivals

Rocky — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:35:12 GMT

Was Jesus born on December 25?

Was Jesus born on December 25? There is no evidence for this date. So then, who decided that Jesus' birth would be celebrated on that date? The early Christian church did not celebrate Jesus' birth. It wasn't until A.D. 440 that the church officially proclaimed December 25 as the birth of Christ. This was not based on any religious evidence but on a pagan feast. Saturnalia was a tradition inherited by the Roman pagans from an earlier Babylonian priesthood. December 25 was used as a celebration of the birthday of the sun god. It was observed near the winter solstice.

http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/was-jesus-born-on-december-25-faq.htm

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Ancient Solstice Festivals

These are winter solstice/ "Christmas" type celebrations most all LONG BEFORE Christmas or Christianity:

Saturnalia, Yule, Hannukah "Festival of the Lights", Natalis Invicti, Lenaea, Nollagh, Baal-fire feast etc, etc.
Including Shab-e Yalda Festival celebrated 2nd millenium BCE Persian, Zorastrian, Iranian - "celebrates the birth of the Sun god Mithra."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice

In reference to Mithra above:
"The sacrifice to, or reverence of, the bull in can also be found in an image (c. 1400 BCE) from the palace of Alaa Hyk in Turkey, near Bogaz-Ky, where the Hittite-Mitanni tablets were found. In this relief, a man and priestess approach a bull on a pedestal in front of an altar. Each figure has its arm raised, as if to sacrifice the bull. In the Hurrian mythology, the god Teshub has attached to his chariot two bulls representing Night and Day. Teshub, James relates, was "frequently depicted standing on a bull." Thus, in the area where the "Roman" Mithra arose we find images of a deity riding in a chariot and standing on a bull, as well as the bull-slaying ritual, more than one to two millennia before the Christian era."
http://www.truthbeknown.com/mithra_2.htm

"Bruma" in Latin and Greek means "shortest day". Brumalia is the Festival for the Bruma, the shortest day of the year as in the WINTER SOLSTICE.

"Brumalia was an ancient Greek solstice festival honoring Dionysus, generally held on December 25. The festival included drinking and merriment. The name is derived from the Greek word bruma, meaning "shortest day. In Roman festivals, the Brumalia was a feast of Bacchus...Many features of Christmas celebrations are derived from Brumalia."
http://www.reference.com/search?r=13&q=Brumalia

Lenaea -

"In Mycenaean Greece, the exclusively female midwinter ritual, Lenaea or Lenaia, was the Festival of the Wild Women. In the forest, A man or bull representing the harvest god, Dionysus, was torn to pieces and eaten by Maenads. Later in the ritual, a baby, representing Dionysus reborn, was presented. By Classical Greece, the human sacrifice had been replaced by that of a goat and the women's role had changed to that of funeral mourners and observers of the birth. By the 5th century BCE the ritual had become a Gamelion festival for theatrical competitions, often held in Athens in the Lenaion theater. The festival may have evolved into Brumalia which was an ancient Roman solstice festival honoring Bacchus, generally held for a month and ending December 25. The festival included drinking and merriment. The name is derived from the Greek word bruma, meaning "shortest day."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice

"Sol Invictus" -

"Festival for Sol Invictus (Rom., Dec. 25; ancient: VIII Kal. Jan.) The cult of Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun) was a comparatively late (3rd cent. CE) arrival from the East (Syria). It became the chief imperial cult of the Roman Empire, until it was replaced by Christianity. In the old calendar the winter solstice (Bruma = shortest [day]) fell on Dec. 25, so this was the day on which Sol proved Himself to be yet unconquered. [OCD s.v. Sol; SFR 212] http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/SF/WinSol.html

Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun." -

"The Romans held a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun." The use of the title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the god of Emperor Aurelian (AD 270-274); and Mithras, a soldiers' god of Persian origin.[1] Emperor Elagabalus (218-222) introduced the festival, and it reached the height of its popularity under Aurelian, who promoted it as an empire-wide holiday.[2] December 25 was also considered to be the date of the winter solstice, which the Romans called bruma.[3] It was therefore the day the Sun proved itself to be "unconquered" despite the shortening of daylight hours..Solar symbolism was popular with early Christian writers."

Notice the Coin of Emperor Constantine I depicting Sol Invictus with the legend SOLI INVICTO COMITI, circa 315? I find the coin of "Aurelian in his radiated solar crown, on a silvered bronze coin struck at Rome, 274-275" very interesting solar symbolism as well, don't you?

I enjoyed the stone slab "Stele Sol Invictus Terme" representing Sun, Moon and Jupiter Dolichenus, dedicated to Sol Invictus, from the 2nd century CE from Rome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 3 replies

"George Carlin on religion" - SUN worshipper - VIDEO

Rocky — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:36:05 GMT

"George Carlin on religion" - SUN worshipper - VIDEO

This is great!!! Enjoy the entire video but at around 4 minutes he says he'd rather worship the SUN and holy shit it's funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uBAPbOWLxc&mode=related&search=

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"Why do Atheists care about Religion?" VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4fQA9mt-Mg

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Late Dating of the Gospels

Rocky — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 02:40:17 GMT

From Truth Be Known Nation Forum...

A thread titled, "Late Dating of the Gospels" - http://forums.truthbeknown.com/viewtopic.php?t=891

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 2 replies

The Zeus Trip

Rocky — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 15:15:28 GMT

The Zeus Trip
By Jennifer Conlin
July 29, 2007

page 1 of 2

"THIS spring, preparations for a May trip to Greece did not just include scouring the Internet for cheap flights, finding affordable lodging for a family of five and reviewing the kids' passports to see if they were up-to-date (they weren't), it also meant compiling a reading list.

“Review these by the end of next week,” I said to Charles, 10, giving him a colorful book called “Ancient Greece” and another titled “Greek Myths.” To my 11-year-old daughter, Florence, I gave a book on the Greek gods. “I want you to know all about Hera and Hades by the time we leave.” I next turned to my 15-year old, Harriet, who was already eyeing me suspiciously. Placing the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” reverently into her hands, I said: “Homer's epic poems of the Trojan War. Start reading.”

A vacation? Yes. We were visiting Athens and then the Peloponnesus, a region many consider the most unspoiled in Greece, with steep mountains, charming coastal towns, beautiful beaches and more ancient ruins than we could possibly see in a week — though we planned to try. This was also going to be an educational trip, with stops at Olympia, Mycenae, Epidaurus and Corinth. By the time we returned, my children would not just have a tan, they would have a newfound knowledge of the differences between gods and heroes and the origins of Greek democracy.

As American parents living in Britain, my husband, Daniel, and I had naïvely thought we could avoid the United States college admissions frenzy. But with friends and relatives back home signing up their teenagers for enrichment programs, cultural immersion experiences and “personal statement” courses, we started to catch the same airborne disease. I worried I was becoming one of those determined adults who forget their own idyllic summers of canoeing and candle-making at camp and start thinking about sending off their children to be marketing managers in Mumbai so the Ivy admissions officers will be impressed.

Well, not quite yet, at least.

Still, if I was going to cram a little ancient history into the brains of my three children, why not do it on a sun-kissed beach on the Mediterranean, where the academic lessons could be broken up by body surfing sessions, and where a day of archaeology could end with a meal of fresh fish and souvlaki at a cafe overlooking the water.

Thus, in early May, we found ourselves in Greece. “What better place to start our trip than the Acropolis,” I said, leading my family up the steep hill toward the ancient city less than an hour after we had landed in Athens. I noted the children's reactions to the ruins that lay about them. “Cool,” said Florence, storming toward the Parthenon. “Awesome,” said Charles, looking like a character from the Flintstones as he scaled a rock twice his size.

Thinking I might start by expanding their descriptive vocabulary, I read to them that Acropolis meant “high city” and that it dated from the Neolithic Age. Bored already, Charles and Florence began listening to Harriet, who was telling them how Athena, the goddess of war, won Athens by beating Poseidon, the god of the sea, in a competition. “Over there is the Theater of Dionysus,” she said knowledgeably, having just completed a classical civilization course at school. “It was named after Zeus's son who, according to myth, was born out of his thigh.” Florence and Charles were enthralled.

“See how this is bringing classical civilization to life for them,” I whispered to my husband, before asking Harriet how she was enjoying the “Iliad.”

“I already know the whole story from watching ‘Troy' with Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt,” she said dismissively. (“Oh, well it's a start,” Daniel whispered back.) That night, realizing that the learning vacation obviously required more homework than the beach break, I drew up a lesson plan of “course objectives” for our trip, hoping it might lead to a more edifying educational experience for all of us. And then, like any good pushy mother, I forced my family to follow it.

Lesson One: Visit the museums, no matter how much the children might initially object. I knew that nearly every site on our itinerary had one and thought it might help the children mentally transform what often looked like a landscape of rocks into an ancient civilization. It did. At the Acropolis museum, Charles was fascinated by the segments of the Parthenon frieze on display — particularly one showing Hercules fighting off different monsters. This, in turn, led to a lively family discussion about whether the Elgin Marbles, which came from the Parthenon and are now held at the British Museum, should be returned to the Acropolis. (We later learned that a new Acropolis museum, scheduled to open in early 2008, has an entire floor designed for the sculptures, in the hope they will be returned.) At the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, we saw various excavated artifacts from some of the sites we would later be visiting — the mask of Agamemnon, Mycenaean daggers and Bronze Age jewelry. Even the kids acknowledged that it made them more engaged when we finally toured those ruins later.

And in ancient Olympia, where the Olympic Games were held every four years from 776 B.C. until more than a thousand years later, around A.D. 393, instead of running straight to the stadium, we first stopped at the museum. There a model of the site and the galleries — showcasing artifacts like a bronze discus, part of a starting block, coins of victors and the statues from the Temple of Zeus (to whom the games were dedicated) — helped us picture what it might have looked like when we wandered around.

Lesson Two: Try to make learning fun, so that the children forget to complain. An hour outside Athens in the Peloponnesus, we visited Epidaurus, where there is a nearly perfectly preserved amphitheater from the fourth century B.C. that still plays host to Greek drama in the summer. We sat for nearly an hour watching school groups, tours and other visitors sing arias, pop songs and musical comedy favorites from the circular stage.

The theater is renowned for having almost perfect acoustics, and when you stand in the middle, you actually hear your own voice amplified, as we did when we finally got up the nerve to perform “California Dreamin' ” (without Harriet, of course, who was hiding behind a pillar). And like every other tourist at Olympia, we sprinted down the track (though not in the nude as they did in ancient Olympia) and took pictures of the children at the spot where the Olympic torch is still lighted for both the summer and winter games.

Lesson Three: Take study breaks to stem revolts before they start. One afternoon in Athens we focused on retail rather than ruins in the pedestrian Plaka district. The girls spent hours choosing loose beads at a store where you could make your own jewelry, and Charles began a collection of 2004 Athens Olympic pins at a shop that had a map of Greece made from Olympic pins.

While in the Peloponnesus, named after Pelops, who according to Greek mythology ruled the region after winning his wife, Hippodamia, by defeating her father, King Oinomaos, in a chariot race, we checked into the only resort I could find near Olympia, the Aldemar Olympian Village. The giant aquatic hotel had about 25 swimming pools, a vast sandy beach, five themed restaurants and nightly entertainment (in our case two young Greek guys leading an Italian tour group in a karaoke competition of American pop songs). Though we found it somewhat lacking in character (we could have been in Orlando, rather than Olympia), the kids were happy taking an afternoon off to jump from pool to pool, rather than rock to rock."

(Page 2 of 2)

"Near Pylos, a charming harbor village in the south, we visited what might be one of the world's most spectacular beaches — Voidokoilia — a giant lagoon where the seawater streams into a circular pool between two large rocky land foundations. And in Nafplio, a seaside city that many consider to be one of the most beautiful on the entire mainland, we spent two early evenings wandering through the enormous pedestrian zone filled with cafes and shops, stopping for ice cream and crepes and the occasional purchase.

Lesson Four: Help children eat up the local culture, literally. Though most of our meals never exceeded $50 for the five of us, including a carafe of wine, we splurged our first night in Athens and treated ourselves to an elegant dinner on the terrace at Orizontes, a restaurant on top of Lycabettus Hill, reached by a funicular. Overlooking the ethereally lighted city, the children had their first taste of Greek food and decided they liked it (braised lamb, chickpea balls and even shrimp wrapped in phyllo). Daniel and I, less surprisingly, discovered we liked Greek wine.

Not always the most adventurous eater, Charles fell in love with squid, eating it grilled, sautéed, breaded, fried and stuffed. By far the best calamari he ordered was in the village of Epidaurus, where it had been freshly unloaded that very day from a boat in the marina next to our table. Florence discovered she liked spinach pie, and Harriet became addicted to hummus and fried Haloumi cheese, ordering them at every taverna.

Lesson Five: Push to see the extra site; it could be the best one. On the fifth day, driving through the lush Messenia district in the south, an area where terra cotta-colored mountains sweep down into deep valleys, we nearly decided not to stop at Ancient Messene. Tired and hot, I promised the kids we would make it quick, but in the end we spent nearly three hours at the empty archaeological site. The only other tourists we saw the entire time were a French couple who, like us, were astounded that most guide books made only a passing reference to this city, founded in 369 B.C. Not only does it have two nearly completely preserved theaters, it also has an enormous stadium with its circular seating completely intact (in fact, many Messenian runners, we learned, went on to Olympic victories). Charles even unearthed with his foot the top to what looked like an ancient vase, complete with painted designs, only to have a vigilant guard make him gingerly hand it over.

In the end, we preferred Messene even to the famous citadel of Mycenae, one of the most popular sites in the Peloponnesus. While it was fascinating — it was supposedly once King Agamemnon's home and has had cyclopean walls (so named because only a Cyclops could have lifted such enormous boulders) — it was so crowded with tour groups we could barely see the path around the various grave circles, which once held much of the gold we had seen at the archaeological museum in Athens.

And though when we returned to London six weeks ago, no one signed up for Greek lessons or wrote a paper on Pericles, the kids now know that Hermes, the messenger god, is not just a maker of luxury goods, and that Nike is not only a sporting brand but the winged Greek goddess of victory.

Which, to me, felt like victory indeed.

VISITOR INFORMATION

GETTING THERE

Olympic Airlines and many major airlines fly from Kennedy Airport in New York to Athens. A recent Web search showed round-trip fares starting at around $817. The National Highway links Athens to Olympia via Corinth (about a four-hour drive), but, in general, the Peloponnesus consists mostly of secondary roads that wind through mountainous valleys and hill towns. (A new highway is being built that will soon link the south and north.)

WHERE TO STAY

Outside of Nafplio, briefly the capital of Greece in the 1800s, full service resorts are scarce in the Peloponnesus, though a Banyan Tree Resort is set to open in 2009 near Pylos.

In Athens, the St. George Lycabettus (2 Kleomenous Street, 30-210-729-0711; www.sglycabettus.gr) offers double rooms that start at 165 euros, or about $230 at $1.40 to the euro. Corner suites allow for interconnecting rooms with views of the Acropolis, and there is a rooftop swimming pool.

In Olympia, Aldemar Olympian Village (30-210-623-6150; www.aldemarhotels.com) has double rooms with half board (breakfast and dinner) starting at 240 euros per night.

In Kalamata, a seaside town in the Messinia region, double rooms at the Filoxenia Kalamata (30-272-108-4213; www.classicalhotels.com) start at around 190 euros, including breakfast.

In Nafplio, double rooms at the Amphitryon Hotel (30-281-030-0330; www.amphitryon.gr) start at 343 euros, including breakfast.

WHERE TO EAT

Athens: Both the restaurant and cafe at Orizontes (30-210-722-7065), on top of Lycabettus Hill, have 360-degree views over the city. Dinner for two in the restaurant with a bottle of wine costs approximately 120 euros, while dinner in the cafe, which still serves hearty food (grilled veal, grouper, mousaka and even a burger) costs about half that.

Kalamata: Situated on the corner of the marina, Pyrofani, (30-27-210-953-86) a blue and white restaurant, serves lightly fried zucchini flowers, lovely stuffed peppers and an array of fresh fish from the Aegean — red mullet, fagria (a type of bream) and, of course, squid — for not more than 15 euros a person, including wine.

Pylos: With an outdoor terrace high on the hill overlooking the Bay of Navarino, one of the largest natural harbors in the world, the restaurant of the Hotel Phillip (30-272-302-2741; www.hotelpylos.com) has an extensive menu of simply prepared fresh food — fish, meat, pasta and an amazing fish soup.

Nafplio: Just off Filellinon Square near the harbor is Alalou (30-275-202-9883), a charming restaurant decorated in pale yellow and white. Try the “mother-in-law” salad, made of leeks, lettuce, sun-dried tomato, olives, peppers, Parmesan and whatever other fresh ingredients are in stock, as well as the delicate spinach croquettes. "

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/travel/29greece-1.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Jesus: God, Man or Myth? by Herb Cutner

Rocky — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 14:36:30 GMT

Keep in mind that this is just a review by Acharya and her own books contain many more details than this review alone can offer here. I consider this a must read because it demonstrates that, not only is the "Jesus-Mythicist" position not new, it's been around all along, same as with the astrotheological positions. Yet, we never hear about the history of the "Jesus-Mythicist" position, nor astrotheology, you're on your own to find and research it. The question we should all be asking is, why.

Jesus: God, Man or Myth? by Herb Cutner
Review by Acharya

"In 1950, mythicist Herb Cutner published his excellent work, Jesus: God, Man or Myth?, which not only explores the mythical nature of Jesus Christ but also provides a rare and much-needed summarization of the debate between mythicists and historicizers over the past few centuries. Contrary to popular belief, the idea that Jesus Christ is a mythical character is not new: In fact, the questioning and doubting of the gospel tale started at the beginning of the Christian era and has been continued by thousands, if not millions, since then. The historicization and carnalization of the Christ character was fought by the Docetic Gnostics, and the disbelief was addressed by early orthodox Christians as well, including the writers of the canonical epistles of John. Indeed, 1 John 4 condemns as "antichrists" those "spirits" who do not confess that "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh," as does 2 John 7, which says:

"For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist."

Many, says 2 John, have contested the historicity of Jesus Christ, even by his day. Obviously, therefore, this dissension began with the dawn of the Christianity, which is understandable. If, for example, the average American today were approached with wild tales about some obscure religious fanatic who lived decades ago in, say, Mexico, and who purportedly did many miracles, from manifesting food and raising the dead, including himself, to ascending to heaven, would the person simply believe it, without any proof whatsoever? And be willing to accept this obscure preacher as the "Son of God" and God Almighty Himself? Such is the case with the story of Jesus Christ. In reality, the doubting of Christ as a historical character is not a "new fad"; those who argue otherwise are not informed on the subject.

The writings of early Christians also verify that Christ was perceived by the Pagans as a typical sun god, an idea that came to fruition in the works of French scholar Charles Dupuis at the end of the 18th century, when he wrote his multivolume Origine de tous les cultes. Dupuis's work was widely read by the European elite, the clergy of which, naturally, was compelled to spend time disparaging it, even though Dupuis was building upon a long line of evidence, including the admissions of Christian authority Tertullian during the third century that the Pagans believed the Christian god to be the sun. Although Dupuis was the first to break through the censorship of the Church in such a spectacular fashion, the fact is that there were other writers prior to him who put forth similar information as best they could in the face of tremendous persecution that included the Inquisition and its heinous machinery. One of these individuals was the Neoplatonist and priest of the 15th century Marsilio Ficino, who in his treatise De Sole or The Book of the Sun outlined ancient astrotheology and sun worship, as well as their connection to Platonism and Christianity. No doubt thousands of other such texts did not escape the widespread book-burning by Catholic authorities.

Dupuis was followed by Count Volney, another brilliant French mythicist, and the floodgates opened, with the German School of biblical criticism kicking into full gear, the Dutch throwing their hats into the arena, and the British making a tremendous impact that is likely responsible for the extremely low rate of church attendance in Britain today. Particularly notable among the British were Godfrey Higgins, Rev. Robert Taylor, Gerald Massey and JM Robertson, although Higgins was apparently a "sincere Christian" and not a mythicist in the strictest sense of the word. The German school culminated in the excellent works of Arthur Drews, while the French also produced Couchoud and Dujardin. The mythicists made such inroads that by the end of the 19th century the Right Reverend JP Lundy acknowledged the bulk of their arguments as truthful - up to the point where they claimed Christ to be a myth. Admitting left and right in Monumental Christianity the correspondences between Paganism and Christianity, Lundy, an expert on early Christian monuments/artifacts, nevertheless attempted to assert the reality and superiority of Christianity by claiming that all the preceding Pagan gods who so resembled "our Lord" were mere prototypes fulfilled in Christ, an argument also used by the early Church fathers/apologists. Lundy was not at all alone in his acknowledgement of the Pagan origins of Christianity; indeed, some decades later Christian apologist Sir Arthur Weigall composed his work The Paganism in Our Christianity, in which he repeatedly admitted the unoriginality of the Christian fable but declared nevertheless that Christ's Passion, at least, really did happen and was a miracle.

In Jesus: God, Man or Myth? Cutner goes into some detail about this important development and debate, which was so widely known among the elite for decades, if not centuries, but which is almost completely unknown to the masses at large. Indeed, in response to my book The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, a number of individuals have expressed that they've "never heard such a thing before!" That such an allegation that Jesus Christ is a mythical character is simply "outrageous," and, as one Christian apologist claimed, "There must be three people in the universe who don't believe Jesus existed." This latter assertion is completely erroneous, obviously. As stated, thousands of people have questioned and disbelieved in the historicity of Christ - and many of them have been some of the most intelligent and erudite individuals to live on planet Earth. The idea that this information, once "discovered" or expressed, would then be embraced and revealed to the public is not only naive but silly, especially considering that not only are reputations and vocations at stake but also are billions of dollars annually in the religion business. Because of such entrenched concerns, the mythicist school was fought tooth and nail, and almost buried, save for the few daring individuals who kept it alive over the past decades. Cutner is one of these rare and courageous individuals who risked the malevolence and vitriol of the clergy and its zealots. In his synopsis of the historical-versus-mythical, Cutner notes that the clergy's "adversaries" were dispatched in the most unprofessional and puerile manner:

"Long ago the celebrated Dr. Bentley, in trying to dispose of Anthony Collins, had found one very fine method: convict your Freethinking opponent of fraud, ignorance, and bad scholarship, and his thesis falls to the ground. I should say rather, try to convict your opponent by this method, for some of the mud thrown is sure to stick.... By thus concentrating on mistakes of grammar or Greek, the reader is unwarily led away from the main issue which is exactly what the critic wants. Over and over again Christian controversialists have pursued this method, as if it always mattered greatly that a present tense of Greek should be the imperfect, or that a date should be conjectured as, let us say, 1702 when it ought to be 1712 in the opinion of somebody else. "(27-28)

Indeed, there is hardly a mythicist who has not experienced such treatment, even at the hands of other mythicists and/or freethinkers, another fact highlighted by Cutner, who shows that the early modern mythicists were viciously attacked not only by Christians but also by other "rationalists" and "freethinkers" who, in their attempts to remain "respectable" with the Christian elite, mindlessly fell in line and displayed a real lack of critical thinking. Professional jealousy also factors into this type of vitriol, as various scholars want their particular interpretation to become that which is accepted by the establishment.

The Dating of the Gospels

In his remarkable book, Cutner not only provides an abstract of the debate to his day but also establishes - or reestablishes - a number of the most important contentions and facts exposed by mythicists and other Bible critics, including the fact that the four canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, appear nowhere in the historical/literary record until the end of the second century, despite the claims and wishful thinking of Christian proponents, many of whom, unbelievably, still maintain that these gospels were written by the apostles/disciples themselves and are "eyewitness accounts." These apologist assertions are simply wrong, as has been demonstrated repeatedly over the centuries by the ablest of scholars and scientists, many of whom were Christians. Concerning the gospel dating, Cutner says:

"The dates given by the orthodox Churches to the composition of the Gospels have been proved to be utterly erroneous. The four Gospels as we have them were certainly unknown to the early Church Fathers (before about 180 A.D.). A typical instance is the case of Justin Martyr whose date is somewhere about 150 A.D. His works in defence of Christianity contain hundreds of quotations from the Old Testament and many from some kind of Gospels, Apocryphal or otherwise, but he never mentions the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Some of his quotations come near to similar passages in these four writers, so that there can be no doubt some Gospels were known in his day, though he himself calls those he quotes the "Memoirs of the Apostles." He even quotes things which are not in the canonical Gospels as "gospel" truth; and also, according to some authorities, quotes from a "Gospel of Peter." Here is one of the earliest and greatest of Christian apologists, writing in defence of Christianity, and he appears to know nothing at all about our four Gospels, all of which, we are given to understand, were in common circulation in his day, having been composed between 60 A.D. and 90 A.D. or thereabouts…

If Justin never mentions our Gospels by name in either of his two Apologies or in his Dialogue with Trypho, written about the year 150 A.D., and yet chatters ad nauseam about Jesus, it is fairly good proof that in his day they were unknown, or not in the form we have them…" (25-27)

Cutner further states:

"...in the form that we have them, [the Gospels] are certainly late products of the second century, how in the world can they be in any way trusted as history? And if not history, of what use are they to prove that Jesus really lived?" (260)

Cutner is well aware of the arguments attempting to place the gospels at a much earlier date, as well as the fallacious contention that early Church father Justin Martyr did indeed use the canonical gospels but merely misquoted them and never bothered to note their authors, for some peculiar reason. These erroneous assertions were set to rest quite thoroughly by Cassels in his 1100-page tome Supernatural Religion, in which he goes into intense detail concerning a vast number of early Christian writings, showing conclusively that the gospels were not in circulation, if they even existed, by Martyr's time. Further inquiry into this matter should be made by consulting Cassels's book, as we cannot, nor would we want to, reproduce his tremendous erudition and analysis here.

As concerns the order of the gospels, Cutner goes against the tide and disagrees that Mark is the earliest. His reasoning is thus:

"I hold - with John M. Roberston - that far from being Mark being the earliest Gospel, because his Jesus is more of Man than a God, that it is, in all probability, one of the latest of the Gospels, if not the latest." (268)

Indeed, Mark's gospel reads like a "Reader's Digest" version written for those who were already familiar with one or more of the other gospels. Further details concerning the gospel dating and order may be found in my book Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, in the chapter The "Historical" Jesus?

The Value of Paul

In any case, the gospels are not the earliest canonical texts. That designation falls to the so-called Pauline epistles, which are essentially useless in establishing a historical Jesus. Like so many others, including Earl Doherty of late, Cutner shows that the "truest apostle," Paul, seems completely oblivious of any "historical" Jesus and deals with a spiritual figurehead that had been in existence in mystery schools for centuries if not millennia prior to the Christian era. Cutner also notes that the genuineness of the so-called Pauline epistles is questioned, as is the historicity of Paul himself, as depicted in Acts:

"First of all, it is rather difficult to account for the fact that Josephus never mentions Paul considering that in Acts xxiv, 5, we are told that "We have found this man [Paul] a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sects of the Nazarenes." A man who led sedition against all the Jews then living, wherever they were, must have left a fairly hefty reputation behind him; yet there is not a line in the Jewish historian which indicates that he had ever heard of Paul." (50)

Cutner further points out that Paul does not appear to be Jewish in any manner, despite the claims of his being not only a Jew but a Pharisee. The apostle to the Gentiles never uses the Hebrew bible, and does not seem to know Hebrew at all. In fact, Paul is as thoroughly Greek as can be, with a fairly poor understanding of Judaism, Jewish scholars assert, but, as Cutner relates, "a profound knowledge of Gnosticism." The suggestion is, then, that "Paul" was a Pagan convert to Judaism, although he may have been a very Hellenized Jew.

The "Testimony" of Jews

It has always mystified believers and assorted other historicizers that the story of Jesus Christ appears in no contemporary historical record. Of at least 40 writers of the first several decades of the Christian era, including philosophers and historians, not one mentions Christ, Christians or Christianity. With such a suspicious development concerning a man who "supposedly shook up the world," apologists have been forced to resort to a few pitiful and inadequate "references" in non-Christian sources dating to decades later. Cutner provides an astute analysis of the purported references to Jesus in secular literature, including supposed Jewish "testimony" such as the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus and the Talmud. In the first place, the authors of these texts are not witnesses at all, having lived many decades to centuries after the supposed advent of Christ. Secondly, it is evident that (non-Christian) Jews of the second century had no clue as to any "historical" Jesus. In the second century, we get a clear picture of Jewish disbelief in the "historical Christ" from the Jew Trypho in Justin's Dialogue with him, in which Justin portrays Trypho as questioning the very historicity of Jesus:

"But Christ if he is come, and is anywhere, is unknown... But you, having got an idle story by the end, do form yourself an imaginary Christ, and for his sake you foolishly and inconsiderately rush headlong into dangers..."

It is quite evident that the standard apologist pretense that "the Jews never doubted that Jesus existed" is utterly false; yet, it will be repeated endlessly. The other dead horse continually beaten by Christian apologists is the infamous blurb in the massive works of Josephus called the "Testimonium Flavianum" ("TF"). This short passage glaringly sandwiched in between a litany of Pilate's deeds is a gushing precis of the Christian tale that need not be repeated here. The arguments against its authenticity are many and have been reiterated ad nauseam, which is why they were not repeated in The Christ Conspiracy. Further detail, however, is provided in Suns of God. Recently, Doherty composed a lengthy refutation of the TF, as have others before him. In fact, the TF had been so thoroughly debunked by the turn of the 20th century that few credible Christian scholars even mentioned it in their proofs of Christianity. Those who have truly studied the subject are aware of these facts; yet, a vocal majority continue to wave about this passage in Josephus, either as wholly genuine or as containing "some" authenticity under a Christian lacquer. A handful even speculate that the TF replaced some other mention of Jesus by Josephus. Concerning the TF, Cutner states:

"How any reader of this passage, knowing that Josephus was a Jew and proud of his race, could imagine that he had written it, is one of the most mysterious puzzles connected with the Jesus problem. The whole paragraph shrieks forgery; it aroused the most scathing contempt from Gibbon, and most Christian theologians, thoroughly ashamed of its unmitigated imposture, have denounced it in no unmeasured terms.... Baring-Gould, writing in 1874 in his Lost and Hostile Gospels, had hardly patience dealing with it. "One may be, perhaps, accused of killing dead birds, if one examines and discredits the passage," he says, contemptuously."

"The early Church fathers, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, knew nothing about the passage. The first Christian writer to call attention to it was Eusebius (about 320 A.D.) but even later Christians than he ignored it. Eminent modern Christians like Chalmers, Milman, Farrar, Keim, Hooykaas, and a number of others all rejected it, though some rather shame-facedly claimed that there may have been a passage about Jesus which was suppressed by Christians and the present one substituted. Yet in spite of all this wholesale rejection by their own authorities, many Christians never scruple using Josephus as a witness for Jesus outside the Bible whenever they can do so unchallenged." (105)

Modern apologists unabashedly, and with apparent ignorance of these facts, continue to raise up the specter of Josephus, reflecting a very shabby educational system. It should be noted that the various early Christian defenders of the faith mentioned by Cutner were for the most part extremely well acquainted with the works of Josephus; indeed, it was Christians who preserved Josephus's works for posterity. Furthermore, as have others, Cutner also dispenses with the second blurb in Josephus held up by apologists as "evidence" of Christ's existence, the passage in Antiquities referring to the death of James, terming him "the brother of Jesus who was called Christ":

"This clause is just as barefaced a forgery as the other passage. In any case, this death is put seven years before the death of James the Just, who is considered by the primitive Church to be the "brother" of Jesus." (106)

Cutner further relates that the Christian authority Baring-Gould not only considered these two passages to be forgeries but spilled considered ink attempting to explain why Josephus was silent on the matter of Christ, Christianity and Christians. Baring-Gould further wonders at the Pagan critic Celsus's apparent inability to find any Jewish authority to verify the gospel story:

"It is remarkable that Celsus, living in the middle of the second century, and able to make inquiries of aged Jews whose lives had extended from the first century, should have been able to find out next to nothing about Jesus and his disciples, except what he read in the Gospels. this is proof that no traditions concerning Jesus had been preserved by the Jews, apart from those contained in the Gospels, Canonical and Apocryphal." (107)

As concerns the Talmud, that enormous collection of Jewish law and commentary on the Torah/Tenach/Old Testament, the main body of laws called the "Mishna" has practically nothing to say about Jesus or Christianity. It is only in the Gemara, or commentary on the Mishna, that we find any sort of mention of Christ and Christians. The writing of the Talmud is traditionally placed as having been begun in the third century and continued for at least two centuries afterwards. Obviously, the Talmud is not an "eyewitness" account of the events of the Christian tale. In fact, whatever statements are made in the Talmud are in response to later Christian claims, according to Christian legends already in existence and not as a record of actual events. Therefore, the Talmud is worthless as a non-Christian source demonstrating the historicity of Christ. Concerning the Talmud, Baring-Gould again expressed his surprise at the Mishna's lack of knowledge regarding Christ, Christianity and Christians. Cutner also remarks:

"...supposing there had never been a Jesus Christ going about "doing good" and that he was a literary creation slowly built up in the second century, would not that account for the silence of the Mishna? Why should the rabbis know anything about these literary fictions of a Jesus represented so variously by different communities, each probably with a gospel of its own, and which were only centuries later separated into the "true" and "false" ones?" (95)

As we can see, when the claims regarding Jewish "testimony" are investigated closely, they fall completely apart, as do, in fact, those regarding other non-Christian sources, such as Pliny, Tacitus and Suetonius, which Cutner also demonstrates.

Pagan "Testimony"

The arguments reflecting the uselessness of the "references" in these Pagan writers' works include that: 1. they are too late to serve as anything except for an account of tradition; 2. they are oblique, not necessarily referring to Christ at all; and 3. in the case of Tacitus in particular, they are spurious. These arguments need not be repeated in full here, as they have been made by several authorities, including Robert Taylor. Further detail may also be found in Suns of God. In any case, referring to one of these non-Christian sources, the Roman politician Pliny, whose "reference" to Christians and Christ purportedly appeared some 70 years after the alleged crucifixion of Christ, Cutner says:

"Pliny, born about the year 61 A.D., is said to have written to the emperor Trajan a letter showing how he dealt with Christians in the year 106 A.D., while acting as proconsul in Bithynia. It has been urged that this letter is a forgery, but that is a matter of small moment for it is possible that Christians were in the province in Pliny's time. But Pliny – surely a tolerant Roman – is made to say that "those who were brought before him" had to confess that they were Christians; or if they would not, they were either "punished" or "executed." They admitted that on a certain day "before it was light" they sang hymns to "Christ as a god." This proves, say the Historicists, that Christ really existed as a man (or Man)."

If Pliny had been interviewing the worshipers of Serapis or Apollo they might reasonably have confessed that they sang hymns to Serapis or Apollo, but surely this does not prove that these pagan gods existed as men. All we are entitled to say from Pliny's letter is that there were, when he was in Bithynia., a number of Christians who were worshiping somebody called Christ, not, be it noticed, Jesus; and for my part I see no particular reason to doubt that there were Christians then who worshiped "Christ" just as there were Jews who worshiped "Jehovah." This does not prove that either Christ or Jehovah were real men." (111)

These sound arguments and others readily demonstrate Pliny to be worthless in establishing a historical Christ. Another of these purported "references" is that found in the Annals of Tacitus. In reality, this text appears nowhere in the historical or literary record until it was "found" in the 15th century. In other words, no early Church father uses it to bolster his faith. The Tacitean passage refers to Nero's alleged persecution of followers of "Christus," who was "punished as a criminal by the procurator Pontius Pilate." These Christians, "Tacitus" asserts, constituted a "vast multitude" at Rome by his time, an incorrect contention. Again, this text, if genuine, would date no earlier than the early second century, so it is not an "eyewitness account" of the existence of Jesus Christ. Cutner doubts the passage's authenticity and remarks:

"...If there had been a Neronian persecution, why in heaven's name has so remarkably little been found concerning it elsewhere? Even allowing for poetical license, what did Tacitus mean when he declared that there was a "vast multitude" of Christians in Rome about 64 A.D.? Why, there was not a vast multitude in Jerusalem, or even in the whole of Judea at that time. How comes it that such a passage was never quoted by Tertullian (who often quotes Tacitus) or by Eusebius or even by any of the other Christian apologists always ready to enlarge on the terrible sufferings of the early Christians steadfastly acclaiming their faith in Jesus?" (112)

Another fact that calls into question the authenticity of this passage is that nowhere else in his other writings does Tacitus mention Christ, Christians or Christianity. Again, this passage - and the entire Annals, in actuality - was unknown until the 15th century, when it was "discovered" by Poggio Bracciolini. In 1878, JW Ross, an "excellent Latin scholar," wrote Tacitus and Bracciolini, in which he attempted to prove that Bracciolini himself had forged the Annals. With his expertise in Latin, Ross was readily able to demonstrate that the Annals differed in style from Tacitus's genuine writings. Indeed, some of the phrases match those employed by Bracciolini in his own writings. Regarding the Tacitean passage, Cutner further remarks:

"I have dealt with Tacitus at length deliberately, for over and over again we, who take up the Mythicist position, are accused of avoiding the testimony of the Roman historian. I deny that there is any testimony at all, even if the passage is genuine. It is obviously only a report from believers in "Christ," who certainly is not shown by Tacitus to have been a "man." (125)

Cutner likewise dispatches - much more quickly - the passage in the Roman writer Suetonius referring to "Chrestus," who purportedly provoked "the Jews" to riot in Rome. The arguments against this passage serving as "testimony" include that, like the others, it is too late to serve as evidence of the gospel tale, which it does not reflect in any case. The word "Chrestus" is not the same as "Christus" (Christ) but means "good" or "useful" and was an epithet designating many individuals, humans and gods alike. Obviously, "Jesus of Nazareth" was never at Rome, according to the gospel tale. In any event, these "references," even if genuine and/or referring to Christ, are nothing more than hearsay long after the fact.

Origins of the Christ Myth

Having established that there is no evidence of a "historical Jesus," Cutner proceeds to the Christian mythology at the center of the debate, reiterating the solar-mythos thesis, with its virgin birth and so many other motifs found within Christianity. He refers to the insistence, for example, of JM Robertson, Drews and Whittaker that "there was a pre-Christian Jesus cult" involving a "Jesus" or Joshua who was "possibly a Savior God of some kind, in a 'mystery' religion in Palestine." Indeed, it is evident there were several pre-Christian "Jesus" cults, including the Palestinian or Jewish/Israelite followers of the Old Testament "hero," or rather, god Joshua, as well as the Greek followers of Jason and Dionysus, whose epithet was Ies, which, with the Latin terminus -us, becomes Iesus or Jesus. Regarding astrology or astrotheology and biblical stories and rituals, Cutner remarks:

"... Nearly all the solar deities had a Virgin for a mother... The birthday of Jesus, like that of Mithra and other solar gods, was about December 25, and his twelve Apostles certainly correspond to the twelve signs of the Zodiac. When Jesus (who was the Sun of Righteousness) was "crucified," the Sun naturally died; it was eclipsed. And of course, Jesus rose with the Sun on the day of the Sun. It would have been out of the question for him to rise on any other day - say on Moon-day. "Every detail of the Sun Myth," says R.A. Proctor, the famous writer on astronomy, "is worked into the record of the Galilean teacher." It could hardly have been otherwise."

"Judaism itself, as far as its imagery is concerned, is packed with Sun worship, most of it quite unknown to its votaries [adherents]."(144)

Hence, as was asserted by the early Pagan critics, per Tertullian's famous retort, Christians are in reality sun worshippers, although this fact has been closely guarded by the Christian elite, many of whom have known the truth but have deliberately squelched it. Indeed, when confronted more erudite clergymen may confess that they know "it is all a myth," claiming that these stories are "for the unthinking lay public," as did one cleric when approached with the evidence in The Christ Conspiracy. Another clergyman, an ex-Catholic priest, called The Christ Conspiracy a "very scholarly work, wholly researched." Obviously, these individuals are not about to come forward and make themselves known, which is one of the major reasons why this information has remained buried for centuries and why the general public is unaware of its existence and, thus, the truth about Christianity.

Fortunately, some individuals have braved the waters, including Dupuis, a dauntless soul whose work included an analysis of the motif of "The Twelve," which represent the signs of the Zodiac (as related by Cutner):

"These twelve Apostles were supposed to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel, and if the reader cares to take up his Bible and turn to Genesis, chapter 49, he will find an excellent description of the twelve sons of Jacob mostly in the very terms of the Zodiac.... "(139)

Cutner then lists all twelve tribes/sons and elaborates upon their zodiacal significance. This analysis is supported by the statements of both Josephus and the early Christian authority Clement of Alexandria, who, concerning the accoutrements of the Jewish priests, wrote:

"The bright emeralds upon the ephod [apron] signify the Sun and Moon; and the twelve precious stones arranged in four rows describe to us the Zodiacal circle relatively to the four seasons of the year." (141)

As an example of how the Christian "Holy Twelve" are in actuality not "real people" but part of the classic astral mythos, Peter, as many have evinced, is the Roman god Janus, the genius of the month of January or Aquarius. Janus is likewise Jonah or Jonas, the sun in Aquarius, the sign also represented by John the Baptist. Peter is also Jupiter, as is evidenced by the fact that the old Roman statute of Jupiter in the Vatican was converted into "St. Peter." Thomas is the Syrian dying-and-rising savior god Tammuz, Cutner states, as have many before and after him, representing the "Twins" or Gemini. And so on with the rest of "the Twelve."

This astrotheological discussion includes the non-historicity of John the Baptist, who, as Cutner says, "is based on the 'Oannes' of Berosus - a fish-god who is supposed to have come out of the Erythraean Sea." In his assertion regarding Christ's Forerunner, Cutner analyzes the purported reference to the Baptist in Josephus. He points out that the Baptist tale in Josephus is "hopelessly at variance with the Gospel story," which means that one or the other is certainly incorrect. Neither account proves that John was a historical character, of course, especially since the authenticity of the Josephus passage is suspect. As Cutner points out, once it is admitted that Josephus's works have been tampered with - i.e., the Testimonium Flavianum regarding Christ is acknowledged to be a forgery, as it has been by many learned Christian authorities over the centuries - there is good reason to be suspicious of other passages in favor of Christian claims. Says Cutner:

"The fact is that as Josephus was copied by Christian monks, it was quite easy to insert here and there clumsy forgeries, and the reference to John equals in veracity those to "Christ." (200)

In any case, other astrotheological motifs in the gospel tale include "the 72" disciples also mentioned in scriptures (Luke 10:1, 17):

"Seventy-two is the number of years it takes "for the Sun-God, the place of the Sun at the Vernal Equinox, to progress one degree at the celestial circle" says J.D. Parsons in Our Sun God. Jesus said the names of these disciples would be "written in heaven," which is quite naturally the case; and no one ever heard of them again. "(149-150)

As detailed in The Christ Conspiracy and elsewhere, the Apocalypse, or Revelation, which so many purport to be "prophecy," is in reality a "mine of astral worship, as a glance at W.G. Collingswood's Astrology in the Apocalypse would prove." (152)

Other mythoses that contributed to that of the Christ myth, Cutner likewise demonstrates, include those of the Indian avatars Krishna and Buddha, neither of whom, like Jesus, can logically be considered "historical" personages. Moreover, as Cutner reiterates, much of the cult of the Persian sun god Mithra was "absorbed" by Christianity. "...[I]t is curious to note," says Cutner, "that the founder of the Christian sect known as the Manicheans - Mani or Manes - according to Mosheim, taught that 'Christ is the glorious intelligence which the Persians call Mithras... His residence is the sun.'" (177)

Conclusion

Cutner ends his book with a further discussion of the history of the debate between historicizers and mythicists, a very necessary and revealing synopsis. He details the arguments on both sides, including further responses to various claims by proponents and opponents as the controversy progressed over the decades and centuries. It is important to note that the arguments put forth today against the mythicist perspective are the same as those used in the past, even though they have been thoroughly addressed and refuted many times. Jesus: God, Man or Myth? is a valuable work which handily shows that the subject has been hotly contested behind the scenes and over the heads of the masses, who are almost completely unaware of its existence, to the point where mythicists today are considered oddities who seemingly pop up out of nowhere, a false impression, to say the least. Interestingly, when it comes to the Greek gods, for example, the mythicist perspective is deemed the most sensible and rational, even though this opinion was considered "heresy" and "blasphemy" when first expressed by the great Greek thinkers. In the future, as the gods du jour likewise fall into disfavor, the mythicist perspective will be applied to Christianity as well, as also representing the most reasonable, judicious, scientific and erudite viewpoint."

http://www.truthbeknown.com/cutner.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

"In Search of Religion's Rosetta Stones"

Rocky — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 01:02:33 GMT

"In Search of Religion's Rosetta Stones"

Here is an article written by Acharya in The New Archaeology Review Magazine Sept 2006 issue - "In Search of Religion's Rosetta Stones" part 1 of 3 - scroll about half way down to page 10.

Keep in mind that prior to 18th century, depending on where you lived you may have been risking your life discussing the astrotheological connections to religion.

"...In decades and centuries past, just the Idea that archaeological sites were astronomically aligned was rejected and ridiculed; yet, it is now accepted universally by scientists and the lay public alike that the mega-mysterious Stonehenge, for example, was a highly complex and accurate celestial computer that carefully and precisely measured the movements of the sun, moon and stars. However, there is also little doubt that the purpose of Stonehenge was multi-fold, as it served not only as an observatory but also as a temple, hence, it also had religious significance, i.e., was astrotheological in nature..."

(Read "Stonehenge Decoded" by Gerald Hawkins a Professor of Astronomy at Boston University and research associate at the Harvard College Observatory)

"...The Loughcrew Cairn confirms the connection between astrotheology and human sacrifice, as Griffin further states:

"Deposited charred bones from approximately 48 individuals under a stone basin inside the monument attest to a possible human sacrifice to "save" the Neolithic "sky God" (SUN) from dying as it descended to the "underworld" at the horizon..."

"As an example, the wondrous zodiac appearing in the Egyptian temple of Denderah, built in the 1st century BCE is a copy of a much older version claimed to represent the zodiac circle 10,000 years ago, indicating the antiquity of Egyptian astrotheology. As another example, the Karanovo Zodiac found in Bulgaria is dated to 7,000 years ago. The pervasive sun worship can be found in prehistoric solar petroglyphs in Kashmir, Kyrzgyzstan and Indonesia, to name a few, while the reverence for the moon can be seen in the fabulous engraving of the Venus of Laussel, which dates to around 21,000 BCE. Prehistoric star maps and assorted cave images also attest to the striking astronomical knowledge of very ancient peoples as well as to their astrotheological tendencies."
http://truthbeknown.com/TNAR9-06.pdf

Winter solstice sunrise in Newgrange 3600-3100 BC
http://www.knowth.com/loughcrew.htm

Anthropology & Archaeology - http://www.truthbeknown.com/biblio/archeology.htm

"Now when the ancient Egyptians, awestruck and wondering, turned their eyes to the heavens, they concluded that two gods, the sun and the moon, were primeval and eternal; and they called the former Osiris, the latter Isis..."
~ Diodorus Siculus (90-21 BCE)

http://www.truthbeknown.com/sunsofgod.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Solar Observatories Found Around the World

Rocky — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:41:01 GMT

Solar Observatories Found Around the World

Feel free to help,

Acharya is working on a new book & would love to have your help putting together a collection of articles & photos from around the world about the latest archaeological finds that pertain to solar mythology, archaeoastronomy & astrotheology etc.

I want to start this thread for folks to have a place to help post the mountain of evidence from around planet of solar observatories. Demonstrating the mountain of evidence for the solar mythology & astrotheology theme found in so many discovered archaeological sites.

I'll get us started with this one -

"Towers point to ancient Sun cult: The oldest solar observatory in the Americas has been found, suggesting the existence of early, sophisticated Sun cults, scientists report." "4th Century BC"

"The study is published in the journal Science. Clive Ruggles, professor of archaeoastronomy at Leicester University, UK, said:

"So, on the summer solstice, which is in December in Peru, you would see the Sun just to the right of the right-most tower; for the winter solstice, in June, you would see the Sun rise to the left of the left-most tower; and in-between, the Sun would move up and down the horizon.""

1 March 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6408231.stm

Feel free to join her forum & share here too - http://tinyurl.com/3yoeb3

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 2 replies

"The Roots of Islam: Is Islam a religion of peace? What are the origins of Islam? Who was Mohammed?"

Rocky — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 18:15:38 GMT

"The Roots of Islam: Is Islam a religion of peace? What are the origins of Islam? Who was Mohammed?"

http://www.truthbeknown.com/islam.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 21 replies

'Amazon Stonehenge' found in Brazil

Rocky — Sat, 13 May 2006 21:46:51 GMT

'Amazon Stonehenge' found in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - Archaeologists discovered a pre-colonial astrological observatory possibly 2,000 years old in the Amazon basin near French Guiana, said a report.

"Only a society with a complex culture could have built such a monument," archaeologist Mariana Petry Cabral, of the Amapa Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (IEPA), told O Globo newspaper.

The observatory was built of 127 blocks of granite each three meters (10 feet) high and regularly placed in circles in an open field, she said.

Cabral said the site resembles a temple which could have been used as an observatory, because the blocks are positioned to mark the winter solstice. In December, the path of the sun allows rays to pass through a hole in one of the blocks, possibly to calculate agricultural activity and religious rituals.

Its exact age has been difficult to determine, but based on ceramic fragments found nearby, archaeologists estimate it between 500 and 2,000 years old.

The discovery is in Calcoene, 390 kilometers (240 miles) from Macapa, the capital of Amapa state, near Brazil's border with French Guyana.

Archaeologists said the find holds mysteries similar to Stonehenge, in Salisbury, England, another monument of huge stones, whose purpose is also unclear.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060513/ts_afp/brazilarcheology_060513192718;_ylt=AjkVFVQO8wZLU_tailun3gGGOrgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 5 replies

'The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviours' by Kersey Graves 1875

Rocky — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 16:44:29 GMT

'The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviours: Christianity Before Christ', by Kersey Graves 1875

http://www.actualfreedom.com.au/library/links/16-saviours-1.htm

There are many complaints about this book. Some are valid while many, as it turns out are not. Acharya absolves Graves from a number of false accusations for example that Kersey Graves simply 'made up' things - usually from folks that either never actually read Graves book, never researched where Graves got his information or both. You can find a critique from Richard Carrier here but keep in mind that Carrier NEVER actually did any research to find out where Graves got his information so be weary - http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/kersey_graves/16/chap16.html

http://www.truthbeknown.com/beddru.html

http://www.truthbeknown.com/sunsofgod.htm

http://www.truthbeknown.com/christ.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

"Who Wrote the Bible?"

Rocky — Wed, 30 May 2007 19:47:40 GMT

"Who Wrote the Bible?"
by INFIDELIS MAXIMUS

"The short answer to the question “Who wrote the Bible?” is: we don’t know. As I’ve said before, all but a few of its sixty-six books are either anonymous or pseudonymous (not written by whom they claim to have been). For example, in the New Testament, the only ones we’re fairly sure about are the authentic epistles of Paul. Those would include Romans, Galatians, Philippians, Philemon, I Corinthians, II Corinthians, and I Thessalonians. That’s only seven books of the twenty-seven that make up the New Testament. As for the Old Testament, we’re pretty clueless about who wrote any of it. We just don’t know. Think about that for a moment. The most influential work in human history is almost completely anonymous. Still want to base your life on it?"

"There are over 5,000 manuscript sources for the New Testament alone, and no two of them are identical. Over and over, scribes marked out, erased, replaced, and downright fabricated the text they were copying. Sometimes their changes were accidental; sometimes they weren’t. At all times, their work was imperfect and casts serious doubt on the wisdom of hanging on every word of the biblical text."

for the full bog -
http://infidelismaximus.blogspot.com/2007/05/who-wrote-bible.html

============

For more details like this about the New Testament be sure to get "Who Was Jesus?" by Acharya

http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/whowasjesus.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 6 replies

The Nativity Scene at the Temple of Luxor

Rocky — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 16:03:52 GMT

The Nativity Scene at the Temple of Luxor

Does a pre-Christian engraving in Egypt depict the gospel tale of Jesus's nativity?

http://www.truthbeknown.com/luxor.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 6 replies

Echoes of Irenaeus

Rocky — Wed, 16 May 2007 17:44:52 GMT

Echoes of Irenaeus

"A Christian on a newsgroup asked me what I thought of Irenaeus (someone he held in esteem and deemed one of the many great evidences for the truth of the Bible and Christianity in general). What follows is an abridged version of my response.

What do I think of Irenaeus? I think Irenaeus was the cause of much of the misinformation in the prepubescent church, some of which still survives to this day, and that he never met a fact he didn’t like to try to misconstrue, nor a lie he didn’t like to retell. His influence on the church has been particularly insidious because people who can’t actually read his extant works in their original language and don’t have any concept for where he fits in the grand scheme of things like to cite him as proof for the authenticity of the Bible and the correctness of Christianity, even though the “proof” he offered of his claims in favor of what came to be known as orthodoxy and his attacks on what came to be known to us as heresies was little more than the Bible itself. In other words, he offered the same logical non sequitur that many Chrisitans like to: namely, that the Bible is self-authenticating, that it needs no external evidence to establish its truth.

Let’s look at a few of the things Irenaeus claimed:

* That Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke, even though Irenaeus knew that his own mentor, Polycarp, was much more likely the author

* That the four gospels we now know from the New Testament were eyewitness accounts and inspired by God, even though Matthew and Luke are essentially amended copies of Mark, and John was almost certainly of Greek origin. I said earlier that his evidence for his claims about the Bible was almost always the Bible itself. He sometimes fell back on plain, old-fashioned logic. Check out his reasoning on this claim:

“But it is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the church has been scattered throughout the world, and since the "pillar and ground" of the church is the Gospel and the spirit of life, it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing incorruption on every side, and vivifying human afresh. From this fact, it is evident that the Logos, the fashioner demiourgos of all, he that sits on the cherubim and holds all things together, when he was manifested to humanity, gave us the gospel under four forms but bound together by one spirit.”

Who could argue with reasoning like that? Elaine Pagels’ response to this claim puts it best:

“Now, today, scholars of the New Testament wouldn't agree with Irenaeus, because we don't know who wrote the gospels we call Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, any more than we know who wrote the Gospel of Thomas. They're all attributed to disciples of Jesus, but we don't really know who wrote them. And we don't know whether they came as the earliest sources or not. In fact, chances are they didn't.”

* That John, an illiterate Galilean fisherman, was the author of what has come down to us as the Gospel of John. In Irenaeus’ time, no one knew who’d written it (or any of the other gospels, for that matter), and few seemed to think that they necessarily have need been written by eyewitnesses or even apostles. The Gospel of John is written in classical, almost flawless Greek, has Hellenistic themes throughout, and was almost certainly not written by anyone in Galilee, let alone an illiterate fisherman.

* That the antichrist (who had probably already “come”—he was most likely the Roman Emperor Caligula) would be of Jewish origin. So, when Jerry Falwell again makes an anti-Semitic ass of himself and claims the antichrist will be a Jew, you can thank Irenaeus.

* That the imagery of the Book of Revelation actually had any meaning to future generations, and that the many vivid images in the book could be interpreted so loosely as to be by mere fiat and imagination alone. Hal Lindsey and his ilk, who have superimposed meaning on to Revelation that was never there, are Irenaeus’ exegetical descendents.

* That there is magic in the number 666 and that Christians should spend their time trying to figure out what it means and to whom it refers.

* That many of the earliest forms of Christianity, some of which were larger and more widespread than Irenaeus’ particular brand (which has subsequently come down to us as orthodoxy), were heretical and not worthy of preservation. Thanks to Irenaeus, we have a fraction of the writings and history about the early church that we’d otherwise have had. Thanks to his determination to stamp out what he saw as heresies, we know very little about some of these earliest forms of Christianity. He was especially reproachful of Marcion, who was one of the few clearheaded enough to point out that Yahweh and Jesus’ dad couldn’t be the same guy. Neither the Jesus of the gospels nor his dad would ever have murdered babies simply because of their nationality (ever hear of Passover?) Marcion was also the first to produce a canon and the first to claim an abridged form of Luke as the only real gospel, the others being copies or outright falsehoods. Think how different Christianity might be had Marcion’s teachings not been eradicated by the likes of Irenaeus.

If you are interested in learning more about Irenaeus, I’d suggest you find a translation of his Against Heresies. Also read Elain Pagels’ critique of Irenaeus. And read this article on some of the processes by which the NT evolved into the form we recognize today."

http://infidelismaximus.blogspot.com/2007/05/echos-of-irenaeus.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

The Great Flood: Noah or Gilgamesh?

Rocky — Mon, 14 May 2007 03:38:41 GMT

The Great Flood: Noah or Gilgamesh?

The Original Flood Tablet at the British Museum displays the 2,700-year-old Flood Tablet, a cuneiform-inscribed clay tablet with an Assyrian version of the Old Testament story of Noah's ark except that it's at least 1,700 years older.

In the cultures like the Sumerian/Mesopotamian and Egyptian, which emerged in fertile river valleys, the rivers are the very lifeblood of these cultures, the very foundations of existence. The yearly flooding of the rivers was crucial for agriculture and crops. If the flooding is too small or do not happen one year, famine, hunger and crisis is the result. If the flooding is too big, the fields, cities, granaries are destroyed and irrigation systems clogged, and the society faces a catastrophe.

Destructive Floods were relative common in Mesopotamia, and the rivers and the deities associated with them were central to these people’s religion. The concept of a devastating great flood as the divine punishment of a displeased God is also very common in these cultures. It is also a concept quite foreign to pastoral desert nomads like the Hebrews. The biblical story of Noah and the Great flood is more or less a direct copy of the far older Sumerian mythical story of a great Flood and the boat-building hero Ziusutra found in the Gilgamesh epos. Many of the clay tablets with this epos are now in the British Museum. There exist several versions of the Mesopotamian myth of the great flood, all far older than the biblical version.

The rivers of the Tigris, the Euphrates and the Nile evidently caused many great floods, so the background of the Mesopotamian myth is based on real events, but of course exaggerated in their mythical form. The Flood as it is presented in the Bible is exaggerated in such a way it is completely ridiculous. To cover all the mountains in the world the sea level had to rise 9000 meters. This would actually call for humongous amounts of water *, actually many times the amount of water existing in our entire solar system.

The size of the Ark (Gen 6,15) is described as big enough for two specimens of every species on earth. The volume of the almost 1 million known species of insects, each with multiple different families, would probably be bigger than the vessel itself, and then of course we have the problem with inbreeding. To avoid inbreeding the Lord allowed seven pairs of the birds and the “clean” animals in the Ark, but of humans there were only four pairs: Noah (hardly particularly fertile when 600 years old), his wife and their three sons and their wives.

By the way, how exactly did the 600(!) years old Noah and his family gather the 1,190,200 known species of invertebrates, 5416 species of mammals, 5743 species of amphibians, 9917 species of birds and appx. 8163 species of reptiles, - and each species with its many different families and subgroups? And this in only seven days?

Like all nature religions, natural disasters were considered as an act of God to punish his subordinates into obedience. The motif of the story of Cain and Abel can also be found in myths from old Sumeria together with many others. Since the Sumerians were the first literate civilisation, their myths and stories were written down, copied and became known over huge parts of the Middle East. Comparing the stories on the excavated clay tablets with the biblical stories, the similarities are quite obvious. The biblical texts were written late in antiquity, and the writers were inspired by, and building on an already rich source of stories, myths, religious motifs and history from the surrounding high cultures.

http://www.bandoli.no/sumerianlegacy.htm

The Flood Tablet, relating part of the Epic of Gilgamesh

This, the eleventh tablet of the epic, describes the meeting of Gilgamesh with Utnapishtim. Like Noah in the Hebrew Bible, Utnapishtim had been forewarned of a plan by the gods to send a great flood. He built a boat and loaded it with everything he could find. Utnapishtim survived the flood for six days while mankind was destroyed, before landing on a mountain called Nimush. He released a dove and a swallow but they did not find dry land to rest on, and returned. Finally a raven that he released did not return, showing that the waters must have receded.
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/ixbin/goto?id=OBJ1737

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Voltaire on Abraham: Who was Abraham?

Rocky — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 23:26:03 GMT

Voltaire on Abraham: Abraham is very important to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Who was Abraham?

Excerpted from Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary

Abraham is one of the names famous in Asia Minor and in Arabia, like Thoth among the Egyptians, the first Zoroaster in Persia, Hercules in Greece, Orpheus in Thrace, Odin among the northern nations, and so many others whose fame is greater than the authenticity of their history. I speak here only of profane history; for that of the Jews, our teachers and our enemies, whom we believe and detest, having manifestly been written by the holy ghost himself, we feel about it as we must. I refer here only to the Arabs. They boast that they descend from Abraham through Ishmael. They believe that this patriarch built Mecca and died in that city.

The fact is that the race of Ishmael has been infinitely more favoured by god than the race of Jacob. It is true that both races have produced thieves; but the Arab thieves have been prodigiously superior to the Jewish thieves. The descendants of Jacob conquered only a very small country, which they lost; and the descendants of Ishmael have conquered part of Asia, Europe and Africa have established an empire vaster than that of the Romans, and have driven the Jews from their caves, which they called the promised land. If we followed the methods of our modern history books it would be quite hard to believe that Abraham was the father of two such different nations. We are told that he was born in Chaldea, and that he was the son of a poor potter who earned his living by making little day idols. It is scarcely credible that the son of this potter went to Mecca, 300 leagues away in the tropics, by way of impassable deserts. If he was a conqueror he no doubt aimed at the fine country of Assyria; and if he was only a poor man as he is depicted, he founded no kingdoms in foreign parts.

Genesis relates that he was seventy-five years old when he departed from the land of Haran after the death of his father, the potter Terah; but the same Genesis also says that Terah, having begotten Abraham at the age of seventy, lived to the age of 205, and that Abraham did not leave Haran until after the death of his father. Either the author did not know how to arrange his narrative, or it is clear from Genesis itself that Abraham was 135 when he left Mesopotamia. He went from one idolatrous country to another idolatrous country called Shechem, in Palestine. Why did he go there? Why did he leave the fertile banks of the Euphrates for so distant, so sterile and so stony a region as Shechem? The Chaldean language must have been very different from that of Shechem, which was not a trading centre. Shechem is more than 1 hundred leagues from Chaldea.

Deserts have to be traversed to get there. But God wanted him to make this journey, he wanted to show him the land which his descendants were to occupy several centuries later. The human mind has difficulty in grasping the reasons for such a journey. Hardly had he arrived in the little mountainous country of Shechem than famine obliged him to leave it. He went to Egypt to seek sustenance. It is 200 leagues from Shechem to Memphis. Is it natural to go so far to ask for grain, and that to a country whose language one does not understand?

What strange journeys to undertake at the age of nearly 140! He brought his wife Sarah to Memphis. She was extremely young, almost a child compared to him, for she was only sixty-five. As she was very beautiful he resolved to turn her beauty to account, and said to her: "Pretend to be my sister, that it may go well with me for your sake." He should rather have said: "Pretend to be my daughter." The king fell in love with the young Sarah, and gave the self-styled brother many sheep, oxen, asses, she-asses, camels, man-servants and maids: which proves that Egypt was already a very powerful, very civilized, and consequently very ancient kingdom, and that brothers who came and offered their sisters to the kings of Memphis were magnificently rewarded. According to the scriptures the young Sarah was ninety when God promised her that Abraham, who was then 160, would give her a child that year.

Abraham, who loved to travel, went into the horrible desert of Kadesh with his pregnant wife, still young and still pretty. A king of this desert did not fail to fall in love with Sarah as had the king of Egypt. The father of the faithful told the same lie as in Egypt: he passed off his wife as his sister, and this again earned him a profit of sheep, oxen, men-servants and maids. We might say that Abraham grew very rich by means of his wife. The commentators have written a prodigious number of volumes to justify Abraham's conduct, and to reconcile his chronology. The reader must therefore be referred to these commentaries. They are all written by delicate wits and discerning minds, excellent philosophers, unprejudiced, no pedants. For the rest, this name Bram, Abram, was famous in India and Persia: some learned men even allege that he was the same legislator as the one the Greeks called Zoroaster. Others say that he was the Brahma of the Indians. But what appears very reasonable to many scholars is that this Abrahim was a Chaldean or a Persian. Later on the Jews boasted that they were descended from him, as the Franks descend from Hector, and the Bretons from Tubal.

It is certain that the Jewish nation was quite a modern horde; that it did not establish itself near Phoenicia until very late; that it was surrounded by ancient peoples; that it adopted their language; that it took from them the very name of Israel which is Chaldean, according to the testimony of the Jew Flavius Josephus himself. We know that it took even the names of the angels from the Babylonians; and finally that it was only after the Phoenicians that it gave god the name of Eloi or Eloa, Adonai, Jehovah or Hiao.

It probably knew the name of Abraham or Ibrahim only through the Babylonians; for the ancient religion of all the regions from the Euphrates to the Oxus was called Kish-Ibrahim, Milat-Irbirahim. All the researches made on the spot by the learned Hyde confirm this. The Jews thus treat history and ancient fables as their old clothes-men treat their worn out garments: they turn them and sell them for new at the highest possible price It is a singular example of human stupidity that we should for so long have regarded the Jews as a nation which had taught everything to all others, although their historian Josephus himself admits the contrary.

It is difficult to pierce the darkness of antiquity; but it is evident that all the kingdoms of Asia flourished greatly before the vagabond horde of Arabs called Jews possessed a little corner of earth for its own, before it had a town, laws, and a settled religion. Thus, when we consider an ancient rite, an ancient opinion, established both in Egypt or Asia, and among the Jews, it is quite natural to suppose that this little people, new, ignorant, rude, still lacking the arts, copied as best it could the ancient, flourishing and industrious nation.

~ Voltaire (1733-1813)

http://www.truthbeknown.com/abraham.html

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 3 replies

The Seven Tablets of Creation

Rocky — Sat, 05 May 2007 15:56:16 GMT

The Seven Tablets of Creation
by Leonard William King 1902

This is an etext of L.W. Kings' authoritative work on the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation myth. This etext includes the complete introduction, and the English text of the Enuma Elish and other related texts, with selected footnotes. The Enuma Elish is the earliest written creation myth, in which the God Marduk battles the chaos Goddess Tiamat and her evil minions. The name 'Enuma Elish' is derived from the first two words of the myth, meaning 'When in the Height'. Tiamat takes the form of a gigantic snake, and Marduk battles and defeats her using an arsenal of super-weapons. After his victory Marduk is made the leader of the Gods by acclamation. Marduk divides Tiamat's corpse into two portions, the upper half becoming the sky and the lower half, the earth. Marduk then creates humanity from his blood and bone.

The Enuma Elish has long been considered by scholars to be primary source material for the book of Genesis. It has also been hypothesized that this is a legend about the overthrow of the matriarchy or records of some cosmic catastrophe.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/stc/index.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

'Jesus never existed' - litigation and demonstration

Rocky — Fri, 11 May 2007 17:09:59 GMT

'Jesus never existed' - litigation and demonstration

Announcement of a 'public demonstration' (or conference) in Venice on May 16, 2007, to prove that 'Jesus never existed' - an adjunct to
the litigation before the European Court of Human Rights, Cascioli vs. Italy, designed to force the Roman Catholic Church to provide
evidence that the 'Jesus Christ' of New Testament fame is anything more than a character in a work of fiction

Cascioli at a press conference

Luigi Cascioli, the Italian atheist who has been suing the Roman Catholic Church for defrauding the public by claiming that Yeshua mashia/Joshua the messiah/Jesus Christ actually existed, has announced over the internet that on May 16, 2007, in Venice, there
will be a "public demonstration" of proof that the purported "son of God" and "messiah" of "Christianity" is a fictitious character. "Jesus never existed" is the watchword for the "demonstration," also billed as a "conference." It will take place on the square of Scoletta dei Calegheri (Confraternity of the Cobbler). It is sponsored by the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (UAAR).

The demonstration or conference is an adjunct to Cascioli's persistent attempts, in defiance of obstacles he has faced, to obtain a court trial in which the Roman Catholic Church, in order to evade a claim of fraud, would be obligated to prove that "Jesus" actually existed. His litigations in Rome were dismissed without such a trial. He now has an action entitled Cascioli vs. Italy before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg. [In English translations of the name as it appears in Italian in Cascioli's announcement, that tribunal emerges as the "Court of the Rights of Man" - but unless I am mistaken, and I do not think that I am, the different names refer to one and the same international court which is recognized by 41 nations.]

Cascioli is the author of a book translated or mistranslated into English as Faith of Christ, in which he claims to have proved that the story of "Jesus" in the Christian bible is a wildly exaggerated takeoff on the life of a plain ordinary man who did exist, and that the New Testament scriptures are fiction. So far as I can determine, the book has not been reviewed in the U.S. media, which also with rare exceptions has failed to provide coverage of Cascioli's activities, while his litigations have been publicized in Europe.

Even if Cascioli should obtain some sort of declaration from the European Court of Human Rights, there is no obligation for any government or any court within any government to comply with whatever it may be. There is a statement in the Court of Human Rights charter (if charter is theright term for it) that the participating nations will honor a decree from that Court; but the Court lacks authority to enforce its decrees.

INFORMATION

Most of the information about the forthcoming "demonstration" or "conference" is coming across the internet in Italian. To read the information, you can obtain free translations into English that are woefully ungrammatical by copying and pasting the Italian into such web sites as Google's http://translate.google.com/translate_t, and Free Translation's

http://freetranslation.com If you want a professional, grammatically correct translation, you have to pay for it.

Cascioli does have an English language web site - http://luigicascioli.it/cascioli_inglese/ - and you can email him, preferably in Italian, at info(at)luigicascioli.it.

An organization of atheists doing business under the name Axteismo Press has more information about the May 16th event, but it
is all in Italian. The Axteismo blog site is http://nochiesa.blogspot.com, and its email addresses are axteismo(at) yahoo.it and axteismo.press2 (at) yahoo.it. The principal there will try to answer an inquiry that arrives in English, but the response in English will be deficient. It is best to try to deliver the inquiry in Italian.

A telephone number has been provided for members of the media or the public to call to obtain information about the May 16th event: 0415281010. Whether there will be someone on the line who speaks English, I do not know.

If the media of the U.S. continues to ignore what is happening across the ocean in regard to one of the most critically important issues of all time, whether or not the so-called "Jesus Christ" of New Testament fame actually existed, I will be providing developments in my newsletter. Meanwhile, I urge everyone reading this newsletter to demand an explanation from your local newspapers, and radio and television stations, as to why one of the most critically important controversies in all of human history is not being covered by the American media.

Burton Wolfe

posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 0 replies

Halo is Solar Symbolism

Rocky — Mon, 07 May 2007 01:57:12 GMT

The Halo and Sun Images

It is usual to see a bright circle (halo) around the heads of Jesus, Mary and other "Saints," in idolatrous pictures. Alternatively, a golden colored disc surrounds the head. However, this symbol is not restricted to professed Christian Churches. It was used in pagan and ancient Babylon. Pictures of Jesus Christ and Mary were unknown in the early Church, and one will search the Bible in vain for such things.

The disc or circle of light surrounding the head, was found in artistic representations of the great gods and goddesses in Babylon. The disc, and particularly the circle, were well-known symbols of the Sun-divinity. Apollo, as the child of the Sun, was often thus represented. The Missal of the Church of Rome contains a number of pictures of Jesus and Mary showing a bright disc encompassing the head, shining as the brightness of the sun.

The solar disc or halo entails the same symbolism as that of the round cake or wafer. Therefore, it comes as no surprise to find the Church of Rome representing the consecrated "Host" in the form of the sun. These pictures in the Missal also include images of corn, (See Doctrine#wafer#corn)just as "the Son," the child Nimrod, was represented in the Mysteries.

However, there is yet a deeper significance in the circle around the head. The word "zero" in Chaldee means both "a circle" and "the seed" in English; the former meaning of the word "zero" has of course been carried into the English language. The latter is seen in another name given to Nimrod, which was "Zoroaster," the head of the fire worshippers. The name "Zoroaster" is simply a version of the Chaldee "Zero-ashta," which means in English, "the seed of a woman." Thus we see how Nimrod was worshiped as the false messiah. Therefore, when we consider that the sun god Tammuz was symbolized by a circle, how blasphemous to depict Jesus with such a circle of light! The shining sun behind the head or the circle of light shows that what is claimed of Jesus Christ, is in fact the false messiah, Nimrod.

Sun images appear widely in church buildings; these images may take on various forms. Above the "high altar" in St. Peter's is a huge golden sun-burst image. In other parts of St. Peter's there are sun images at the top of pillars. This is remarkably similar to the way the sun was worshiped in Babylonish temples. In the time of Josiah, the godly king of Judah, we read:

2 Chron 34:4 They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down; NKJV (Young's Concordance defines these images as "sun images.")

Another form of sun image that originates from Babylon, is the solar wheel, which is in the form of a chariot wheel, and is linked with astrology and the occult. This is also referred to in Josiah's cleaning up:

2 Kings 23:11 Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech, the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. NKJV

It is quite remarkable then to find that that the circular courtyard in front of St. Peter's marks out the pattern of a solar wheel.

Another very common form of the solar wheel found in many churches is the rose window. This is often placed above the entrance of the church. It might be unrelated, but they are remarkably similar to the sun images placed over the entrances to Babylonian and Egyptian temples. This show how the customs of Babylonish sun worship have become a traditional part of professed Christian Churches.

Churches are designed in such a way that the worshippers have to face towards the east - vs. the Temple, where worshipping was towards the west in front of the altar. Likewise, the entrance to the court of the Tabernacle was from the east. However, when Ezekiel was given the vision of the idolatrous abominations of the final days of kingdom of Judah, the Lord show him the following:

Ezek 8:16 So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east. NKJV

http://scripture_keywords.tripod.com/Babylon-Rome-Mysteries/07-Rome-Symbolism.html

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Myths of Babylonia and Assyria

Rocky — Sat, 05 May 2007 15:51:11 GMT

Myths of Babylonia and Assyria
by Donald A. Mackenzie 1915

This volume of the Myths and Legends series covers the still nascent subject of ancient Near Eastern mythology. Because the primary documents had only been deciphered a few decades prior to the writing of this book, Mackenzie necessarily has to round out the exposition with a detailed history of the region, Biblical accounts, and speculative cross-cultural comparisons, particularly to Hindu and Northern European mythology and folklore.

The picture emerges of the birth of the world culture in the region which is today known as Iraq. Besides writing, codes of law, irrigation, mathematics, astronomy, urban life and many other innovations, the fertile crescent developed a brutal form of despotism. The history is a constant churn of wars, invasions, massacres, genocide and regicide.

This work remains a decent introduction and reference work for the religion, culture, history and general background of the ancient Near East, and well worth studying by anyone interested in the topic.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/mba/index.htm

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posted in Solar Mythology ~ Astrotheology - 1 reply

Women and Religion

Rocky — Sat, 05 May 2007 16:12:42 GMT

Women and Religion

"All of the major world religions deprecate women to some degree. This page archives texts which relate specifically to women and religion from a female perspective. This includes historic feminist texts on the topic, texts about Goddess-oriented spirituality and Amazons, as well as texts from otherwise male-dominated religions in the same vein. As might be expected, there are far fewer of these than might be desired."

http://www.sacred-texts.com/wmn/index.htm

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Native American Religions, Mythology and Folklore

Rocky — Sat, 05 May 2007 16:09:01 GMT

Native American Religions, Mythology and Folklore

"A long-standing problem with this section (and several others at this site relating to traditional peoples' spiritual beliefs) has been the lack of authoritative information. We are in the process of expanding this section by scanning public domain ethnographic accounts on specific Native American religious and spiritual practices. We are fortunate that there is a wealth of such material available, which makes it so much more puzzling why more of it is not on the Internet yet.

The study of Native Americans by anthroplogists has had its share of bad science and ethical problems. However, the texts we are in the process of scanning were written by 19th and 20th Century ethnographers who were known for their careful and respectful approach to the people they studied. These were scholars who lived for years with the people they studied, and obtained permission to transcribe their oral sacred literature."

http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/index.htm

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The Epic of Gilgamish

Rocky — Sat, 05 May 2007 16:04:58 GMT

The Epic of Gilgamish

tr. by R. Campbell Thompson
[1928]

This is one of the first essentially complete academic translations of the epic of Gilgamesh. It includes all of the principal episodes of the epic: the wild man Enkidu; the battle with Humbaba, the cedar forest demon; the death of Enkidu, the journey of Gilgamesh to find the secret of eternal life, in the course of which he encounters the Babylonian Noah, Uta-Napishtim, and hears the story of the great flood.

Oxford trained Thompson (1876-1941), was an Assyriologist associated with the British Museum. He was a teacher both of T.E. Lawrence and Max Mallowan, husband of Agatha Cristie. He excavated at Ur, Ninevah and Carchemish.

While often cited, this book is almost never seen. This work is long out of print (in fact it has never been reprinted) and extremely rare, even in libraries. However, it has a huge significance because it is one of the baseline translations of Gilgamesh. Because of its date of publication, under US copyright law it is formally still under copyright. Since there was no copyright notice in the original, the US copyright lasts for 70 years following the death of the author (i.e., 2011). We have attempted to locate the current copyright holder with no success. If one comes forward and requests that this electronic text be removed, it will be taken down without notice.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/eog/index.htm

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The Syrian Goddess

Rocky — Sat, 05 May 2007 16:03:06 GMT

The Syrian Goddess

De Dea Syria, by Lucian of Samosata
by Herbert A. Strong and John Garstang
[1913]

Lucian of Samosata's De Dea Syria, (the Syrian Goddess) is one of the most 'notorious' classical writings. Not only does it acknowledge that at one time a paramount Goddess was worshipped in regions of the Ancient Near East, it goes into details of the practices of her devotees which later generations considered reprehensible. Nonetheless De Dea played an important role in the development of modern Neopaganism; Robert Graves cited it as one of the few actual accounts of ancient Goddess-worship.

Lucian recounts his personal observations of the worship of the Goddess Atargatis (a form of Isthar or Astarte) at the temple of Hierapolis, in what is today Turkey. Lucian writes in the style of Herodotus, and, remarkably, in Herodotus' dialect of Greek, which at that time was over five hundred years old. Lucian describes huge phalliform idols, cross-dressing priests who castrated themselves, ritual prostitution of female worshipers, and occasional infant human sacrifice. Unlike most of the other writings of Lucian, he is not being explicitly satirical or ironic, nor is he writing fiction. Strong and Garstang claim that this was largely a historically valid description, supported by other ancient writers, texts, and archaeology. Among other passages of interest, there is a variant account of the Greek flood myth of Deucalion which is here blended with pre-biblical Ancient Near Eastern deluge accounts.

Victorian and early 20th century scholars found this text difficult to process. It is conspicuously absent from the expurgated Fowler and Fowler translation of Lucian's Works of 1905. While A.M. Harmon included De Dea in volume four of the Loeb Classics Library Lucian in 1925, he rendered it in middle English! Harmon's rationale was that Lucian wrote De Dea in an archaic dialect of Greek, so this was an attempt to convey the experience of a contemporary of Lucian reading this. But it is not helpful for the modern non-academic reader. Fortunately, Strong had translated De Dea into clear modern English in 1913, and so this is the edition which I used. However, the Strong translation has never been reprinted and used copies are almost impossible to come by. I had to obtain a copy of this book by interlibrary loan from a small college in Pennsylvania. Even still, Strong and Garstang wreathe the translation in a thick nimbus of apparatus, which gives the appearance of a scholarly distancing tactic. This tendency has continued into the 21st century: a recent academic edition ran to 600 pages--all for a text about the length of a short magazine article. (Lucian, On the Syrian Goddess, J.L. Lightfoot, Oxford University Press [2003])

Lucian's authorship of De Dea has been questioned. One issue is the archaic dialect. In addition, his other works are quite cynical about religion. And where is Lucian's relentless humor? The effect is like watching Robin Williams do a completely straight reading of the Gettysburg Address. Is he being absurdist by affecting not only a different dialect, but a pious attitude, as some have suggested? Or is he being serious, for once? There is one clue: in a personal note at the end, Lucian says that a lock of his youthful hair was dedicated to the Goddess at this temple. This may hold the key to why he wrote this piece.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/tsg/index.htm

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The Code of Hammurabi

Rocky — Sat, 05 May 2007 15:58:41 GMT

The Code of Hammurabi

This, the earliest known written legal code, was composed about 1780 B.C.E. by Hammurabi, the ruler of Babylon. This text was excavated in 1901; it was carved on an eight foot high stone monolith. The harsh system of punishment expressed in this text prefigures the concept of 'an eye for an eye'. The Code lays out the basis of both criminal and civil law, and defines procedures for commerce and trade. This text was redacted for 1,500 years, and is considered the predecessor of Jewish and Islamic legal systems alike.

At the other end of the evolution of Ancient Near Eastern law is the refined and considerably more merciful Talmud, composed two and half millennia later, also in Babylon, by expatriate Jewish scholars.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/ham/index.htm

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Sumerian Mythology

Rocky — Sat, 05 May 2007 15:54:07 GMT

Sumerian Mythology
By Samuel Noah Kramer 1944, 1961

The Sumerians were a non-Semitic, non-Indo-European people who lived in southern Babylonia from 4000-3000 B.C.E. They invented cuneiform writing, and their spiritual beliefs influenced all successive Near Eastern religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They produced an extensive body of literature, among the oldest in the world. Samuel Noah Kramer spent most of his life studying this literature, by piecing together clay tablets in far-flung museums. This short work gives translations or summaries of the most important Sumerian myths.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/sum/index.htm

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Lou Dobbs interviews Christopher Hitchens VIDEO

Rocky — Sat, 05 May 2007 00:08:02 GMT

Lou Dobbs interviews Christopher Hitchens on May 3, 2007, on the new book, "God is Not Great"

video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ_l3Utr670

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