The death of D. M. Murdock, also known as Acharya S

Sooner or later, Death will come for us all. With sadness and considerable regret, I noticed that notorious Christian mythicist D. M. Murdock (also known by the pseudonym Acharya S.) recently passed away after a battle with cancer. Now to be completely honest, I've never been a big fan of her books or videos, given her very open hostility toward Christianity and Christians. Earlier this year, I wrote a rather scathing article about her book The Christ/Horus Connection and challenged the veracity of her work. Quite frankly, she and Richard Carrier formed a small minority of "experts" who question the existence of a historical Jesus. Carrier does hold a PhD, but he doesn't teach at a university. He offers online courses on his work that panders to the conspiracy theorist crowd and basically does "anything for a buck." The credentials of Ms. Murdock may be found here. My words practically dripped with sarcasm as I aggressively questioned her claim that she learned Egyptian hieroglyphics on the fly. Let's just say that I remain skeptical, but now regret my harsh words, considering they were delivered while she literally fought for her life. Now it is my custom, when I "attack" someone like Ms. Murdock for me to attempt communication with that person in order to call their attention to my criticisms. I'd rather be up front and give him or her the opportunity to respond to my criticism as a common courtesy. I can't say for sure that I emailed her a link to that article, and sincerely hope that I forgot. and that I did not cause her any distress during her … [Read more...]

Truth Be Known

I've been a fan of Neil Young's music going all the way back to his days with Buffalo Springfield. "Truth Be Known" is one of my favorite songs by Neil  (backed by Pearl Jam minus Eddie Vedder, with Neil on lead vocals), on his CD Mirror Ball. Pearl Jam fans -- please don't rush out to buy the CD just because Stone Gossard and Mike McCready are playing rhythm and lead guitars behind Neil, and Jeff Ament is on bass. You might be disappointed. At least, listen to "I'm the Ocean" and "Big Green Country" before you make a purchase decision either way. In fairness, at the very least, you need to be aware that Eddie Vedder only sings a single verse on one song. It's not a Pearl Jam album, by any stretch of the imagination. Fans of Neil Young, however,..shame on you if you don't already own a copy. Neil's vocals are an acquired taste, but you've already acquired it, right? The guys from Pearl Jam certainly seemed to have invigorated Young on the 1995 release. I especially liked the guitar work of Gossard and McCready on "Big Green Country", and the lyrics from one particular verse in "Truth Be Known" that went: When the fire that once was your friend Burns your fingers to the bone And your song meets a sudden end Echoing through right and wrong Truth be known... There is great wisdom in those words -- nothing hurts worse than being betrayed by a friend. Try to imagine what Jesus must have felt like, when Judas kissed his cheek. Of course, if you're a conspiracy theorist like D. M. Murdock, you may not even believe Jesus existed. By strange coincidence, a … [Read more...]