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{{short description|American Christ myth theorist (1960–2015)}}
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'''Acharya S''' is the ] of '''Dorothy Melne Murdock''', an ] critic of ] who operates a ], "Truth be Known". On it she contends that ] is a fictional person, and a plagiarised ] myth stolen by the ], and supposed as an actual person so as to unify the ].
{{Infobox writer
| name = Dorothy Milne Murdock
| image = DM Murdock.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Publicity photo of Murdock
| pseudonym = Acharya S
| birth_date = {{start date|1960|03|27|}}
| birth_place = ], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2015|12|25|1960|03|27|}}
| death_place =
| resting_place =
| alma_mater = ]
| period =
| subject = ]
| notableworks = ''The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold'' (1999), ''Did Moses Exist? The Myth of the Israelite Lawgiver'' (2014)
| awards =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| years_active = 1995–2014
| website = {{URL|http://truthbeknown.com/}}
}}


'''Dorothy Milne Murdock'''<ref>{{cite book |title=The Masks of Christ |first1=Lynn |last1=Picknett |first2=Clive |last2=Prince |year=2008 |page= |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4165-9446-8 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Come Let Us Reason: New Essays in Christian Apologetics |first=Mark W. |last=Foreman |editor1-first=Paul |editor1-last=Copan |editor2-first=William Lane |editor2-last=Craig |chapter=Challenging the ''Zeitgeist'' Movie: Parallelomania on Steroids |publisher=B&H Publishing |location=Nashville, Tennessee |year=2012 |name-list-style=amp |isbn=978-1-4336-7220-0 |page=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://campus.lakeforest.edu/academics/greece/Partic-OtherSchools.html|title=Participants-Other Schools|website=campus.lakeforest.edu|access-date=January 19, 2019}}</ref> (March 27, 1960&nbsp;– December 25, 2015),<ref name="CourantObit">{{cite news |title=Dorothy Murdock |date=January 24, 2016 |newspaper=] |url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/hartfordcourant/obituary.aspx?pid=177367841 |access-date=March 27, 2016}}</ref> better known by her ] '''Acharya S''' and '''D. M. Murdock''',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://truthbeknown.com/author.htm |title=Who is Acharya S? |author=Murdock, D. M. |website=Truth Be Known |access-date=January 1, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120511202505/http://truthbeknown.com/author.htm |archive-date=May 11, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="priceforeword">{{cite book |first=Robert M. |last=Price |author-link=Robert M. Price |chapter=Foreword |title=Who Was Jesus?: Fingerprints of the Christ |editor-first=D.M. |editor-last=Murdock |publisher=Stellar House |location=Seattle |year=2011 |orig-year=2007 |isbn=978-0-9799631-0-0 |pages=v–vii}}</ref> was an American writer supporting the ], which asserts that ] never existed as a historical person, but was rather a mingling of various pre-Christian myths, ] and ].<ref>{{cite book |first=Clinton |last=Bennett |author-link=Clinton Bennett |title=In Search of Jesus: Insider and Outsider Images |location=London |publisher=] |year=2001 |isbn=0-8264-4916-6 |page=208}}</ref>
She bills herself as a historian, mythologist, religious scholar, and linguist, as well as an archeologist. As academic qualification she holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree from ].


She wrote and operated a website focused on history, religion and spirituality, and ]. She asserted the pre-Christian civilizations understood their myths as allegorical, but Christians obliterated evidence by destroying or suppressing literature after they attained control of the ], leading to widespread ] in the ], ensuring the mythical origins of Jesus's story was hidden. She argued the ] canon, as well as its important figures, were based on Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and other cultures' ]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.truthbeknown.com/christ.htm |title=The Christ Conspiracy&nbsp;– Home |access-date=September 11, 2009 |archive-date=May 11, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120511221356/http://truthbeknown.com/christ.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Her theories are not accepted by mainstream historians, ], and archaeologists, however have been promoted by scholars such as ], a fellow of the ], and prominently featured in the 2005 documentary '']''.
Her book, ''The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold'' is an expanded version of her web site. It is based in secondary sources, including ]'s "Women's Encyclopedia of Myth and Secrets" and "]" by ]. The latter is the main source of her book. Both of these have themselves been criticised, as of suspect authority.


==External link== ==Life==
Murdock was born to James Milne Murdock and Beatrice Murdock in ], and grew up in ].<ref name="CourantObit" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://new.exchristian.net/2016/01/tribute-to-mythicist-dm-murdock-1961.html|title=Tribute to Mythicist D.M. Murdock, 1961-2015|last=ExChristian.Net|date=January 10, 2016 |access-date=January 19, 2019}}</ref> She received a ] degree in ] and Greek Civilization from ], then spent a year at the ], Greece.<ref name="CourantObit" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.truthbeknown.com/credentials.html |title=What Are Acharya's Credentials? |author=Acharya S |access-date=July 1, 2008}}</ref> She had one son.


She died of liver cancer on December 25, 2015. She was known as "Dori" to her loved ones.<ref name="CourantObit" /><ref>{{cite web|last1=Barker |first1=N.W. |title=December 27th update |url=https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/lsn9/u/updates/138747 |publisher=GiveForward |access-date=December 31, 2015 |date=December 27, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107075320/https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/lsn9/u/updates/138747 |archive-date=January 7, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Barker|first1=N.W.|title=Acharya S/D.M. Murdock Memoriam|url=http://freethoughtnation.com/acharya-sd-m-murdock-memoriam/|publisher=Freethought Nation|access-date=March 12, 2017|date=January 16, 2016|archive-date=February 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222222620/http://freethoughtnation.com/acharya-sd-m-murdock-memoriam/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*

==Writing career==
Murdock began her website, ''Truth Be Known'', in 1995.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.truthbeknown.com/ |title=Welcome to the world of Acharya S/D.M. Murdock! |website=Truth Be Known |access-date=December 26, 2015}}</ref> 1999, as Acharya S, she published her first book, ''The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold'', arguing the ] story is a fabrication.<ref name="cover">Adventure Unlimited Press, rear cover of Murdock (1999)</ref> Her 2007 book, ''Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ'' continues the theme of ''The Christ Conspiracy'' by expanding her theory questioning the ], alleging "early Christian history to be largely myth, by sorting through available historical and archaeological data." In 2009, she released ''Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection'' and ''The Gospel According to Acharya S''.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Gospel According to Acharya S |url=http://stellarhousepublishing.com/gospel.html |publisher=Stellar House Publishing |access-date=July 9, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716134319/http://stellarhousepublishing.com/gospel.html |archive-date=July 16, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Murdock also wrote refutations of ] theories, asserting they "may be prompted by the same type of motivation that produced the ], a chronicle largely consisting of the plagiarized myths of other cultures" re-fashioned as 'fact' concerning purported legend-based characterizations, and may be driven by the attempt to validate biblical myth as historical under a different 'interpretation'."<ref>{{cite news |last=Murdock |first=Dorothy Milne |date=6 January 2014 |title=Who are the Anunnaki? |website=Truth Be Known |url=http://www.truthbeknown.com/anunnaki.htm |url-status=dead |access-date=March 14, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120919200912/http://www.truthbeknown.com/anunnaki.htm |archive-date=September 19, 2012}}</ref>

==Reception==
Murdock's work received strong criticism from New Testament scholars and historians of early Christians. Agnostic ] scholar ] wrote in his '']'' that "all of Acharya's major points are in fact wrong" and her book "is filled with so many factual errors and outlandish assertions that it is hard to believe the author is serious". Taking her as representative of some other writers about the Christ myth theory, he continues "Mythicists of this ilk should not be surprised that their views are not taken seriously by real scholars, mentioned by experts in the field, or even read by them".<ref name="Ehrman2">{{cite book|last=Ehrman|first=Bart D.|title=Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2012|isbn=978-0-06-208994-6|location=New York|pages=20–24|oclc=808490374|author-link=Bart D. Ehrman}}</ref>

Emeritus Professor of New Testament Languages and Literature at the ] ] criticized her work for "her anti-Christian outlook, a lack of any proper sense of reality, failure to give adequate references, inability to interpret primary sources correctly, and dependence on inaccurate out-of-date secondary sources rather than primary evidence."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Casey|first1=Maurice|title=Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths?|date=2014|publisher=T&T Clark|isbn=978-0567447623|pages=288}}</ref>

Baptist comparative religion scholar ] compares her views to those of radical freethinker ] (nicknamed "the Devil's chaplain"), secularist MP and Christ-mythicist ], and American mythographer ].<ref>{{cite book|last=Bennett|first=Clinton|title=In Search of Jesus: Insider and Outsider Images|publisher=]|year=2001|isbn=0-8264-4916-6|location=London|page=339|author-link=Clinton Bennett}}</ref> ] religion professor ] describes her viewpoint as one that "once had some currency among scholars" in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but was subsequently abandoned.<ref name="mcgrath2">{{cite news|last=McGrath|first=James F.|date=November 15, 2011|title=Fringe View: The World of Jesus Mythicism|volume=128|page=12|work=]|issue=123}}</ref>

The book received mixed reviews among conspiracy theorists and supporters of the Christ myth theory. Writer ], in his book ''You Are Being Lied To'', describes ''The Christ Conspiracy'' as "an essential book for anyone who wants to know the reality behind the world's dominant religion".<ref>{{cite book |first=Russ |last=Kick |author-link=Russ Kick |title=You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths |url=https://archive.org/details/You_Are_Being_Lied_To_-_The_Disinformation_Guide_to_Media_Distortion_Historical_ |location=New York |publisher=] |year=2001 |isbn=0-9664100-7-6 |page=}}</ref> Conspiracy theorist and publisher ] calls her a "great chronicler of the conspiracy known as Christianity".<ref>{{cite book |first=Kenn |last=Thomas |author-link=Kenn Thomas |title=Parapolitics: Conspiracy in Contemporary America |publisher=] |year=2006 |isbn=1-931882-55-X |pages=15, 127}}</ref>

Atheist activist and Christ mythicist ] criticized her use of the inscriptions at Luxor to make the claim that the story of Jesus' birth was inspired by the Luxor story of the birth of ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.frontline-apologetics.com/Luxor_Inscription.html |title=Brunner's Gottkoenigs & the Nativity of Jesus: A Brief Communication |first=Richard C. |last=Carrier |author-link=Richard Carrier |year=2004 |publisher=Frontline Apologetics |access-date=December 30, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123093556/http://www.frontline-apologetics.com/Luxor_Inscription.html |archive-date=January 23, 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Theologian and Christ-mythicist ] also criticized Murdock's first book,<ref name="Price 66–67">{{cite journal |last=Price |first=Robert M. |author-link=Robert M. Price |title=Aquarian Skeptic |journal=] |date=Summer 2001 |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=66–67 |url=http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-10515613_ITM}}</ref> while promoting her ''Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled'' in ''The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-Four Formative Texts'',<ref>p. 1179</ref> and writing the foreword to her ''Who Was Jesus?: Fingerprints of the Christ''.<ref name="priceforeword" />

==Publications==
*{{cite book |last=Murdock |first=D.M. (as Acharya S) |title=The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold |location=Kempton, Illinois |publisher=] |year=1999 |isbn=0-932813-74-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/christconspiracy00sach }}
*{{cite book |last=Murdock |first=D.M. (as Acharya S) |title=Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled |location=Kempton, Illinois |publisher=Adventures Unlimited Press |year=2004 |isbn=1-931882-31-2}}
*{{cite book |last=Murdock |first=D.M. |title=Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ |publisher=Stellar House Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-9799631-0-0}}
*{{cite book |last=Murdock |first=D.M. |title=Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection |publisher=Stellar House Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-9799631-1-7}}
*{{cite book |last=Murdock |first=D.M. |title=The Gospel According to Acharya S |publisher=Stellar House Publishing |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-9799631-2-4}}
*{{cite book |last1=Murdock |first1=D.M. |last2=Joseph |first2=Peter |title=The Zeitgeist Sourcebook - Part 1: The Greatest Story Ever Told |year=2011 |url=http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/zeitgeistsourcebook.pdf |access-date=February 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190728010710/http://stellarhousepublishing.com/zeitgeistsourcebook.pdf |archive-date=July 28, 2019 |url-status=dead }}
*{{cite book |last=Murdock |first=D.M. |title=Did Moses Exist? The Myth of the Israelite Lawgiver |publisher=Stellar House Publishing |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-9799631-8-6}}

==See also==
* ]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
<!-- Per ], choose one official website only -->
* {{Official website|http://www.truthbeknown.com/}}

{{Christ myth theory|state=expanded}}

{{Authority control}}

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Latest revision as of 09:24, 16 December 2024

American Christ myth theorist (1960–2015)

Dorothy Milne Murdock
Publicity photo of MurdockPublicity photo of Murdock
BornMarch 27, 1960 (1960-03-27)
Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedDecember 25, 2015(2015-12-25) (aged 55)
Pen nameAcharya S
Alma materFranklin & Marshall College
SubjectHistory of religions
Years active1995–2014
Notable worksThe Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold (1999), Did Moses Exist? The Myth of the Israelite Lawgiver (2014)
Website
truthbeknown.com

Dorothy Milne Murdock (March 27, 1960 – December 25, 2015), better known by her pen names Acharya S and D. M. Murdock, was an American writer supporting the Christ myth theory, which asserts that Jesus never existed as a historical person, but was rather a mingling of various pre-Christian myths, solar deities and dying-and-rising deities.

She wrote and operated a website focused on history, religion and spirituality, and astro-theology. She asserted the pre-Christian civilizations understood their myths as allegorical, but Christians obliterated evidence by destroying or suppressing literature after they attained control of the Roman Empire, leading to widespread illiteracy in the ancient world, ensuring the mythical origins of Jesus's story was hidden. She argued the Christian canon, as well as its important figures, were based on Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and other cultures' myths. Her theories are not accepted by mainstream historians, textual critics, and archaeologists, however have been promoted by scholars such as Robert M. Price, a fellow of the Jesus Project, and prominently featured in the 2005 documentary The God Who Wasn't There.

Life

Murdock was born to James Milne Murdock and Beatrice Murdock in Massachusetts, and grew up in Avon, Connecticut. She received a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree in Classics and Greek Civilization from Franklin and Marshall College, then spent a year at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Greece. She had one son.

She died of liver cancer on December 25, 2015. She was known as "Dori" to her loved ones.

Writing career

Murdock began her website, Truth Be Known, in 1995. 1999, as Acharya S, she published her first book, The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, arguing the Jesus story is a fabrication. Her 2007 book, Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of The Christ continues the theme of The Christ Conspiracy by expanding her theory questioning the historicity of Jesus, alleging "early Christian history to be largely myth, by sorting through available historical and archaeological data." In 2009, she released Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection and The Gospel According to Acharya S.

Murdock also wrote refutations of ancient astronauts theories, asserting they "may be prompted by the same type of motivation that produced the Bible, a chronicle largely consisting of the plagiarized myths of other cultures" re-fashioned as 'fact' concerning purported legend-based characterizations, and may be driven by the attempt to validate biblical myth as historical under a different 'interpretation'."

Reception

Murdock's work received strong criticism from New Testament scholars and historians of early Christians. Agnostic New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman wrote in his Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth that "all of Acharya's major points are in fact wrong" and her book "is filled with so many factual errors and outlandish assertions that it is hard to believe the author is serious". Taking her as representative of some other writers about the Christ myth theory, he continues "Mythicists of this ilk should not be surprised that their views are not taken seriously by real scholars, mentioned by experts in the field, or even read by them".

Emeritus Professor of New Testament Languages and Literature at the University of Nottingham Maurice Casey criticized her work for "her anti-Christian outlook, a lack of any proper sense of reality, failure to give adequate references, inability to interpret primary sources correctly, and dependence on inaccurate out-of-date secondary sources rather than primary evidence."

Baptist comparative religion scholar Clinton Bennett compares her views to those of radical freethinker Robert Taylor (nicknamed "the Devil's chaplain"), secularist MP and Christ-mythicist John M. Robertson, and American mythographer Joseph Campbell. Butler University religion professor James F. McGrath describes her viewpoint as one that "once had some currency among scholars" in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but was subsequently abandoned.

The book received mixed reviews among conspiracy theorists and supporters of the Christ myth theory. Writer Russ Kick, in his book You Are Being Lied To, describes The Christ Conspiracy as "an essential book for anyone who wants to know the reality behind the world's dominant religion". Conspiracy theorist and publisher Kenn Thomas calls her a "great chronicler of the conspiracy known as Christianity".

Atheist activist and Christ mythicist Richard Carrier criticized her use of the inscriptions at Luxor to make the claim that the story of Jesus' birth was inspired by the Luxor story of the birth of Horus. Theologian and Christ-mythicist Robert M. Price also criticized Murdock's first book, while promoting her Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled in The Pre-Nicene New Testament: Fifty-Four Formative Texts, and writing the foreword to her Who Was Jesus?: Fingerprints of the Christ.

Publications

See also

References

  1. Picknett, Lynn & Prince, Clive (2008). The Masks of Christ. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-4165-9446-8.
  2. Foreman, Mark W. (2012). "Challenging the Zeitgeist Movie: Parallelomania on Steroids". In Copan, Paul & Craig, William Lane (eds.). Come Let Us Reason: New Essays in Christian Apologetics. Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-4336-7220-0.
  3. "Participants-Other Schools". campus.lakeforest.edu. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  4. ^ "Dorothy Murdock". Hartford Courant. January 24, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
  5. Murdock, D. M. "Who is Acharya S?". Truth Be Known. Archived from the original on May 11, 2012. Retrieved January 1, 2010.
  6. ^ Price, Robert M. (2011) . "Foreword". In Murdock, D.M. (ed.). Who Was Jesus?: Fingerprints of the Christ. Seattle: Stellar House. pp. v–vii. ISBN 978-0-9799631-0-0.
  7. Bennett, Clinton (2001). In Search of Jesus: Insider and Outsider Images. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 208. ISBN 0-8264-4916-6.
  8. "The Christ Conspiracy – Home". Archived from the original on May 11, 2012. Retrieved September 11, 2009.
  9. ExChristian.Net (January 10, 2016). "Tribute to Mythicist D.M. Murdock, 1961-2015". Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  10. Acharya S. "What Are Acharya's Credentials?". Retrieved July 1, 2008.
  11. Barker, N.W. (December 27, 2015). "December 27th update". GiveForward. Archived from the original on January 7, 2016. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
  12. Barker, N.W. (January 16, 2016). "Acharya S/D.M. Murdock Memoriam". Freethought Nation. Archived from the original on February 22, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  13. "Welcome to the world of Acharya S/D.M. Murdock!". Truth Be Known. Retrieved December 26, 2015.
  14. Adventure Unlimited Press, rear cover of Murdock (1999)
  15. "The Gospel According to Acharya S". Stellar House Publishing. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
  16. Murdock, Dorothy Milne (January 6, 2014). "Who are the Anunnaki?". Truth Be Known. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved March 14, 2018.
  17. Ehrman, Bart D. (2012). Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth. New York: HarperCollins. pp. 20–24. ISBN 978-0-06-208994-6. OCLC 808490374.
  18. Casey, Maurice (2014). Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths?. T&T Clark. p. 288. ISBN 978-0567447623.
  19. Bennett, Clinton (2001). In Search of Jesus: Insider and Outsider Images. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 339. ISBN 0-8264-4916-6.
  20. McGrath, James F. (November 15, 2011). "Fringe View: The World of Jesus Mythicism". The Christian Century. Vol. 128, no. 123. p. 12.
  21. Kick, Russ (2001). You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths. New York: The Disinformation Company. p. 272. ISBN 0-9664100-7-6.
  22. Thomas, Kenn (2006). Parapolitics: Conspiracy in Contemporary America. Adventures Unlimited Press. pp. 15, 127. ISBN 1-931882-55-X.
  23. Carrier, Richard C. (2004). "Brunner's Gottkoenigs & the Nativity of Jesus: A Brief Communication". Frontline Apologetics. Archived from the original on January 23, 2010. Retrieved December 30, 2009.
  24. Price, Robert M. (Summer 2001). "Aquarian Skeptic". Free Inquiry. 21 (3): 66–67.
  25. p. 1179

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