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Revision as of 07:36, 12 September 2005 by Nowhither (talk | contribs) (Rewrite (see talk))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Acharya S is the pen name of Dorothy Melne Murdock, an American critic of Christianity who operates a web site, "Truth be Known". She bills herself as a historian, mythologist, religious scholar, and linguist, as well as an archeologist. She holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Franklin and Marshall College.
On the web site she contends that Jesus is a fictional person, and a plagiarised pagan myth stolen by the Early Christian Church, created with the goal of unifying the Roman State.
Her book, The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, is an expanded version of her web site. A followup book, Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, discusses her views further. In it she writes on the Hindu story of the life of Krishna, as well as the life of Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama). She points out parallels to the life of Jesus, presenting this as evidence that the story of Jesus was written based on existing stories, and not the life of a real man.
Criticisms
The claims of Acharya S have been criticized for a number of reasons. Her detractors say:
- Acharya S's works are poor scholarship. They contain essentially no primary research and little substantiation for her claims.
- The sources for her books — for example, The World's 16 Crucified Saviors by Kersey Graves and Women's Encyclopedia of Myth and Secrets by Barbara Walker — are themselves of suspect authority and lacking in primary research.
- Her work shows ignorance of the topics on which she writes, and in particular of the Hindu and Buddist traditions.
External links
- Truth be Known (Acharya S's website)
- Interview with Acharya S in Paranoia Magazine
- "A Refutation of Acharya S's book, The Christ Conspiracy" (includes a rebuttal) from RisenJesus.com