Acharya S

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Acharya S is the pen name of D. Murdock. As a mythicist, she has authored two books and operates a website called "Truth be Known". Her contention is that all religion is founded in earlier myth and that the characters depicted in Christianity are the result of the plagiarizing of those myths to unify the Roman State.

Books

Her book, The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, is a development of part of her website. A follow-up book, Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, discusses her views further. It is largely written as an address to critics of her former book. In it, she comments 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.

General premise

Acharya's claim is that Christ's story is based on pagan myths, all of which represent "astro-theology" or the story of the Sun. She asserts that the pagans understood these stories to be myths but that Christians destroyed the works stating this, and killed all who did not accept it as literal, factual history.

This purportedly led to widespread illiteracy in the ancient world and ensured that the mythical nature of Christ's story was hidden. Scholars of other sects continued to oppose the historicizing of a mythological figure. Where no evidence exists, Acharya claims that this is because the arguments were destroyed by Christians. However, Christians preserved these contentions, she states, through their own refutations.

In "The Christ Conspiracy" she states this theory in twenty-five points, such as "The sun 'dies' for three days at the winter solstice, to be born again or resurrected on December 25th", and "The sun enters into each sign of the zodiac at 30 [degrees]; hence, the 'Sun of God' begins his ministry at 'age' 30."

Acharya compares Jesus' history to that of other gods—such as Adonis, Krishna, Quetzalcoatl, Odin—claiming that the similarities result from a common source, the myth of the sun-god.

Reviews

Acharya S's books are highly controversial. Some reviewers claim her work represents excellent scholarship, while others claim that it represents poor scholarship.

Life

She has a BLA degree from Franklin and Marshall College. In an interview she said she came from a moderate Christian background. Though not traumatic or "Fundamentalist", she described it as "boring" and said she ceased attending church regularly at age 12.

Her inspiration for labeling Jesus Christ a myth was apparently Joseph Wheless' book Forgery in Christianity. Wheless is also one of her primary sources. She then read other freethought works, such as Kersey Graves' The World's 16 Crucified Saviours, which also serves as one of her main references, and Barbara Walker's The Woman's Encyclopaedia of Myth and Secrets,another source she relies heavily upon.

Acharya has also given interviews on a variety of radio stations, usually discussing her work in The Christ Conspiracy. She lists her credentials as historian, mythologist, religious scholar, linguist, and archaeologist. She is a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, a division of the Council for Secular Humanism.

External links

Truth be Known Acharya S's website
The Origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ by Acharya S
Interview with Acharya S in Paranoia Magazine