from the desk of Acharya S |
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Prove Jesus Existed, Please!
"Using modern forensic
Jesus Christ, Mt. 10:34-37
The disreputable and untrustworthy Christian apologist "James Patrick Holding" has been receiving and releasing malicious, false and libelous information about me, provided to him by a mentally ill fugitive wanted on three felonies, including child abduction. In his typically vicious, unprofessional, unethical and immoral manner, Holding first revealed my name--also gained from this felonious source and now posted all over the internet--and then passed along the false and libelous material to his fanatic followers, who have since threatened me with further exposure of personal information and lies received from this deranged criminal, who committed violent crimes against me and my small son. Because of this despicable behavior, it is obvious that this man, JP Holding, has no integrity, and that his writings should not be given credibility.
NB: It has been suggested that this "emotionally charged" effort may not be the most effective. My response here is far less strident than Holding's original ad hominem rants against me, which, despite their emotionally charged language, have been given undue credibility--to say the least!--as it has been posted on that bastion of reliability, Wikipedia. If you are looking for an amusing retort of Holding's personal attacks, which one lucid reader has suggested sound like the ravings of a scorned lover, here it is. If you wish a scholarly rebuttal of any possible "facts" that may be gleaned from Holding's petulance, please see my voluminous Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled, an entire work that refutes the numerous erroneous claims made by Holding and assorted other apologists and "experts." When you read this one, think of Lenny Bruce... RAW! Isn't it nice I can be so versatile? And remember, I didn't start this battle--Holding did, and he continues it, as I have never had any interest in him. (Holding is so obsessed with me that my name is mentioned on almost 150 pages of his website.) In fact, he epitomizes everything I criticize about religion: To wit, that human beings become vicious and nasty defending infantile and intangible concepts by attacking living, breathing human beings. If Holding were a compassionate and pleasant individual--which he clearly is not--he would actually find me to be a very nice and helpful person. Because of his conditioning, he cannot. And THAT'S the whole problem with religion in the first place. All the ad hominems and nitpicking, calling me names and criticizing this and that detail, will still not change the bottom line, which is: There is no contemporaneous evidence that Jesus Christ ever existed as a real person. Don't bite my finger, look where I'm pointing! Show me the proof! I have been quite hesitant about addressing the mad rants of "JP Holding" and his ilk, because there's little point in giving any credibility to a group of people who have no credentials and whose mental state is obviously under pressure, yet who make sinister and disparaging comments about others and attack their credentials. James Patrick Holding, aka Robert Turkel, was a prison librarian somewhere in Florida and has no credentials, other than a streetfighter's sharp mouth. My own credentials--meager in quantity but not in quality--are far greater than Holding's, but he is a hypocrite living in a glass house and throwing stones, and there is little one can do about it except call him on it. The viciousness with which Holding and his gang likes to attack its "opponents," who in this case are real people, as opposed to the cartoon character of the New Testament, reveals exactly what is wrong with Christianity and why it needs to be exposed for the deluding and deceptive ideology it is. Those who continue to promote Holding's fallacious and foolish writings obviously are titillated by the same sadism and viciousness. Since they have no champion other than Holding and his flaccid attacks, fanatics must rely on his work to discredit the Christ mythicists, who logically and rationally contend that Jesus Christ is a mythical character (and a very evident one, at that). Obviously, from the level of the vitriol and continued assaults over a period of years, my work is very threatening, which means it has merit. For those in the Holding Pen (to use one of his cute tactics), who keep promoting his asinine rants, please be aware that he has not even come close to refuting the mythicists school. Also, it would be a sign of intelligence if one understood that the burden of proof lies upon those who are making extraordinary claims--it is not incumbent upon those of us who are being bludgeoned with these false claims to disprove them, but we obviously need to, as these bullies with their bull will simply not back down. It is too bad there is so little policing of fraud and vice when it comes to religion, and it's amazing that apparently deranged individuals with no proof can go about defrauding innocents with their phony and harmful fabrications. Religion, if it were to have any merit at all, would be about honesty and truth, but it is not, as obviously disturbed persons run rampant with absurd and inane claims, mindlessly and malevolently attacking those honest and intelligent enough to challenge them. Basically, Holding & Gang are used-religion salesmen who, when the sale of their shoddy goods falls through, must attack, ridicule and menace their targets. I'm sure the "gentle" and "loving" Jesus must be very pleased by their vulgar and hateful behavior and mentality. And why doesn't Jesus, this "superior being," set the record straight himself, instead of using low-class, monobrow Neanderthals to do it? What does it say of Christianity when these types are its self-appointed representatives? Truly, the ideology is imbalanced and deranged, as reflected by its arrogant, megalomaniacal and crazed adherents. (Perhaps the megalomaniacal "JP Holding" is not a real person but a publicity stunt for the Christ mythicists! I have read so many absurd and inaccurate statements of his I am beginning to wonder if he's a joke, hired by some millionaire philanthropist out to destroy Christianity by making its representatives look idiotic. Not that they need any help. It should be noted that the word "tektonics," the domain name of Holding's site, comes from the Greek word "tekton," which in modern Greek, per the Collins Modern Greek-English Dictionary means "freemason.") What Holding has done is to provide a gathering place for hateful Christian thugs to revel in their torment of other humans. As they say, like attracts like. And what is this fervent obsession of these men with an invisible (Jewish) man that drives them to so fiercely defend the existence of a mythical character? There is evidently some peculiar psychological insufficiency in such individuals who so desperately need such an invisible and imaginary lover. JP Holding is one of the most hateful, unloving people I have ever encountered--is this what the "gentle, loving Jesus" is all about? According the quotes from "Jesus" above, it is! Is this what Holding's "mission" is, to sell hatred and sow enmity? Apparently so, as he is most definitely not interested in truth, love or peace. It's obvious this gang wouldn't know scholarship if it hit them on the heads, so they must engage in mean-spirited ad hominems, name-calling, etc. "S is for Stench?" (To my amazement, Holding has changed the original title of his "refutation.") "Achy?" Holding calls me a "low-rent intellect," Godfrey Higgins a "laugh riot," Barbara Walker a "nonscholar" and Joseph Wheeless an "amateur" who "doesn't know his own behind." It is clear that Holding's infantile insults are in reality applicable to himself. Holding & Gang continually reveal their childishness--such puerility and infantility are necessary to be a believer in the gospel fairytale in the first place, of course. They are continuously debunked in their hostile, erroneous and simple-minded refutations of other writers such as Wells, Doherty, Lowder and "Cygnus." (It's unfortunate that these writers were compelled to respond to Holding, thus giving him credibility by dignifying his ranting--the reason I've thus far avoided making any formal response.) But they have no shame or conscience. It is quite obvious that Holding has nothing better to do than to trawl the Net looking for a fight. His main tactic when presented with factual information regarding the non-historicity or erroneousness of Christianity is basically to say, "NO! That's not it!" In other words, deny, deny, deny. And where intelligent argumentation fails, make comments like "S is for Stench" or use other puerile schoolyard-bully tactics. Let's address one of the dumbest strawman tactics the hypocritical Holding gang uses, which is to continually beat to death my comment on Jeff Rense's show almost a decade ago about "beings." In the first place, yes, the comment was said tongue in cheek. Get over it. I had a friend in the room with me, egging me on--he was the principal "being" telling me to do what I was doing. I never said anything about "aliens," but, never mind, because Holding & Gang have never been interested in facts, just mindless sniping. (Holding has been caught making countless inaccuracies, misrepresentations and outright lies, including in my case that I "believe the Jews of the first century worshipped the moon." I have never said such a thing.) Nevertheless, I have also had experiences "beyond the third dimension." Anyone who claims to have "felt Jesus in their hearts" is saying the same thing. Carl Sagan--whose close friend, scientist Dr. W. Sumner Davis, endorsed my book Suns of God--started his career in astronomy by distinguishing himself as a believer in life on other worlds. His credibility didn't seem to have suffered much. Millions of scientists and scholars have been believers in one religion or another, which means they believe in "beings," "afterlives" and any assortment of mystical and metaphysical concepts. Some 90% of the world supposedly believes in "God," who is a "being"; therefore, according to Holding's methodology, 90% of the world--including Holding himself--is to be ridiculed and dismissed as utterly lacking in credibility. Such a position would, in fact, validate the atheist stance. Indeed, any Christian who has a problem with an offhand remark about "beings" really needs to be reminded that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. In the first place, Christians insist that there is an invisible Father, Son and Holy Ghost somewhere "out there," who are directing everything, like giant puppetmasters. In fact, Christianity is FULL OF BEINGS, from start to finish. The Christian mind is constantly absorbed in thinking about BEINGS. This criticism of me is completely hypocritical--and laughable, to use a favorite term of Holding & Gang. In fact, if anyone is "talking with aliens," it's Christians, who are constantly addressing "beings" and "entities," such as "God," "Jesus," "Mary," "angels," "devils," "demons," "saints," etc. They are no different from their Pagan predecessors or other religionists today, including Hindus and "New Agers" who talk to "God," "gods," "angels" and "aliens." In fact, "angels" ARE "aliens!" As are God and the rest. From a Christian website:
Here's how Christians are to pray:
God is the Ultimate Space Alien! The fanatical and delusional Holding evidently believes himself appointed by and in communication with Jesus himself, an invisible Jewish man who is floating about in space! "Ground control to Major JP!" It bears reminding that much of the Bible purports to have been "channeled" through people ("prophets") who claimed to be speaking with "beings." How credible a source is that? Where are the citations of scholars and scientists whom the biblical writers used? Where are the footnotes? Lacking this scholarly foundation, the Bible is just a load of mumbo-jumbo channeled from beings, entities and the Ultimate Space Alien! Those who are promulgating such bizarre tales, and then attacking others who refuse to believe them, should be ashamed of themselves--and those of us who have souls and a conscience should vociferously call them on it. It is high time to stop this chicanery and artifice, of which Holding and his ilk are the high priests. Fortunately, there are those rare individuals who are actually honest and unwilling to blindly accept such con artists' attempts at selling their bogus fairytales. Unfortunately, there are millions who are utterly brainwashed and will not be able to break through the delusion. Such are the ripe pigeons that Holding & Gang aim for. For the rest of Holding & Gang's "criticisms," I leave it up to the reader's intelligence to see who has scholarship on her side. One can always study the works of others at my Christ Conspiracy links page. Also, a number of Holding's (and Miller's) fallacious contentions are refuted in my book Suns of God. For example, I go into greater detail regarding the pitiful "references" to Christ and Christianity supposedly found in secular works, such as Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, etc. Although I'm sure it was too far over the heads of Holding & Gang to figure out, I didn't go into any great detail regarding these "references" in The Christ Conspiracy because they had already been thoroughly discredited over the last two to three centuries, as anyone would know who has actually studied the issue. The reader will also find plenty of the material I'm referring to at the Christ Conspiracy links referenced above. Again, compare the scholarship found there and in my Suns of God excerpts with the mindless and shallow ranting and denial of Holding. It is quite obvious that Holding has not studied these issues in any great depth, apparently satisfied with his childhood and childish conditioning. His comments on Irenaeus, Jerome and Cerinthus, for example, reveal that his knowledge is very cursory, as do many of his other remarks. Also, it is astonishing that someone could actually read the highly intelligent works of the mythicists and still maintain his erroneous and deceitful perspective. In his attempted debunking, Holding scratches the surface and then pretends to be an expert. If you simply scratch the surface, in a cursory "investigation," you obviously aren't going to find anything. Holding wrote a very shallow and superficial assault on the fact that Christianity plagiarized Mithraism. I demolished his arguments very easily in Mithra: The Pagan Christ. Holding, as smug and wrong as ever, believes he has somehow refuted this scholarly essay. He hasn't, and he is clearly wasting everyone's time with his insistent foolishness. Again, he has in no way refuted the Christ mythicist position. And again, show me the evidence that this superhuman Son of God walked the earth 2,000 years ago? Before I too suspend my scientific rationality, I want see proof! Here is an example that demonstrates Holding's inaccuracy and lack of knowledge. First of all, he's got a very suspicious mind, which is appropriate for someone who works in the prison industry, who thinks everyone's guilty of something (except for himself, of course). When he reads statements that go against his puerile faith, he immediately suspects that the writer is incorrect (and that would refer to millions of statements, of course, since Christianity is extremely narrow in scope and intelligence). So, he doesn't afford the scholar the courtesy of actually checking out the source of such statements but immediately pronounces them incorrect and ridicules the author, even if said scholar is obviously much more intelligent and erudite than Holding. Such is the case with Rev. Robert Taylor, an absolutely brilliant minister who became a mythicist--and ended up in British prisons for a total of three years because of his "blasphemy" (in the 1820s and 30s). Taylor asserts that the passage in Tacitus regarding "Christus," etc., is a forgery, for a variety of reasons, including that it appears nowhere in the literary record until its "discovery" in "The Annals" purportedly written by Tacitus that were likewise "discovered" suddenly in the 15th century. Taylor had the audacity to point out that the affair seemed fraudulent and that the Annals themselves, along with their Christ "reference" were also fraudulent. Following him, a Latin scholar named Ross wrote a book essentially proving that the Annals were indeed forged. In any case, fast forward and we find the inadequately informed Holding stating that "Taylor believed Tacitus's writings to be forgeries!" No, that's inaccurate. Taylor investigated and discovered that the ANNALS were forged. Tacitus's other writings were not relevant. So, Holding attempts to make Taylor look completely ridiculous by making an inaccurate statement, and then apparently crosses his fingers and hopes that no one will read Taylor (who is a very convincing mythicist). Unlike the snide Holding and his pretentious mentor Glenn Miller, whose incomprehensible "copy-cat myth thinktank" pretends to debunk the fact that practically everything in Christianity is of Pagan origin, other apologists and Bible-thumpers are actually honest in acknowledging that germane "Christian" concepts existed in a number of cultures long before the "Christian" era. Indeed, even ancient apologists attempted to win over converts by pointing out that Christianity was "not new or ridiculous" by demonstrating that its core tenets existed previously in Paganism. The arguments of these ancient apologists, such as Justin Martyr, were that "the devil" had anticipated Jesus Christ and his religion. Hence, it is not only fruitless to pretend that Christianity is original and that it did not copy Paganism, it is extremely dishonest. One apologist group honest in this regard is the United Church of God, whose "The Good News" magazine (5-6/03) contains a synopsis of their publication What Happens After Death?, as follows:
Quite an admission to be published in a Christian magazine! And it reveals just how shamefully deceitful are Holding and his ilk in attempting to steer people away from the truth by simply denying these facts and making ad hominem attacks on scholars who unearth them. Fortunately for the cause of truth, people like those involved with the United Church of God have been compelled by conscience and their own cause to acknowledge the reality that, among many other things found within Christianity, the "complex idea of a slain and resurrected god [is] common in many parts of the world," long before the so-called Christian era. Now, in view of these facts, exactly who is a "laugh riot?" Along with the smug Holding and aloof Miller is another rejecter of facts, snippy Mike Licona, who, like so many badly informed or dishonest Christians simply denies that most--if not all--of Judeo-Christianity can be found in the Pagan religions, hundreds to thousands of years before Christ supposedly existed. Again, what these mindless deniers ignore is that the early Church fathers were forced to concede that Christianity was nothing new and that Jesus Christ was not much different from the ancient Pagan gods. Additionally, modern Christians use the same arguments: "The devil anticipated Christ and planted these ideas in the Pagans heads," or "Adam was taught about the coming redeemer and when his seed spread, so did the messianic concept." One of these modern Christians--no less a fanatic than Holding, Miller and Licona--is Charles Weisman, who, in Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, writes:
The dutiful believer in "God's Word," Weisman goes on to make the argument that, while these other cultures clearly preceded Moses (who supposedly wrote the Pentateuch or first five books of the Bible), the biblical ideas are older than Egypt, etc. Says Weisman:
Well, of course they are! The Bible was not written in a vacuum and its writers--not "God" but men--were not blind and deaf to the world around them. Modern scientific research shows that much of the Bible was composed long after the purported events it records. It was also written--as Weisman concedes--long after the existence of far more advanced cultures that already possessed germane "Christian" concepts. Weisman, however, is a member of the club that is satisfied with the absolutely infantile (and in Weisman's case racist) idea that "Adam," created from dust by a giant man in the sky called God, was given all this information but his seed spread it quite erroneously throughout the world. To quote Weisman again:
No! That's not what happened at all. These stories are found around the world, in widely diverse cultures that had nothing to do with any "pure white" Adam (the so-called Adamic race), because they revolve around phenomena that can be perceived globally. The Adam or devil interpretations derives from erroneous restrospect: Start with the premise that the Bible is "God's Word" and then explain why it is a latecomer in the field, rehashing very old "Pagan" tales that abounded well outside the so-called Holy Land. It is quite evident that the Bible is a plagiarism of the highly developed ideas of more advanced cultures. In any event, the issue here is settled: The concepts existed in other cultures before the Bible was written--and hundreds to thousands of years before Christianity was invented. Holding, Miller and Licona are simply wrong, and they need to admit it, get honest (to think they believe in a God who will hold them accountable!) and stop pushing malarkey. There are many example of the "fast and loose" nonsense of the dishonest fanatic JP Holding and his foaming-at-the-mouth followers. I don't have the time to waste on such unproductive folly as to address them all. Acharya S P.S. (Updated: 11/04) Lately, all Holding can do is weep and wail about personal issues--not addressing any facts presented--and continue his useless ad hominem attacks against me and other mythicists. The young, smart-mouthed Holding reminds me of an old gossipy woman with his trite email exchanges, designed to show something sinister in his opponents. (Oh my!) Please, children, instead of discussing the petty little things, in which I have no interest, let's cut to the chase: Show me the proof that your Bible is the "Word of God" and that Jesus Christ is a historical character. P.P.S. To reiterate, Holding has presented himself as an "expert" on me, revealing personal information and libelous material received by him through a violent fugitive wanted for three felonies, including child abduction. This is the type of person upon whom Christian fanatics rely for their debunking of the Christ myth. P.P.P.S. Following is an email sent by someone else in response to the "beings" brouhaha:
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