Book Review: The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold, by S Acharya

The combination of the book's title and the Author's name may lead to believe that this book is the result of extreme Indian right wing ideology emanating in a book ? (I have reproduced content from the book in my own words, in this blog)

Wrong. Acharya S is the pen name of D. Murdoch. In this book, she proponents a Christ-myth hypothesis. The premise being that the modern Christianity religion is the result of eons of plagiarism and myth intermittently shrouding each other, originally intended to unify the Roman state and establish the Roman supremacy by uniting people of Europe into a single religion. Especially the fact that the Sun has attracted the attention of mankind from the very beginning of human history. Every religion considers the sun as one of the supreme being either directly or indirectly. And also all regions are influenced by astronomy. Christianity is no different. What does the Sun have to do with Christianity and astronomy ? Here are some reasoning's given here.

1) Jesus Christ was born December 25.. Now from the Northern hemisphere..the sun dies every year and goes South and at the cross of equator or the crossification(crucifixion) of the Sun, the Sun becomes weakened ..and continues sinking to tropic of Capricorn..but it stops going South on Dec 22 and reaches solar standstill and is dead/motionless for 3 days just like Jesus dies for 3 days..and is resurrected/reborn 3 days later on the Dec 25 and starts its journey back to the north..

2) The Resurrection of Jesus/Sun are similar because on the 25th is the first day the Sun moves 1 degree north from 22.5 degrees South...the Sun is reborn and it is a day of rejoicing for people in the North..

3) Great etymology example of which she has so many:helio biblia in Greek means holy bible in English...the "Sun book" has become holy Bible..

4) All religions have their saviors born on Dec 25 Krishna (this one obviously is not a very correct information), Dionysis the Greek god of Wine, Osiris Egypt savior god and Zaruthustra of Zorastriasm Persia all born the 25 of Dec..and Hercules and his 12 labors are associated with the signs of zodiac..

5) Why was Jesus born in a barn in a manger between a horse and a goat? The horse is Sagitarrius and the goat is Capricorn the 2 signs surrounding December 25...

Interesting ? Here are is more. Jesus is not one character but a character drawn from prophets/god-incarnates from various cultures - Horus:Egyptian Sun-god, Dyonsius, Attis, Mithras, including several others; Also Krishna(?) More examples:

1) Horus' earthly father was 'Seb' (Joseph), and was of royal descent; He had 12 disciples; Delivered a "sermon on the mount" to his followers; Was crucified between two robbers, buried in a tomb for 3 days, and resurrected

2) Krishna was a cowherd by profession; Angels in both cases issued a warning that the local dictator planned to kill the baby and had issued a decree for his assassination. The parents fled. Mary and Joseph stayed in Muturea; Krishna's parents stayed in Mathura.

3) (Although I know that Srimad Bhagavatham and Vishnu Puranam do nto say this) Some accounts describe Krishna to be pinned to a tree with arrows and being resurrected later with his mortal remains having vanished.

4) Persian Apostle Mithras had 12 desciples; Virgin birth; Resurrection

Although books like this are bound to be authortative, this book seems to wallow in the same, which lies in its conclusions, which is considered supreme and beyond doubt (No other alternative possible ?) In conclusion, for a light reading, it is good (Do not expect this to change the hardliners' stance on Jesus). The book does gives an interesting reading. It has got to do nothing with my religious beliefs or my orientation. Just that it interests me that there is another angle to all of this.

Here are some links if you are interested
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jesus_Mysteries
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jesus_Puzzle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus-Myth
http://www.jesuspuzzle.com/
http://www.truthbeknown.com/