Finally, the problem with THE CHRIST CONSPIRACY is that it is attacking an orange by riling against an apple. Alas, alas, how busy and bruised our fruit?

Grounds of The Jesus Christ Question
Was Jesus Christ of Christianity a real entity? Acharya brings lots of ammunition to answering this question in the negative, starting with the following:

“Indeed, the story of Jesus as presented in the gospels, mass of impossibilities and contradictions that it is, has been so difficult to believe that even the fanatic Christian 'doctor' and saint, Augustine (354-430), admitted, 'I should not believe in the truth of the Gospels unless the authority of the Catholic Church forced me to do so'”.

For the next three-hundred and ninety pages of the book, Acharya S makes her case against the existence of the biblical Jesus Christ and the foundation of the Christian religion. Two elements are at the core of her argument:

1. If one believes in the supernatural feats of the ministry of Jesus Christ (with its “mass of impossibilities and contradictions”), then one must also believe in the mythological feats of the pantheon of the Egyptian gods which Christ's ministry mimics. The “Christ” persona is such a predominant, widespread strand in ancient religions of the Middle East that any one person fulfilling all the criteria of the “savior of the world” would have to be constructed. According to Acharya S, construct a Jesus Christ is precisely with the early Christian did.

2. The Christian church that sprung up a nearly two centuries after Christ's purported death and became the official church of the Roman Empire, reshaped the past to legitimatize the church's future as the dominant spiritual vehicle of Western society. It achieved that status by force, coercion, intimidation, outright lies and, most importantly, co-opting religions of the past.

So, when Saint Augustine said he would not believe in the truth of the Gospels unless the Catholic Church had forced him to say he believed, he is simply acknowledging the political power of the Church. Spirituality, according to Acharya S, was never a consideration in the growth of the Church. What mattered was power.

The author posits in one place all contrary analytical work done on the Catholic Church. From the very “life” of Jesus Christ to the rituals of spiritual observance, Christianity is seen as a menagerie of pagan belief systems, especially ancient Egyptian. Indeed, the Christ mystic is a reformation of the Horus myth of ancient Egypt. (Acharya S lists on page 106 of the book thirty-six “world savior” myths in which a personage of Christ construction plays the dominant role). There is nothing new in THE CHRIST CONSPIRACY. But of course, not being new is the point. The critic of Christianity as an amalgamated religion of the pagan and esoteric has been around since Christianity became a religion (officially in 341 AD).

So, if Jesus Christ is a non-entity and the Christian Church is a fabrication, what's left?

Apples and Oranges in The Elysium Fields

THE CHRIST CONSPIRACY gives the very distinct impression that a belief that Jesus Christ is divine and that those holding such a belief are the instigators of our historical mayhem, murder and other afflictions raises a question: if the basis of Western Civilization was a belief that the Tooth Fairy was the true path of spiritual salvation, would our history be any different? Silly question of course. But silly too is ascribing all the “bad” in the world to religious beliefs.

Acharya S focuses on the hidden history of Christianity. In this she is merely putting in one place centuries of scholarly study concluding that Christianity is an amalgamation of Middle Eastern mythology going back thousand of years. Her case that Jesus Christ was not a real person, also a rehash of previous scholarly work, is not as strong. The weakness does not come from her supporting evidence but rather from the virulent, unyielding stance of the argument itself. Could the Jesus Christ persona of the Christian bible be an amalgamation of various sect leaders treading up and down the Hebrew enclaves of greater Galilee preaching discordant messages of Judaism? Or maybe there was just one obscure rabbi who strayed just far enough away from the scripture of Judaism that he became the seed for a grander mythology. Any of it is possible. The truth we may never know. The truth however really dose not matter.

From the wedges of historical argument, we come back to the apple.

According to religious sectarians, such as Acharya S who believes religions per se are lies and those like Madalyn Murray O'Hair [see UnGodly, reviewed here in February 2005] who believes the whole God concept is a lie, everyone is suffering a delusion. Except themselves. Let's clarify and rephrase this: if you don't believe as I believe, then you are suffering from a delusion. Is there anyone anywhere who can effectively argue to the contrary?

Acharya S draws all the correct lines and connects all the pertinent dots to show that the history of Christianity is riff with fabrications and fantasy. The lines and dots are about history, not the spiritual beliefs of those moving through history. The most salient argument Acharya S could make is that the history she examined is an artifact of the spirit of that time. But she does not make that argument. Instead, Christianity yesterday, today and tomorrow is the deceptive engine that fires conflict, war and suffering. Indeed, according to the Acharya S script, all religions are incubators of unnecessary social conflict. That's the bottom line of THE CHRIST CONSPIRACY. Religion is bad, non-religion is good. Is there anyone anywhere who can effectively argue against that?

The little trick here is that history can be belief or belief can be history. Either way you end up in the same place-the now. This is one reason the sectarian arguments about religion, god, global warming, over-population and the usual list, can be so informative to watch. While holding an apple, could you devote over 400 pages to describing an orange?

THE CHRIST CONSPIRACY is definitely worth reading.