Seconded. Actually, it's completely bullshit. Note the vague reference to a "tenured professor" but the specific references to the non-academic musings of Dorothy Murdock, proud holder of a BA in Classics.cardsfan04 wrote:I have a history degree and what you're saying is mostly bullshit.
This theory has been around a while, there was a book about fairly recently that argued that the "historical" Jesus was conflated with, specifically, Julius Caesar. This sort of thing is true of most if not all ancient sources and whatever they say. Herodotus is our only source on lots of people who most are fairly certain actually existed and a major source on others who we know existed because of the plethora of sources on them and he also says that there are people whose heads are in their chests in Africa and that if one travels far enough north in Asia that one encounters an impenetrable wall of feathers. These writers didn't write what they did so readers 20 centuries or more later can have an idea of what happened. They wrote for their contemporary audience, who had different expectations and therefore produced works that can be virtually inscrutable to modern people. One always has to interpret and argue for why one interprets as one does.
Truth is, how do you know anyone exists other than having seen/interacted with them? (And even then, are you sure they exist? Are you sure you exist?) Everything else is a reconstruction based on secondhand information from whatever sources one chooses to consider/has available. Some of these reconstructions are considered more likely than others. D.M. Murdock's reconstruction does not rank well. That's why she only gets book deals from companies run by guys into subjects such as flat-earth theory, Atlantis, ancient astronauts, time travel and sasquatch.
Most importantly, don't feed the troll.