Day Eleven of the Twelve Days of Solstice


We're celebrating the 12 days of Solstice rather than the 12 days of Christmas. I'm done writing and editing books, so I'm highlighting each one of them leading up to the 25th of the month when we party. I'll tell you something about each of them you probably don't know. [See Tag Below]

Here is the Amazon link to get this "sure to be a classic" book, right here!

You can see a picture of Dr. Price and me, along with the Contents.

You should read the text of my talk at the Global Center for Religious Research eConference on Jesus Mythicism, which includes my Preface at the end of it.

There were three challenges in this book.

Zuckerman: Phil Zuckerman asked me why I chose to co-edit a book with Robert M. Price, a known supporter of Donald Trump. Well actually, Bob choose me to co-write it. After editing an anthology on The Empty Tomb more than a decade ago, he didn't want to do that again. So he asked me. He already had most of the authors. What I did was to acquire two additional authors and get it published. He had written chapters with me, and read the reviews of my anthologies, so he chose me for this task. He figured he couldn't go wrong, especially with the blurbs from my last anthology against miracles:
Every John W. Loftus book is a must-read; he continues to assemble some of the finest and most insightful minds in contemporary counter-apologetics. Putting biblical miracle claims under the magnifying lens, it weighs the evidence and finds them wanting. The Case against Miracles is a superb resource and a handy field guide for anyone forced to traipse through the treacherous jungles of the miraculous. --David Fitzgerald, author of Jesus: Mything in Action, and The Complete Heretic's Guide to Western Religion series
The previous four Loftus anthologies have left little of Christianity intact. Of course, apologists continue to flail, but The Case against Miracles—so massively documented in this new 562-page book—wipes out all vestiges of this primitive, magical thinking. --Dr. David Madison, author of Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief.
In any case, I responded to Zuckerman as follows: "What if conspiratorial thinking is what Bob shares with other Trumpsters? What if many Jesus Mythicists are already prone to accept what Trump says about faked news, faked pandemics, and faked elections? I myself am an ardent supporter of Bernie Sanders. I see no reason to change my views now. Perhaps this perspective might help you understand it, even as repulsive as it is to us both." 
Conspiratorial thinking is born out of a distrust for, and skepticism of authorities, whether religious or secular, governmental figures or corporations. It distrusts most anyone in authority over us. So Jesus mythicism, Mohammed mythicism, and Buddah mythicism are all born from the same cloth as are modern conspiracies like QAnon, in that they distrust authorities and the party line. That distrust should not lead to believing in just anything though, as QAnon conspiracies are stupidly being accepted today. Combine this conspiratorial thinking with a conservative economics as an older white guy and Trump just might be your man. [I find it interesting that among atheists who defend conservative ideas most of them are old white guys.]

PC Emery (a pseudonym): I was also challenged to explain why I co-edited this work with Robert Price after Hemant Metha reported some statements of his that were unacceptable. PC Emery, one of our authors,
had submitted the finest chapter I've seen on the history of Jesus Mythicism, an absolute gem. But later he emailed Hypatia Press and me to tell us he was withdrawing from the book:
As a non-binary person and sexual assault survivor, the comments were extremely hurtful and damaging, coming from a scholar I had thought of as a friend, and having spent my recent life and time fighting against such bigotry and invalidation, I cannot under any moral perspective compartmentalize publishing under Price again.
I am sorry PC Emery was made to feel that way, for sure.

What were Rob Johnson the publisher, David G. McAfee the editor, and I to do? I was already under contract.
We chose not to have a knee jerk response.

Among the options available I suggested we do nothing. If Emery wants to leave, let him leave. I said that "While we don't agree with Bob's socio-political views at all, in this particular anthology his views do not surface anywhere, and that should be the end of it." Dr. Price is still a very important voice on behalf of biblical criticism and Jesus Mythicism. Since my single-minded focus is to debunk Christianity, and since Robert Price is such a master at doing this, there was no reason to "cancel" him, given what he has to offer.

Hypatia Press: After the poor proofreading experience I had with them over The Case against Miracles why would I give them another book to publish? It's because I give people second chances, just like I asked Harry H. McCall and Edward Babinski to write a second chapter for me, and even for McCall to write for my blog again (who eventually blasted me again). I wrote about this earlier on day two of the 12 days of Solstice.

This time with this book I had some conditions. I said, "When it comes to editing the chapters I want you to deal directly with each author, by-passing the editors. I will also insist on a proofreader!" I specifically opted out of the copyediting and proofreading process, since Hypatia Press blamed me for the problems with my previous book against miracles. If there were any problems I wanted it to be clear that I had nothing to do them.
David G. McAfee said, "This sounds like a reasonable way to handle things."

Well Houston, we now have a problem. A few authors said there were mistakes in their chapters, even Bob Price himself. My biggest peeve was that I included Part 1 and Part 2 headings in the Table of Contents, which they left out. Plus, more importantly, they left out the descriptions of the authors I had sent them. Here is the missing biographical information about the contributors. I asked Johnson and McAfee to fix these problems and replace the books that Bob and I were supposed to mail out to the contributors. They refused. So we mailed the books out with a double-sided 8.5x11 page that included the author information inside of them.

They'll get it all worked out. Don't worry. They should ask William Kelly to proofread it, as he did with my previous anthology on miracles. The effort is worth it because this is truly a classic book on Jesus Mythicism.

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John W. Loftus is a philosopher and counter-apologist credited with 12 critically acclaimed books, including The Case against Miracles, God and Horrendous Suffering, and Varieties of Jesus Mythicism. Please support DC by sharing our posts, or by subscribing, donating, or buying our books at Amazon. Thank you so much!

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