Help The Orbit Fight Dr. Richard Carriers SLAPP Suit

[rug]

January 23, 2017
Greta Christina

Please support the crowdfunder, Defense Against Carrier SLAPP Suit!

Dr. Richard Carrier is suing us for reporting on his well-known allegations of misconduct. These allegations were widely reported on throughout the community, including by third-parties critical and sympathetic to him who are not themselves defendants.

This lawsuit has all the hallmarks of a SLAPP suit — a lawsuit filed to stifle legitimate criticism and commentary. The named defendants are Skepticon, The Orbit, and Freethought Blogs – as well as individuals Lauren Lane, the lead organizer of Skepticon; Stephanie Zvan, a blogger for The Orbit; PZ Myers, a blogger for Freethought Blogs; and Amy Frank-Skiba, who publicly posted her first-hand allegations against Carrier.

We need your help to keep our voices alive. All the defendants are represented by the same attorney, First Amendment lawyer Marc Randazza. Randazza is providing his services at a significant discount, but we are not asking him to work for free. Plus, there are thousands of dollars in “costs” for the case that don’t include legal bills, and there is no way to discount those. In order to continue fighting this lawsuit, we, the defendants of this case, have put together this campaign to raise money to defray our costs, some of which is outstanding. Donations will be used only for this case. In the event that the funds raised exceed our legal bills, they will be donated to Planned Parenthood.

We are pooling our defense costs with Skepticon, however as a 501(c)3 non-profit Skepticon is also conducting its own fundraiser where donations may be tax-deductible (ask your tax advisor). Skepticon cannot use donations it receives to help pay the shares of other individuals or organizations, though, and any excess funds raised via their campaign will go to the Skepticon conference fund.

We are confident that the court will uphold our First Amendment rights. But, through time, stress, and of course financial expense, every case like this has a chilling effect. Your support enables us to fight, and creates a warmer environment – not just for us but for others in the future.

Thank you for your support of freedom of speech, and may your new year be powerful and effective!

-Amy Frank-Skiba
-Lauren Lane
-PZ Myers
-Stephanie Zvan

https://the-orbit.net/greta/2017/01/23/help-orbit-fight-dr-richard-carriers-slapp-suit/

https://www.gofundme.com/defense-vs-carrier-slapp

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q5dd6fnybataueu/CarrierLawsuitModi.pdf?dl=0

[struggle4progress]

1. So RC says sexual harassment allegations have affected his conference-speaking business

The courts can sort it all out: I have no way to determine whether he harassed anyone sexually or whether these allegations actually caused him a material injury

[starshine00]

2. well this sucks

he's one of the few scholars I read that seems not to need the religious books to be true. Any suggestions on who can replace him as a decent source for skeptics?

[rug]

3. At this point, I'd say any of the named defendants.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q5dd6fnybataueu/CarrierLawsuitModi.pdf?dl=0

[starshine00]

4. I looked over their names but I haven't read any of them yet

I used to read DM Murdock on free thought blogs, and he was kind of a jerk about her writing. I am not atheist but nothing annoys me more than starting to read a scholar on abrahamic religious history only to find that they need the doctrine to be true because it is part of their personal ideology (Bart Ehrman etc).

I am reading this book now and just a few pages in it has completely blown my mind https://www.amazon.com/Murderous-History-Bible-Translations-Conflict/dp/1632866013/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485816805&sr=8-1&keywords=the+murderous+history+of+bible+translations

[rug]

5. That looks like a good book. I hope it's accurate.

[starshine00]

6. the guy is a jewish scholar and a PhD in aramaic

so he needs the Talmud to be true but the book is mainly about how many people got killed for translating the bible (i.e. new testament mainly) in a way that the powers that be didn't care for. One thing I have already learned is that when translated from hebrew to greek the world for young girl had an alternative meaning 'virgin' and that was the one that was used but apparently it was not the accurate term. So we got the virgin birth from a mistranslation. Sigh. LOL. I take all this stuff with a grain of salt. It's all bullshit in my estimation anyway...but this guy seems to be trying to drive home in the first few pages just how inaccurate all of it is due to mistranslation. As we are learning from Trump any time dominant parties in society come together to ratify anything or appoint it holy or what have you, pretty much all of it is utterly full of baloney.

[struggle4progress]

7. Murdock was a complete amateur and really something of a hack

There's nothing intellectually wrong with a project hoping to expose mythical sources of Christian doctrine, but in her efforts Murdock leaned heavily on nineteenth century crackpots, which didn't endear her to genuine scholars

[starshine00]

8. what I take from her work is established fact

About the similarity of sun god mythology throughout the ages and the overlap of these characteristics from one culture to another. I know some scholars are prejudiced against her work and there seems to be more than a little misogyny involved in their outlook on her. Most of the 'genuine scholars" I have come across end up being people who at the least hold patrilinealism as ideal and give the utter wacko abrahamic faiths respect and reverence they don't deserve, even though a few of them claim to be atheist. She died of breast cancer leaving behind a small child, may she rest in peace.

[struggle4progress]

10. You somehow managed not to say anything definite there:

you claim to take "established fact" from her writing, assert "some scholars are prejudiced against her" and blame that on misogyny &c&c

Patrilineal genealogy has (of course) been common in human cultures, though certainly not universal: here we might notice the sudden curious twist in (say) the genealogy of Matthew 1, which tediously recites "father of ... father of ... father of" --- until suddenly ending "father of Joseph husband of Mary mother of Jesus," perhaps something of a slap in the face to those who would insist on patrilineal tracings

[starshine00]

11. it's established fact that sun gods in many cultures have similiar features

Last edited Wed Feb 1, 2017, 08:08 PM - Edit history (1)

and that sun god symbology and metaphor is extremely common in christianity, christ light, christ the light of the world, etc etc. Patriliniealism is a late stage form of human organizatin but there is plenty of proof that in ancient cultures all over the world it is not the orginal human organization which may or may not be attributable to the fact that it took a while for humans to figure out male contribution to parentage of children. Some native American cultures like the cherokee for instance were matrilineal at contact and the brother of the mother fills the role that a father in patrilineal culture would. I use the word patrilineal since patriarchal is so ambiguous and it can be deducted that the purpose of patriarchal law is essentially to forbid the open expression of female sexuality and ban it from society (upon very real threat of death as can be evidence in islamic culture today still) so that patriline is established as the only system.

Those verses in Matthew probably served to establish that Jesus's matrilineal line was superior to the line of the paternal since a deity came into the story at that time. In the book I am reading it says that part is necessary because the christians are trying to fulfill a prophecy from the old testament that a young girl would give birth to a savior, this is what I talked about yesterday where the author says the prophecy was mistranslated as 'virgin' instead of young girl, again of course so the parentage could be 'proved' to be divine. (I have to wonder if the maternal line was chosen because Judaism passes down the female line still today, i.e. if your mother was Jewish you automatically are, so a messiah wouldn't be seen as legitimate unless born from a lineage where it was the maternal line that had the 'god blood' so to speak.) In my opinion all this mythology is fucking ridiculous to begin with since it is evident that so many mythological happenings can be traced back to their astrological underpinnings without too much strain, the sun dying in winter and being reborn, the death on the cross referring to the grand cross that occurs in which the sun gets trapped between jupiter and saturn during orbit etc. Quite literally the 'son of God' refers to Sol and his journeys through the sky throughout a year, the death/dying god of many cultures being simply the length of day reducing til solstice and then days getting longer etc. I am way more intrigued by what the reasons were for obscuring the astrological underpinnings of ancient religion and re-imagining the stars and planets as human actors, so that to this day in modern christianity astrology is reviled and sun worship would be seen as heretical, though christians are all sun worshippers by default.

I am very hesitant to quote bible verses or take them seriously because of mistranslation and interpolation...from what I have read going back to the first appearance of references to Jesus outside of biblical sources (Josephus and Eusebius) I've come to conclude that whether the rabbi was the incarnation of god or not or even existed is just unknowable due to the scant mention of his existence (and the curious reference by Josephus of 'the *one* they called the christ', denoting more than one 'jesus/yeshua/messiah, since unlike we are lead to believe it is not a given name but an adjective just like christ). I think writers like Murdock are right in ignoring the bible completely and looking for evidence of these happenings elsewhere. From my vantage point it appears they are taking old mythology and trying to make it fit over the introduction of christianity as a state religion by Constantine, who apparently chose it because it was stateless to begin with and religionism and nationalism were linked in the sparring factions present in Rome during that time. In other words I don't see these books or their subjects as having any inherent holiness but being works produced by the most powerful people in society at the time, to fulfill demands of their personal worldview. Would I believe any 'holy book' produced by the Trump admin? Absolutely not and since the human brain has apparently not changed all that much in the last 25,000 years it can be assumed that the societal elite were as dishonest, manipulative, and materially driven then as they are today.

What I didn't ever expect was to encounter deities behind the mythology and I was ready to conclude like Murdock and other writers (I think she's notable since she reads in so many different languages) that there were no gods. It changed when I encountered a deity with all the traits of 'christ' in the bible in my use of a legal dissociative. This deity seems to want to be free of what Constantine did and be known as the sun god he has been known as throughout human history (probably true because ancient cultures used entheogenics in religious ceremony which has been forbidden in patrilineal religion... wouldn't want anyone finding out the truth). I know that drug experiences are prevalent all over the bible; in my opinion based on my own experience anytime there is a supernatural happening in the bible drugs are involved (or the writer is schizophrenic or lying) such as the 'burning bush' and appearances of deities and angels. This is the kind of thing that happens when you start using these substances and I would love to know exactly what these folks were on back in the day. For instance this research on DMT is interesting; it shows scientists relating their experiences on DMT

also interesting to read are ayuhuasca and ibogaine experiences and near death and out of body experiences as well, of which there are an infinite number online. They all seem to point to truths which have been obliterated from our knowledge due to the violent conquest and absolute control over the human mind of the patrlinealist religions.

[starshine00]

9. p.s that book is not by Murdock

just to allay any confusion.