CiE is more along the lines of addressing apologetics in large part Geo. They say Isis was never regarded as a pre-Christian virgin mother, then the response in the book shows that yes, she actually was. All of these mythological points made in the NT myth that have come in behind pre-existing motif's in the Egyptian religion are sorted out and uncovered.

Near the end of the book Murdock provides the theory that most of the Gospels were not merely filtered through Alexandrian scribes, but could have well been created as a hybridizing religious effort in Alexandria by scribes quoting from the Greek Septuigint, instead of the Hebrew bible, which does tend to explain a lot of the inconcistencies in translation of the OT and the geography of ancient Israel. And the connection between Alexandria and Antioch is nothing to brush off so easily. There were of course plenty of hybridizing efforts previously between Greek and Egyptian gods and myths and this practice was not uncommon at all.

Now nothing in the book proves absoutely that no such historical seed could have been at the base of all of this, but it does tend to show that it is very possible that the entire thing is mythology with no fixed historical core to the onion. It's the chapter by chapter on going investigation and the sources provided that are very interesting to sort through for anyone here @ BT, whether or not they agree with the Christ Myth theory. This is simply a scientific analytical investigation pertaining to comparative mythology and religion studies from a secular angle.

I would like to suggest a vote on three books

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
Amazon

Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection by DM Murdock
Amazon

America Before the Revolution by Daniel K. Richter
Amazon
(mentioned by Saffron here)

I vote this one. No surprise huh.

Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection by DM Murdock
Amazon

I'm in for Christ in Egypt by Murdock.

Wow, scanning through this thread looks like another book on religion would be a big mistake. Both of the others look good. One tidbit on the memory book - the advanced techniques used by the author were also used by Hannibal Lecter.

Is it too late to suggest something else completely different? I saw a lecture by the author on CSPAN Book TV, very impressive. The book is primarily about the European theater from the German perspective.

The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War by Andrew Roberts.
http://www.amazon.com/Storm-War-History ... 897&sr=1-1

LanDroid, no it is not too late at all.

"The Storm of War" has great reviews and it sure would be interesting to see WWII from the German perspective.

I gotta cast my vote for Murdock as well.

The question here is which book would produce the best discussion. Having suggested it, I am now re-reading Christ In Egypt by Murdock, and am again struck by what a brilliant, informative and accessible perspective she presents on history. Murdock is a total controversialist, utterly rigorous in method, but uncompromising with regard to what she sees as corrupt and degraded dominant traditions of historiography. Her exclusion from academic discussion is a scandal. On the one side she is treated as a pariah due to the prejudice of those who cannot imagine their precious Jesus is a myth, and on the other side she is castigated by prejudiced modernists who see myth as obsolete. Murdock treads the narrow path between these errors to bring myth alive. This is why she gets attacked with such vitriol from all sides; she is casting decisive blows to the houses of cards of both orthodox theology and secular atheism. Every page of Christ in Egypt is brimful with scholarly research on the real story of how Christianity came to be, analysed with dispassionate scientific logic and evidence.

Christ in Egypt was just published in 2009, and has not really been noticed in mainstream circles, although it has received some excellent reviews. In many ways it presents a starting point for analysis, which a Booktalk discussion could help. There is plenty of scope for discussion about how the book has been received and the cultural implications of its findings, especially regarding what the relation between Egyptian and Christian religion has to say about the status of contemporary Christianity.

Booktalk has not previously selected a book that claims that Jesus Christ did not exist. This is a live cultural debate, where Booktalk can make a real contribution. Whether or not Christian apologists join, there is abundant material here for learning about a topic that is culturally important but weakly understood by most.

I'm not interested in reading 600 pages on the subject -- I don't need much convincing that it's all based on myths -- but may Jesus be with you all on your quest. :pop: