Just what the world needs – another Sitchin wannabe, and this one even less qualified than Sitchin! Turns out that South African soap-opera actor Michael Tellinger has unleashed himself on the unsuspecting public to promote his (Sitchin’s) ideas in his book Slave Species of god. Yep, just what the doctor ordered. From soap operas to deciphering ancient texts for us!
Mr. Tellinger aims to inform the masses about everything from human origins to genetics to ancient texts to the Bible. Whew! You learn a lot being an actor. Among Mr. Tellinger’s penetrating observations in the book, these are my favorites:
- Why has GOD been so obsessed with GOLD from Genesis?
- Why do all mythologies have the same group of GODS?
- Why is the FLYING SERPENT the creator god in all mythologies?
Wow – to think I’d never seen these amazing data points. I can’t wait to get cracking and make some screen-capture videos of me searching and “discovering” this material in the Bible. I’m sure we’ll all learn a lot (like how all the above claims are crap – better, PaleoBabble). Sometimes this blog is just too much fun. Stay tuned for some video discovery!
I’ve been waiting on the edge of my seat for you to take aim at some of these so-called historical and linguistic experts and give them both barrels. To be honest I’m surprised you picked this one first since (I’m sure you know) there are a couple of far more popular ones that have a much larger following. I won’t call them out by name (hoping you will do the honour in due time) but I will name one product that takes the cake as cyber-twaddle and misguided (misleading?) research – Zeitgeist.
Even as a non-academic I could only stand watching about 15 minutes (and I tried twice so I did give it an honest effort) before having to bail to save my sanity. Normally I could just roll my eyes and move on but I’m hearing a lot about Zeitgeist from average people who don’t normally take an interest in this stuff….and, incredibly, they’re swallowing it. There was even a screening at the local university where I live (by a non-academically affiliated group, I hope).
I realize you’ll need to actually watch it and I guarantee you’ll feel dumber for having done so but the amount of credibility this “documentary” is being given by generally unwitting people is alarming and it stinks of theosophy.
Matt: Well, there’s a lot on my sitchiniswrong.com website. I need to go through that (very) old material and repurpose it here. So far I’ve done a couple videos on it for this blog. There will be more.
What exactly was screened at the university (what university)?
Matt: please do call them by name so I know what you’re targeting.
I did a search and found this: Zeitgeist the movie.
And also this: Zeitgeist Refuted.
@sid: The best general work refuting the “pagan Jesus” myth or the “Jesus never existed” myth is the recent title by Boyd and Eddy, The Jesus Legend. I know both authors, and Boyd has personally debated James Price several times.
Thanks Sid for linking to the Google video. Zeitgeist seems to have gone viral and claims to have millions of views a month, translations into 10 languages, and thousands of screenings worldwide.
One of the folks to whom I was referring is Jordan Maxwell. His voice can be heard in the first 10-15 minutes of the video. He is supposedly an “independent scholar in the fields of astro-theology, religion, secret societies, and the occult…” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Maxwell). Jordan Maxwell is a pseudonym, most likely taken from the Jordanus Maximus concept of theosophy.
He likes to expound on the deep significance of some of his made-up etymologies. For example, some of my favorites:
Israel = Is (Isis) + Ra (as in Amun-Ra) + El (of the ANE)
Solomon (who didn’t really exist) = Sol (sun) + Om (Hindu chant) + On (supposedly means “light” somehow)
California = Kali (Hindu goddess of death + forno (oven)
God’s Son = God’s Sun (therefore proving that Christianity is another incarnation of pagan sun worship)
He holds Blavatsky in high regard and (if I remember correctly) claims to own just about everything she ever wrote.
Another fellow cut from the same cloth is Michael Tsarion. He holds similar views about humans being a slave species and factors in Atlantis and lost ancient wisdom and has quite a large and loyal following. You can find more at http://www.michaeltsarion.com.
I’d like to think they’re harmless kooks but they have gained a lot of attention from average joes. I’ve already sent material home with a coworker whose husband watched Zeitgeist and came to the realization that Christianity is a dead religion based on ancient pagan myths. I figure it’s only a matter of time before I start hearing about among the members of our church as well so I’m getting prepared.
Michael,
Seen this one yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts (rants) on this guy’s rather fringy, but momentum-gathering work:
http://www.thunderbolts.info/forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=245
(if you click the link in the last post, “Revisiting the Creation”, one of the posters mentions “sitchiniswrong.com” 🙂
@Matt…: Thanks for the examples. I had forgotten about Maxwell. I’ve been on his website a couple times – not the easiest thing to navigate and find information. I’ll hit the “Israel” thing soon – what nonsense – and what I say will be relevant to all such “reconstructions” of words. If you come across other stuff, let me know.
Tsarion is someone I haven’t paid much attention to. People like him who don’t pretend to be scholars don’t draw my interest, really. I guess I can look at his site. I like examples where pseudo-scholars make claims about ancient texts and the Bible. Since I know going in they know nothing about the stuff, it makes for good blog fodder.
Dr. Heiser,
i’ve seen videos from both Maxwell and Tsarion, they are kind of wacked, but entertaining hehe.
on this same note, i was listening to Guy Malone’s radio show, and he had Ronnie McMullen and he mentioned that he read a book (sorry i cant remember the name of the author, bad memory) based on the book of Daniel. Apparently the author found hidden text in the book of Daniel when he REVERSED the text. Apparently the text talks about the watchers and nephilim.
i guess this goes more along the lines of the Bible Code theme.
maybe you can ask Guy to give you more details on this.
blessings
@rode: Yeah, it’s just more Bible code wackiness.