From: hartigan@ac.dal.ca
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Re: Does God EXIST ?! (Yes - his name is Ian...!)
Date: 15 Aug 92 02:37:28 GMT
Organization: Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

In article <1992Aug13.003320.18691@newsroom.utas.edu.au>, Tim.ONeill@english.utas.edu.au (Tim O'Neill) writes:
> In article <1992Aug11.171412.16325@ccs.QueensU.CA>, 3005904@jeff-lab.queensu.ca (Colleen Davis) writes:
> 
>> Suggested Reading
>> The Messianic Legacy, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln
>> Testament, by John Romer
> 
> Your critique of the World Wide Crutch of God propaganda was excellent 
> Colleen, and I too would recommend Romer's book, but do you really think the
> 'Messianic Legacy' is worthwhile? 

The first half of this book is pretty nifty, I think. I find the conspiracy
theory rather uninteresting, but in the first half of "The Messianic Legacy"
the authors do a critique of the state of 20th century ideological affairs
that is kind of interesting. It's fascinating to read a British criticism 
of American fundamentalist religion, for example. 

Also, they do a summarization of the state of Jesus scholarship as of the
late '80s that is valuable (for me) because it collects so much data in 
one place. I have found the bibliography to "TML" to be of great use in 
finding out just what kind of stuff is out there.  As the authors comment,
the modern layman has no idea how much scholarship has been done in this area
and how much we do know about Jesus' time. This book does a fairly valuable
service in publicizing this information, I think. 


Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't 
> Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln the guys who claim that Jesus died at Masada, that
> Mary Magdalene was his wife, that she went to Gaul, that their son founded
> the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings, who in turn became the Cathar
> heretics, the Knights Templar, the Freemasons, the Rosicrucians and are
> currently calling themselves the Priory of Sion? Don't they believe that
> these guys are going to stage a coup and take over France and rule the world
> or some such similar bullshit? Considering that the original posters are
> members of H.W. Armstrong's church, don't you think they believe enough
> demonstrable crap as it is? Baigent & Co. are to history what Von Daniken
> was to archaeology.

Far be it from me to defend this kind of paranoid conspiracy theorizing, but
I should say that the authors do seem to be rather mellow about the whole
thing compared to most conspiracy kooks. They don't claim undue importance
for their claims, and in fact seem ambivalent about the possibility that the 
Priory of Sion will set up a constitutional monaarchy in Europe with Jesus'
descendant on the throne. They aren't fanatics, anyway.

Besides, "TML" has a great chapter in which the authors discuss all the 
weird mail they got in response to "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail," 
including several letters from various Messiahs, and one from God Himself, 
who turned out to be an inhabitant of a small English seaside town, and whose
proper name, as it happens, is Ian. A rather genial fellow, the authors remark,
although a bit ragged in his spelling. 

I would think that a revelation like this alone would be enough to guarantee
this book a place in every atheist's heart! 

Cheers,
Sean Hartigan
hartigan@ac.dal.ca