As I anticipated another wave of objections to my comparison of mythicists and creationists to come flooding in, I received this e-mail:
The Mythicists’ Forum is pleased to award $1,000 to anyone who demonstrates that Jesus actually lived. The winning essay will show that the figure ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ as grandly recorded in the Christian gospels, was a real person and not the pure invention of the evangelists. Further details of the Real Jesus Challenge (also known as the 2011 Historicist Prize), can be found at http://www.nazarethmyth.info
Rene Salm
for the Mythicists’ Forum
Now where have I come across a fringe group offering a prize for anyone who can prove the conclusions of mainstream scholarship to the satisfaction of a panelist of adherents of that fringe group? Oh, I remember now! Among creationists! Among the best known of these are Kent Hovind’s famous $250,000 prize, and Adnan Oktar (better known under his pen name Harun Yahya) offering ten trillion Turkish lira.
In fact, in this particular respect mythicism seems like it is worse, a money-making scam, since the Real Jesus Challenge web site asks those who submit entries to also each pay $50 for the work that the judges would have to engage in reading their submission!
At least they aren’t quite as bad as these guys…and I should be grateful that they actually take the time to e-mail me with evidence of their resemblance to creationists! 🙂
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