Jesus Never Existed Com

[Confused Ape]

The whole point of JNE is to show that there is no coherent story behind any of the jesus myth.

Paul is put into a first century context and frankly, it is very shaky at best.

Agreed. If you were going to pick one of the theories which Humphreys' includes which one would it be, though? Is the idea that Paul was a pupil of Simon the Magus as plausible as some of the other ideas people have come up with? Does shaky ground excuse coming up with ideas which are just as shaky?

What about Allegro's idea that Jesus was the result of a mushroom cult?

The Sacred Mushroom And The Cross - Reconsideration

Recent studies of Allegro's work have given new supporting linguistic evidence and led to calls for his theories to be re-evaluated by the mainstream.[8][9] In November 2009 The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross was reprinted in a 40th anniversary edition with 30-page addendum by Prof. Carl A. P. Ruck of Boston University.[10] A far more articulate exposition of Allegro's insights into early Christianity and his discoveries studying the Dead Sea Scrolls was published in his 1979 book The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth.

The work of Allegro also gained recognition and consideration by such late proponents of experiential psychedelia through pharmacological interaction as Terrence McKenna, who cited Allegro's claims of certain psychoactive fungi analogizing the Eucharist, spoken in a live lecture in the 1990s

Carl A P Ruck

Carl Ruck is best known for his work along with other scholars in mythology and religion on the sacred role of entheogens, or psychoactive plants that induce an altered state of consciousness, as used in religious or shamanistic rituals. His focus has been on the use of entheogens in classical western culture, as well as their historical influence on modern western religions. He currently teaches a mythology class at Boston University that presents this theory in depth.

What about Terence McKenna, though?

Terence McKenna

Terence Kemp McKenna (November 16, 1946 – April 3, 2000) was an American philosopher, psychonaut, ethnobotanist, lecturer, and author. He spoke and wrote about a variety of subjects, including psychedelic drugs, plant-based entheogens, shamanism, metaphysics, alchemy, language, culture, technology and the theoretical origins of human consciousness.

He was called the "Timothy Leary of the 90's",[1][2] "one of the leading authorities on the ontological foundations of shamanism"[3] and the "intellectual voice of Rave culture".[4] He also formulated a concept about the nature of time based on fractal patterns he claimed to have discovered in the I Ching, which he called novelty theory,[3] believing this predicted the end of time in the year 2012.[5] His promotion of novelty theory and its connection to the Mayan calendar is credited as one of the factors leading to the widespread beliefs about 2012 eschatology.[6] Novelty theory is considered pseudoscience.[7][8]

As we're still here in 2014, maybe McKenna's interest in Allegro's theory doesn't help when it comes to evaluating the role of mushrooms in the origins of Christianity.