Dorothy M. Murdock, American author and historian (b. 1961)
Dorothy Milne Murdock (March 27, 1960 – December 25, 2015), better known by her pen names Acharya S and D. M. Murdock, was an American writer supporting the Christ myth theory that Jesus never existed as a historical person, but was rather a mingling of various pre-Christian myths, Sun deities and dying-and-rising deities.She wrote and operated a website focused on history, religion and spirituality, and astro-theology. She asserted the pre-Christian religious civilizations understood their myths as allegorical, but Christians obliterated evidence by destroying or suppressing literature after they attained control of the Roman Empire, leading to widespread illiteracy in the ancient world, ensuring the mythical nature of Christ's story was hidden. She argued the Christian canon, as well as its important figures, were based on Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and other cultures' myths. Her theories are variously received by mainstream scholars; for instance, Robert M. Price criticized her first book while praising later writing.
She also wrote against the ancient astronauts theories, asserting they "may be prompted by the same type of motivation that produced the Bible, a chronicle largely-consisting of the plagiarized myths of other cultures" re-fashioned as 'fact' concerning purported legend-based characterizations, and may be driven by the attempt to validate biblical myth as historical under a different 'interpretation'."