A certain amount of chaff passed between Mark Hawker and myself, but I have since deleted my tweets for reasons that will become clear.Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@aiminghigh9 And what credibility do you think @AcharyaS has in this area? A respected Mithras scholar? (@mooneyedgirl)
Religion and History @AcharyaS:
@aiminghigh9 This kind of LOGICAL FALLACY is called "credentialism." It's a rubbish tactic. http :// w ww.free thoughtnatio n.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18804 … @markhawker @mooneyedgirl
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@AcharyaS Sadly, that’s not what’s going on here. You say you have the credentials though, right? (@aiminghigh9 @mooneyedgirl)
Religion and History @AcharyaS:
@markhawker Sadly, you are doing EXACTLY as I've stated. READ the article and stop deflecting now. @aiminghigh9 @mooneyedgirl
Religion and History @AcharyaS:
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@AcharyaS Let’s take one point you make: which academic scholars endorse “the Twelve”? (@roger_pearse)
Religion and History @AcharyaS:
@markhawker What credibility do you have when you clearly don't know my work in the least? Article is SOURCED. @aiminghigh9 @mooneyedgirl
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@AcharyaS I do know your work, though. J. P. Holding loves it, too. (@aiminghigh9 @mooneyedgirl)
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@AcharyaS Can I pick up any of your work in a peer-reviewed journal? (@aiminghigh9 @mooneyedgirl)
Religion and History @AcharyaS:
@markhawker Yes, you can, which you would know if you weren't only dishonestly PRETENDING to know my work. @aiminghigh9 @mooneyedgirl
Religion and History @AcharyaS:
@markhawker But, again, that's CREDENTIALISM. Please provide your credentials as an expert on my work. @aiminghigh9 @mooneyedgirl
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@AcharyaS So, where is it? (@aiminghigh9 @mooneyedgirl)
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@AcharyaS This isn’t about your work but about understanding Mithraism. Nothing about you. (@aiminghigh9 @mooneyedgirl)
Religion and History @AcharyaS:
@markhawker Instead of dishonest pretenses & deflection fallacies, you could read the attached article: http://truthbeknown.com/mithra.htm @aiminghigh9
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@AcharyaS I have read that article. Anyone can post on the Internet, though. Where has this been presented to the academic community?
Religion and History @AcharyaS:
@aiminghigh9 Roger's another dishonest poseur shoring up his cultic views by all costs - refuted repeatedly. @roger_pearse
Religion and History @AcharyaS:
@aiminghigh9 My article proves these fanatics wrong, but they won't read it, while pretending to be experts. @roger_pearse @markhawker
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@AcharyaS @aiminghigh9 @roger_pearse @mooneyedgirl Right, enough of the mud-slinging and let’s start talking about evidence.
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@roger_pearse @AcharyaS So, this twelve disciples idea. Source and evidence?
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@roger_pearse @AcharyaS Or evidence of Mithras being called “the Good Shepherd”. Source and evidence, please?
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@roger_pearse @AcharyaS Or "Mithras is often represented as carrying a lamb on his shoulders”. Source and evidence, please?
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@roger_pearse @AcharyaS OK, so that’s three claims you make that we’ll explore together. And … go.
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@roger_pearse @AcharyaS Any monument or inscription of Mithras with a lamb on his back will do. That’s how low my bar is.
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@roger_pearse @AcharyaS Unless you’re referring to this and using artistic licence? http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithr ... ge=cimrm77 …
Mark Hawker @markhawker :
@roger_pearse @AcharyaS Or maybe this? http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithr ... =cimrm1494 …
At this point something strange happened. There were no further replies from Acharya S. Instead Mark and I received a tweet from someone calling themself @Lieofabraham or something like that, not about Mithras but about Jesus or something equally irrelevant. There were no previous tweets.
Mark promptly enquired if the account had just been created for the purpose of badgering him. There followed a series of insulting or provocative tweets, directed at each of us, and to which each of us responded. Until I realised that we were being trolled here.
At this point I smelled a rat. A brand new account appears, just at that point, to pick a fight and fling dirt? Coincidence? I thought not. For I've encountered this sort of troll before. It was, I reasoned, an attempt to fill my twitter feed with insults back and forth, which would tend to make *me* - posting under my own name - look like a troll. It's the old "wrestling a pig in mud" gambit.
Naturally I deleted those few tweets that I had made, and I advised Mark to do the same. Then I went to look at the troll account and found ... it had hidden all of its tweets so that nobody could see them, only our responses!
I'm afraid that it looks very much to me as if Acharya S set one of her minions to troll people here, with a view to damaging their reputations online. That's pretty nasty.
Needless to say, Acharya had nothing to say in response to Mark H's comments.
I don't as a rule post on individuals, but I rather take against a cold-blooded attempt at character assassination. Let it known what happened.
All the best,
Roger Pearse