The subject matter of this book evolved out of a personal interest in mythology and theology. However, I am secular, and have always been secular, coming from a non-religious family background. I have never considered the religious stories to be anything but stories. In point of fact, I see no real distinction between mythology and theology; save one is considered past defunct beliefs, and the other presently held beliefs. To that end, Astonishing Credulity 3rd edition, delivers a strong challenge to the authenticity of the New Testament gospels, and the historicity of the Jesus character.

The book successfully confronts head on the claim from the Church that we cannot use an argument from silence to claim the character ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ did not exist in history. That is: the Church claim the fact there is no contemporary corroborative writing about the character, of which there is not, does not prove he did not exist. It is interesting though to consider, if the character did not exist, there would, by default, be no contemporary corroborative writing about him.

The Church as an organisation feels impregnable behind this “you cannot use an argument from silence” wall. I take the reverse approach. I claim, and demonstrate, literature does exist which reveals Jesus, as in ‘Jesus Christ’, existed as an allegorical character long before the dates attributed to the Jesus character from the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts in the New Testament; thereby proving these five books to be reworked fictional stories of an ancient allegorical myth, as opposed to factual biographies.

Having presented the case for a mythical, as opposed to a historic Jesus the book then demonstrates how theological belief evolved from ancient astrology. I present many parallels with naked eye astronomy and mythology. I also demonstrate how these links have found their way from ancient mythology, to form the base line stories in present day theology. The book then tackles the issue of how these newly created theologies came to be entrenched into the psyche of humankind.

We then question the access organised religion, principally Christianity, has to developing young minds through the school curriculum.

The message from the book is: Christianity is a massive literal misinterpretation of ancient allegorical stories, on a global scale.