This rather larger than it looks website (because of its graphics) offers no new arguments at all and so we present merely this listing of major errors and where to find them corrected. For the classic "parody" we had here previously, which is a point by point refutation of the POCM site as it was done c. 2003, see my tektoonics.com site. I have revisited the site in 2009 to update where I can here.
- Back when I first criticized this site in 2003, the author's most egregious error in his continual reference to the "Dionysus on the cross" medallion, featured on the cover of Freke and Gandy's Jesus Mysteries. As reported by our associate James Hannam, this item was declared a forgery by experts even before Freke and Gandy published. This made POCM's repeated use of it all the more ironic and devastating.
Since that time, the webmaster has removed these pictures.
- The second most stunning error of POCM at that time had been its complete lack of notice of precursors for ideas that were claimed stolen by Christians from pagans: For example, use of dreams as omens; water baptism; miracle-working -- and in one case, in a history of Judaism, POCM completely failed to mention the Maccabbean revolt.
For this 2009 update I checked the page on baptism. Due to a reader objection, POCM now acknowledges the Judaic precursor, but replies, "Did the Christian splinter sect copy the idea of water baptism from the Essene splinter sect? They may have. We don't know. The ultimate source, though, must have been Pagan." This is essentially moving the goalposts, for having failed in establishing a direct connection.
In any event, POCM misses the more parsimonious explanation: That water, being a "universal solvent," would be independently designated an appropriate tool for cleansing rituals.
I also noted that a page titled "From Judaism" remains blank. The webmaster even now, as in 2003, has many pages of "unfinished business."
- POCM also makes use of the claim that Paul did not know anything of the earthly Jesus; see our replies to Earl Doherty under D.
- It offers the standard unworthy treatment of the secular references to Jesus and endorses Remsberg's list, as well as early dating the Gospel of Thomas while late dating the canonical Gospels.
I could not find these last two points reiterated in 2009, but they may still be there.
- As might be expected, appeal to figures we address here. There is also much effort expended on terminological equivocation (eg, claiming a parallel to "salvation" in religions when the word used could mean even being "saved" from a burning building).
The webmaster has since this time corrected himself on some points, particularly acknowledging his errors regarding Mithra. However, he still makes a number of errors in this regard.
As in 2003, even now in 2020, POCM is a constantly-shifting product that is clearly the result of someone whose research efforts are in vain, and finds himself having to make changes precisely because he failed to do credible research the first time around. His charges of "borrowing" are substantiated mainly by terminological equivocation and by trying to particularize universals (e.g., water baptism above). His site has not been updated since 2015.
-JPH