Show notes can be found here: http://tparkatheist.blogspot.com/2015/12/episode-0077-men-without-heads.html  This episode is part two of the chapter "Why Christianity Prospered" from Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions by TW Doane.  In this chapter we learn about a Buddhist prophecy from 600 BCE which could be used to predict the birth of Jebus, as well as the birth of Joseph Smith!!!!  (Actually, however, you'll see that the prophecy could be used to predict any number of religious nutters, and has really no meaning at all.)  Doane lays out the case that the Essenes (who were known by a number of different names in ancient times) were Buddhists who later became Christians because they had a prophecy which "predicted" the appearance of Jebus.  Doane discusses other contenders for the throne of 1st Messiah, and then proceeds to quote various church fathers who happily admitted to lying if they thought it would help spread the gospel.  One of them St. Augustine even claimed to have preached a sermon to a race of people who had no heads!

There will be a part 3 to this chapter, if not a part 4, and I apologize for the sound quality of the episode, but as I explain in the beginning of the podcast there were some problems with setting up my new PC.