How can you explain this?

Question

"Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras - called the Son of God and the Light of the World - was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. By the way, December 25 is also the birthday or Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even Christianity's weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans."


http://godisimaginary.com/i3.htm

sorry guys, this stuff is older than christ. as for why do I want to bash christianity, i am not bashing. if you are done searching for answers then stop coming here and enjoy your religion. but that is like looking for your keys to your car and then stopping at the screwdriver because that will work just fine. i was a christian and now i'm not, but i do enjoy discussing it... also, i think that a lot of the problems we face daily are caused by many people's belief that there is another life after death. look at the suicide bombers. if they only knew that they were not going to get their virgins it is less likely they would be so quick to kill themselves. of course that is extreme, and a generalization I ADMIT THAT. but if gay men marrying eachother will (as you say) lead to people wedding their dogs, then what can we say about christians who follow a leader blindly. extremism is not that farfetched.

JOHNNY CEE

I have in fact done my homework, thank you. now then, we know that jesus claims to have been with god and in fact was god (John 1) but that doesn't explain how his later life on earth story was told by others before it "happened." and with different names. it is more obvious that his myth was derived from these stories. Dionysus turned water into wine but was the son of Zeus, not Jehovah. he also died and was resurrected after 3 days. the parallels are striking.

many of you are wrapped around the Christmas day part... if you really read what is written here that is not my point. Jesus could have actually been born on May 1st for all it matters. the point is that we CELEBRATE his birth on the SAME day as other "gods" before him were supposedly born and these gods have nearly identical LIVES as Jesus... thus, logically, jesus is just a retelling of the same old myths.

FISHER

and the bible tells us jesus' story. which history shows has been told before. so i am not just reading other books and avoiding the bible... i'm also using the bible. if i write something down now, hide it, and 75 years from now someone finds it, rewrites it and claims it was their idea to begin with, but then people find my original... will people only believe that he plagiarized if they already believe he's a fraud? or will his followers question him?

ANN A

I have already said it, these other myths are OLDER than christ. how could they steal from something that had not yet been born, technically.???

Answer 1

Even if true, what is your point? So what if there are a lot of Jesus wannabes?

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"Nothing in Christianity is original" ... I've seen some of the claims that Christianity copied its beliefs from numerous ancient religions. It is an ink-blot test, since people see similarities where they want to by changing the terminology used by ancient people to make other religious practices seem like Christian practices on the superficial level.

You read that right, these "comparisons" are always superficial and lacking in any serious scholarship.

With all due respect, if you want to be taken seriously, try doing some of your own original research, and your own original thinking, instead of blindly parroting something that you copied and pasted from a non-scholarly source. I can use Google too, and I can find as many rebuttal websites for every bogus 'God is Dead; website that you can find.


=====edit2=====
BTW, it is not a secret that December 25 was chosen as the date for Christmas because it was close to the date of many pagan mid-winter holidays (normally around December 21, the first day of winter). So what if the early church deliberately chose more or less the same dates as a pagan religion in order to give early Christians a "clean" alternative to celebrating pagan holidays? If the church chose some other date for Christmas, then some scholar somewhere would find some ancient civilization somewhere (like the ancient Mayas or something) who worshiped one of their gods on more or less the same day by coincidence. Once again, what's your point?

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...Osiris' resurrection served to provide hope to all that they may do likewise and become eternal. This is where we find some of the biggest misuse of terminology, including by some Egyptian scholars of religion (who do not go on to posit a "copycat" relationship!). Osiris resurrected? Not if "resurrection" is defined as coming back in a glorified body. On this point Miller has done some substantial work, reporting the words of J. Z. Smith, so I will let these speak to begin:

"Osiris was murdered and his body dismembered and scattered. The pieces of his body were recovered and rejoined, and the god was rejuvenated. However, he did not return to his former mode of existence but rather journeyed to the underworld, where he became the powerful lord of the dead. In no sense can Osiris be said to have 'risen' in the sense required by the dying and rising pattern (as described by Frazer et.al.); most certainly it was never considered as an annual event."

"In no sense can the dramatic myth of his death and reanimation be harmonized to the pattern of dying and rising gods (as described by Frazer et.al.)."

"The repeated formula 'Rise up, you have not died,' whether applied to Osiris or a citizen of Egypt, signaled a new, permanent life in the realm of the dead."

Frankfort concurs:

"Osiris, in fact, was not a 'dying' god at all but a 'dead' god. He never returned among the living; he was not liberated from the world of the dead, as Tammuz was. On the contrary, Osiris altogether belonged to the world of the dead; it was from there that he bestowed his blessings upon Egypt. He was always depicted as a mummy, a dead king." [Kingship and the gods: a study of ancient Near Eastern religion as the integration of society & nature. UChicago:1978 edition, p.289]...

...I found in Budge one idea that Horus had died and been cast in pieces in the water, and his parts were fished out by Sebek the crocodile god at Isis' request. But that's a funny sort of baptism at best (see above). Another source notes a story where Horus is bitten by a snake and revived, which is still not much of a parallel....

Answer 2

I've got a friend who is a literary agent, with some pretty big clients. She's told me about a claim that there's really, at the top level, only 7 (or so) plotlines out there - just a handful of basic premises for *all* those stories out there. The differences come from the minute details.

Yeah, there's a lot of similarities between Christianity and other religions. That's not surprising, when you're dealing with just a handful of possible ideas. ::shrugs:: No biggie.

Answer 3

with all do respect..I am not answering this because I don't believe in God/Jesus..because I do..But I am going to say I have to agree with you on the REAL b-day of Christ..I too believe that the Hebrew/Jewish Calendars are the ones you should go by when determining his date of birth. Theirs is different from ours..their new year starts 6 mos away from ours..

and John the Baptist was indeed 6mos older than his cousin Jesus..so HE was the one born in Dec. So Yes I see you have read the truth..in the scripture it does state the year and month. I am not judging you on anything else you said. That isn't my right or title. Good Will to you.

Answer 4

No where in the Bible does it say that Jesus was born on December 25th that is just the day that we Americans celebrate the birth of Jesus in fact if you did some real research you would know that there is no real proof of the day that Jesus was born. Try reading the Bible first.....do not ask us, read for yourself....it only makes you look better if you actually have proof. Not just an idea....READ. PLEASE and come back with a better question


PEACE

Answer 5

You are right when you said: " The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even Christianity's weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans"-absolutely, those pagans stole everything from us to make others believe they are the originals in the texts of history!

Answer 6

I'm pagan myself, but I still respect christianity. What you read is true. Christianity adopts most of it's important holidays from other religions, and openly admits it. They did this in order to make it easier to convert people.

Not many christians actually believe Christ was born on Christmas day. It's actually thought that he was born sometime in the summer... christmas is just a convenient day to celebrate.

Answer 7

How can you say nothing in Christianity is original? If you look in the dictionary the word pagan can be defined as one who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Jew, especially a worshiper of a polytheistic religion. There is a difference when different type of people worship the SAME GOD and when the same people worship DIFFERENT GODS, one must not antiquate the human spirit, for in this specific time we where born, our specific religion is appropriate for our religious morale.

Answer 8

Not to mention all the similar stories in extraterrestrial cultures on other worlds in the universe. For example, on a planet named Terran in the M-2055 galaxy, trilobites worship the Son of Deus, a trilobite who was slowly crushed to death by the Empire.

Answer 9

My Bible has the life of Christ recorded in many places.

Incidentally, my Bible does not claim that Christ was born on December 25. Some scholars say that it was more likely in the spring of the year.

Maybe the pagans stole their mythology from the Bible?

Answer 10

Hi Shawn M. It's easy to explain. Your authority is articles you've read about paganism. Books, web sites, and other publications that you're drawn to. We who are true believers use God Almighty's Word The Bible as our authority. We are drawn to Him. Jesus tells us in John 6:44:

"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day."

There is only one God. God tells us very clearly in
Mark 12:32:

"And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:"