Is it true that Christianity was basically a modification of Paganism?

Answer 1

Christianity has stolen or "borrowed" a lot of Pagan traditions and beliefs, only a few examples are Halloween (Pagan Sabbat called All Hallow's Eve), using holly and trees during the Winter Solstice (Christmas) and "Tying the knot" during marriage, a Pagan tradition of two couples spending a set amount of time giving their marriage a trial-run before actually getting married. Even dressing formally for marriage has been adopted by Christianity.

Answer 2

To quote a bumper sticker, "Christiantiy has Pagan DNA". I don't know if I'd call it a "modification of Paganism" as "Paganism" is a very vague definition that can refer to the polytheistic religions of countless different cultures. But the virgin birth? The martyr god? Resurrection? These are hardly original concepts. If archetypes had copyright dates, Christianty would have been sued.

Answer 3

Think about it they celebrate Christmas on December 25th which is the winter solstice a Pagan holiday. And there are some things that came from Pagan traditions.

Answer 4

I read something in an artical let me show you ! !

Christianity and The Solar Calendar

We have seen that both Judaism and Islam, as in the tradition of Semitic culture, use the lunar calendar to mark their months. The question now is why Christianity adopted the solar calendar, instead of the lunar? As surprising as it is to the missionary, the adoption of the sun as the official calendar of ‘Christianity’ occurs as late as 325 C.E. and was due to the prevailing pagan influences of sun worship. The cult of the sun-god was the most popular creed at the advent of Jesus, and was prevalent in all the countries into which the religion called “Christianity” is later introduced in. Pagan gods such as Appolo or Dionysus among the Greeks, Hercules among the Romans, Mithra among the Persians, and Osiris, Isis and Horus in Egypt et. al., are all sun-gods3. In the face of the evidence, one cannot help but conclude that the adoption of the solar calender is certainly due to the strong Hellenistic influences of the sun-god cult during its adoption.

Answer 5

Unless bunnies do really have something to do with the resurrection and Jesus was really born on Dec 25, which ironically is the same day as a pagan celebration, I'd say they've borrowed a few things

Answer 6

IN TIME the Roman Empire, in which early Christianity began, collapsed. Many historians claim that that collapse was also the time of the final victory of Christianity over paganism. Expressing a different viewpoint, Anglican bishop E. W. Barnes wrote: “As classical civilization collapsed, Christianity ceased to be the noble faith of Jesus the Christ: it became a religion useful as the social cement of a world in dissolution.”—The Rise of Christianity.

Before that collapse, during the second, third, and fourth centuries C.E., history records that in many ways those who claimed to follow Jesus kept themselves separate from the Roman world. But it also reveals the development of apostasy in doctrine, conduct, and organization, just as Jesus and his apostles had foretold. (Matthew 13:36-43; Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; 2 Timothy 2:16-18; 2 Peter 2:1-3, 10-22) Eventually compromises came to be made with the Greco-Roman world, and some who claimed to be Christian adopted the world’s paganism (such as its festivals and its worship of a mother-goddess and a triune god), its philosophy (such as belief in an immortal soul), and its administrative organization (seen in the appearance of a clergy class). It was this corrupted version of Christianity that attracted the pagan masses and became a force that the Roman emperors first tried to stamp out but later came to terms with and endeavored to use to their own ends.

Church historian Augustus Neander showed the risks involved in this new relationship between “Christianity” and the world. If Christians sacrificed their separateness from the world, “the consequence would be a confusion of the church with the world . . . whereby the church would forfeit her purity, and, while seeming to conquer, would herself be conquered,” he wrote.—General History of the Christian Religion and Church, Volume 2, page 161.

This is what happened. In the early fourth century, Roman emperor Constantine tried to use the “Christian” religion of his day to cement his disintegrating empire. To this end, he granted professed Christians religious freedom and transferred some of the privileges of the pagan priesthood to their clergy class. The New Encyclopædia Britannica states: “Constantine brought the church out of its withdrawal from the world to accept social responsibility and helped pagan society to be won for the church.”

Answer 7

The Catholic Church took some beliefs and made them more attractive to Pagans by doing a "bait and switch" tactic, besides the outright things they forbade pagans to do. There are many examples of this... all were done to squash pagan rites and beliefs.

_()_

Answer 8

From what I have read, it seems to me all religions are just modifications of other religions/ mythology. Take Lucifer, Socrates, Jesus, and Prometheus. I can compare all four to each other with striking similarity. And, yes, I can compare Satan to Jesus. Though it would likely fall on deaf ears.

Answer 9

Yeah.

The modification included worshipping the true God, instead of false gods, and believing God's absolute truth, instead of myths and legends.

Answer 10

It definitly took pagan holidays.