Christianity Copies Paganism

[Comrade J]

Just wondering what our resident Christians (and anybody else) think about the origin of Christianity? Do you think this takes away the credibility of the religion, and perhaps makes it less true?

Anyone heard of Mithraism, an offshoot of Zoroastrianism? According to Mithraic scripture, Mithras was the son of God, born of a virgin, and sent to earth to redeem mankind of their sin with his suffering. He was born in a grotto on the 25th December, where he was attended to by shepherds with gifts. Before he died, he had a final meal with his 12 followers, and he was resurrected after his death. Followers are baptised, and they believe in life after death through faith in Mithra.
He requested people drink of his blood and eat of his flesh to be saved -

He who will not eat of my body, nor drink of my blood so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved - Mithraic Communion prayer.

Also, they have a holy spot in a cave where the Vatican now stands, and the Emperor Constantine used to worship Sol Invitus, the Roman version... if you know anything about how Constantine shaped Christianity, you'll see how significant that is.

Now for the interesting part. This predates Christianity by thousands of years.

Also, there are huge parallels between Jesus and the Egyptian God Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris...

So what does everyone think, does this in fact make Christianity less believable than it already is? Also, there are a huge number of stories about saviours being born of virgins and crucified, it just so happened that Christianity caught on with Roman state leaders, does this too take away some of the credibility?

Oh, and watch this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSm7YPMQOSo), it's a clip from QI, which all British members will know is never wrong... thou shalt not doubt Steven Fry! :D

[luxemburg89]

Stephen Fry is a brilliant Human being. who needs god when you have him.

[pusher robot]

Do you have a source for all of this? I find it difficult to believe that a religion celebrated a holiday on the 25th day of a month which would not be invented for thousands of years.

[Comrade J]

Originally posted by pusher [email protected] 26, 2007 08:51 pm
Do you have a source for all of this? I find it difficult to believe that a religion celebrated a holiday on the 25th day of a month which would not be invented for thousands of years.
Are you really that stupid? :huh:

Mithras was born 4 days after the pagan winter solstice, which works out to be on the 21st December on the Gregorian calendar.
Of course it wasn't known as "December" then.

[RedCommieBear]

There were a lot of pagan influences on early Christian society. It is well known that the date of the 25th of December was placed there because of the many pagan holidays associated with that date; converting to Christianity would not mean giving up your current festivals.

Now the many similarities between Christianity and Mithraism probably isn't a coincidence. There are two explanations I see: Mithraism borrowed from Christianity or vice versa, or Mithraism and Christianity claim to be heirs to a common source. However, there is no doubt that followers of Mithraism and followers of Christianity probably interacted in some way, opening up the possibility for religious of one faith to incorporating elements of the other faith in a sort of "If there's a party going on, might as well join it" sort-of-way.

Also, one must point out the many differences between the two. From my understanding, Mithraism sounds very similar to some form of Gnosticsm.

Edit: Last paragraph added
Edit: Re-wrote sentance for clarity

[Kwisatz Haderach]

Do you have a source for your claims about Mithraism? (and the time frame you ascribe to it)

As far as Christmas is concerned, it is pretty well known that it was meant to copy and replace the Roman festival of Saturnalia. If you read the Gospels, there is no possible way that Jesus was born during the winter. The December 25 date is completely arbitrary (I presume the decision was made somewhat like this: "hey, we should celebrate the birth of Jesus some time, so how about doing it when all those pagans have their winter festival?" - "sounds good to me").

Of course, the date of Christmas and the precise manner of its celebration is utterly irrelevant for the validity of the Christian faith. There's not even a hint in the Bible that it matters when and how you celebrate the birth of Jesus (if at all).

[RedAnarchist]

Of course Christianity took some stuff from older pagan religions. By doing so they diluted those pagan religions and made them irrlevant, therefore soldifiying their power and influence. Its like when capitalists use revolutionary leftist images to advertise their products (ie che on a t-shirt) - they do so to take the power out of that image and make it more "respectful" and less of a threat to their power.