The Similarities In Pagan Myths Proves The Bible?

[Neon Genesis]

Awhile back during bible class at church, the xtians were doing a class about the similarities between Christianity and the pagan myths. They claimed that the similarities don't disprove the bible but in fact prove the story is true. They said that the difference between Yahweh and those other gods is that Yahweh is moral and just and all the Greek gods were immoral. They also said that this proves the story of the Tower Of Babbal is true. That when God gave the people different languages as a punishment for building the tower, and this lead to the people making different variations of the same myths, but this makes no sense to me. The bible claims God is not the author of confusion, so if God punished the people in the Tower Of Babbal story by giving them false copycat myths to deceive them, that means God was purposely confusing them and purposely spreading a lie for them to believe and thus God is a liar. They also claimed the similarities between the Genesis flood myth and the flood myths in other bible stories proves that the bible is true. Even if we presume there was a real flood that served as the basis for the story, I fail to see how this means the book of Genesis has the accurate depiction of the events. And since the Epic Of Gilgamesh is clearly a fictional story, wouldn't that make it more likely that all the other stories are made up as well?

[Looking4Answers]

The concept taught in some circles is not that god purposefully created the other religious myths, but that mankind, via generations of retelling the story, embellished the stories and perverted the truth that they once held. They might even go so far as to say that the devil took advantage of the situation and helped in the embellishment. Thus, to the Christian mind, religious myths would have "seed" truths in them since they supposedly came from a common and "true" source.

 

I agree with you in this, that if god is not the author of confusion, then why "confuse" the languages of men? However, the text does not say that god created the other religious myths.

[Ouroboros]

But one might wonder why God didn't reveal his true religion much earlier. Why wait until Israel to give one version, then to Jesus to give the next, and then to Luther to give the Reformation, and then to our time to give the "real" Christianity? It seems like God can't make up his mind of what we're supposed to believe about him.

[Abiyoyo]

The bible claims God is not the author of confusion, so if God punished the people in the Tower Of Babbal story by giving them false copycat myths to deceive them, that means God was purposely confusing them and purposely spreading a lie for them to believe and thus God is a liar

 

Good ole' Paul. That's just Paul's opinion Neon, maybe God loves confusion

[Looking4Answers]

But one might wonder why God didn't reveal his true religion much earlier. Why wait until Israel to give one version, then to Jesus to give the next, and then to Luther to give the Reformation, and then to our time to give the "real" Christianity? It seems like God can't make up his mind of what we're supposed to believe about him.

 

Christians try to claim that the Gospel, in at least seed form, was given to Adam and Eve and that it was this "pure religion" that was perverted. They get this from two primary places (though there may be others) within Genesis. One is the cursing of the serpent after the "fall." In the curse there is a promise of a "seed" that would come, ultimately crushing the head of the serpent. This seed is male (according to the context) and, as a result, Christians see this as a seed form prophecy of the Messiah (the serpent being the devil and all of that). In it they see the virgin birth (via the woman containing the "seed" which only should come from a man), the crucifixion (via the "wounding" of the seed's "heel") and the defeat of the devil (via the "crushing" of the serpent's "head").

 

Further, many believe that god gave Adam and Eve clear instructions for blood sacrifice and possibly even what it meant. Despite the Bible never stating this, this idea is derived from Cain's vegetable sacrifice not being accepted and Abel's offering of a lamb (supposedly a blood sacrifice) being accepted.

 

Between these two concepts they postulate that the truth about religion was there and that mankind began to share this. As "evidence" for this, they look to the father of Noah who looked at his child and was hoping that Noah would be the one to finally deliver them from the curse of the ground.

[Neon Genesis]

Good ole' Paul. That's just Paul's opinion Neon, maybe God loves confusion

What, God couldn't have hired a better editor before he had his autobiography published?

[Thurisaz]

I wonder what the morontheists have to say about the squirrel of Doom of the sagas of my faith. Did they ever reveal what its jebus cult "original" is supposed to be?