An Athiest Not At Peace, Part 1 - Miracles

[Ouroboros]

On the contrary, there seems to be a lot of similarities between Christianity and previous pagan beliefs. However, every religion always have their own little unique spin on things, and many religions also add their own new stuff which didn't exist before. So Christianity contains both old stuff, and unique stuff. And also, to say "copy" can be misleading, because even though it might have been intentional in some instances, it's not impossible that some pagan rituals were "borrowed" by more accident than intentional.

 

Just look at more modern religions. Mormons, JW, Raelians, etc, all took some things from existing beliefs, adding some of their own, put a new spin on it, and after they had gone on for a while, the following generations made new interpretations based on a different worldview and changing culture.

 

Personally I think there must have been some dude (Jesus, Paul, Bob, whatever) starting the first Christian cult, because we can see in history that each cult starts with some form of charismatic leader. Whoever this charismatic leader starting the first Jewish cult, which later became a Hellenized Christian cult, we probably can't really know as of now.

[Guest Davka]

Is there a good case for the idea that Christianity is NOT one of many "copy" religions?

 

About as good a case as there is for the idea that Rock and Roll was not born out of earlier musical styles, or that cultures never influence one another. Human ideas tend to flow together, borrowing from neighboring paradigms and smooshing all together like a s'more where the graham crackers are kind of soggy from humidity and the chocolate was half melted from the summer heat before you even introduced that semi-scorched marshmallow to the mix.

 

I think Jesus might have been the graham cracker. It's kind of like a wafer, y'know?

[RationalOkie]

This just shows how effective brain washing can be. Even though you DO know that this junk is irrational you find, from time to time, that you become afraid of 'Eternal Damnation'. What more…you're not alone. A lot of people here, whether they admit it or not, DO have this same irrational fear from time to time. I tell my children that's it IS o.k. to be afraid of things that ARE real, but it is NOT o.k. to be afraid of mythical creatures like the boogie man, sand man, or the gawd man. That B.S. is for the gullible people in the world and not you. Deacon Duncan say's it best.

 

What we have, then, is a God who does NOT show up in real life, and in His absence, men are putting their faith in the things men say and think and feel and imagine about God, even though those things are not consistent with what we find in real life. To believe someone when they tell you things that are not consistent with reality is not faith, but gullibility. -May 26, 2008 — Deacon Duncan

 

Soooooo....don't be gullible. None of the bible stories pass the laugh test once you've seen the light of reason.

[Kuroikaze]

Just as an aside:

 

Has anyone read up on any of those websites that "debunk" the film "Zeitgeist"?

 

I agree with all of the debunking of the paranoid conspiracy theory stuff, but supposedly these websites also go into great detail debunking the idea that Christianity formed from Pagan religions and that the backbone of Christianity (virgin birth, crucifixion, resurrection, etc.) has been the backbone of many religions prior.

 

Has anyone ever looked into this? Is there a good case for the idea that Christianity is NOT one of many "copy" religions?

 

Haha, you wouldn't know it but this topic is somewhat a point of contention between some members of this site.

 

I personally think Zeitgeist is a good example of very poor scholarship.

Yes, Christianity borrowed from other stuff. It was a fairly normal practice for religions at the time to copy from one another. In the modern world we tend to see this a being a bit disingenuous, but at the time it was not thought of as being a big deal.

 

Zeitgeist and the books that spawned it, go much further than this. They claim that ALL religions, not just Christianity, but every world religion from every continent come from the same basic sun mythology. They explain the connection by claiming that in the distant past there was an advanced civilization with a world wide super culture, and somehow all substantial evidence for it has disappeared.

 

Now, if you look at the evidence the present they seem to make a good case, by pointing out what appear to be uncanny similarities. However they ignore all the dissimilarities. I think what is going on is that if you compare two, even totally unrelated things, you will find some elements that are similar, if you only tell people about the things which are similar you will make it look like there is a good case for the two things being related even if they are not.

 

Not only this, but Zeitgeist actually says things that are factually inaccurate at times. For instance, when comparing Jesus mythology to Horus mythology they claim that Horus was also born of a virgin, when this is not the case. His birth was miraculous in nature, but he mother was not a virgin.

[HelloWorld]

Just as an aside:

 

Has anyone read up on any of those websites that "debunk" the film "Zeitgeist"?

 

I agree with all of the debunking of the paranoid conspiracy theory stuff, but supposedly these websites also go into great detail debunking the idea that Christianity formed from Pagan religions and that the backbone of Christianity (virgin birth, crucifixion, resurrection, etc.) has been the backbone of many religions prior.

 

Has anyone ever looked into this? Is there a good case for the idea that Christianity is NOT one of many "copy" religions?

 

Haha, you wouldn't know it but this topic is somewhat a point of contention between some members of this site.

 

I personally think Zeitgeist is a good example of very poor scholarship.

Yes, Christianity borrowed from other stuff. It was a fairly normal practice for religions at the time to copy from one another. In the modern world we tend to see this a being a bit disingenuous, but at the time it was not thought of as being a big deal.

 

Zeitgeist and the books that spawned it, go much further than this. They claim that ALL religions, not just Christianity, but every world religion from every continent come from the same basic sun mythology. They explain the connection by claiming that in the distant past there was an advanced civilization with a world wide super culture, and somehow all substantial evidence for it has disappeared.

 

Now, if you look at the evidence the present they seem to make a good case, by pointing out what appear to be uncanny similarities. However they ignore all the dissimilarities. I think what is going on is that if you compare two, even totally unrelated things, you will find some elements that are similar, if you only tell people about the things which are similar you will make it look like there is a good case for the two things being related even if they are not.

 

Not only this, but Zeitgeist actually says things that are factually inaccurate at times. For instance, when comparing Jesus mythology to Horus mythology they claim that Horus was also born of a virgin, when this is not the case. His birth was miraculous in nature, but he mother was not a virgin.

 

Soooo happy you say this about Zeitgeist. It drives me BATTY when people use it to justify why Christianity is a load of baloney. A lot of it is just that: poor scholarship.

 

My opinion of a person starts to drop if they start throwing around stuff from Zeitgeist as if it is absolute truth.