(This is posting I made on another site, a Muslim forum, where this topic was being discussed. The forum is moderated so I have no idea if the post will go through or not so I thought I might as well post it here so it doesn't go to waste)
You've all surely heard the claims before and they always come from people who are completely lacking in knowledge in history and mythology. These anti-Christians cite all these Greek/Roman and Egyptian gods that Jesus is supposedly copied from but when we examine the actual stories of these gods, we find that nothing about them matches with what we know about Jesus.
It's sad that some people lack the integrity to verify their sources (and all sources about the supposed "pagan origins of Jesus" come from debunked and discredited sources like Gerald Massey, Richard Carrier and the Zeitgeist).
They go something like this:
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Pagan roots of Christianity
? Attis - Phrygia: ? Born of the virgin Nana on December 25. ? He was both the Father and the Divine Son. ? He was a savior crucified on a tree for the salvation of mankind. ? He was buried but on the third day the priests found the tomb empty ? He had arisen from the dead (on March 25th). ? He followers were baptized in blood, thereby washing away their sins
? Dionysus - Greece ? Born of a Virgin on December 25th ? He was crucified on a cross ? His followers ate sacred meal that became the body of the god. ? He rose from the dead March 25th. ? He was called the ram and lamb's and was called "King of Kings" "Only Begotten Son" "Savior" "Redeemer" "Sin bearer" "Anointed One" the "Alpha and Omega."
? Heracles - Greece ? Born at the winter equinox of a virgin who refrained from sex with her until her god-begotten child was born ? He was sacrificed at the spring equinox. ? He was called "Savior" "Only begotten" "Prince of Peace"
? Osiris - Egypt ? Ring of Bell. ? Sprinkling of holy water. ? Burning of candles. ? Baptisms. ? Pine tree, for his birthday.
? Mithra - Persia ? He was born of a virgin on December 25th. ? He was buried in a tomb and after three days he rose again. ? He was considered "the Way, the Truth and the Light, the Redeemer, the Savior ? He was identified with both the Lion and the Lamb. ? His sacred day was Sunday, "the Lord's Day," ? Mithra had his principal festival on what was later to become Easter, at which time he was resurrected.
? Prometheus - Greece ? Prometheus descended from heaven as God incarnate as man, to save mankind. ? He was crucified, suffered and rose from the dead. ? He was called the Logos or Word.
? Trinity
Trinities were popular in pagan sects before Christianity Some of the well known trinity gods are:
? The Classical Greek Olympic triad of Zeus (king of the gods), Athena (goddess of war and intelect) and Apollo (god of the sun, culture and music)
? The Delian chief triad of Leto (mother), Artemis (daughter) and Apollo (son)
? The Famous Delian triad of Athena, Zeus,Hera and Heracles
? In ancient Egypt there were many triads, the most famous among them that of Osiris (man), Isis (wife), and Horus (son), local triads like the Theban triad of Amun, Mut and Khonsu and the Memphite triad of Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertem, the sun-god Ra, whose form in the morning was Kheper, at noon Re-Horakhty and in the evening Atum, and many others.
? The Roman Capitoline Triad of Jupiter (father), Juno (wife), and Minerva (daughter).
? The Roman plebeian triad of Ceres, Liber Pater and Libera (or its Greek counterpart with Demeter, Dionysus and Kore).
? Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva (Trimurti) in Hindu mythology.
? Mitra, Indra, and Varuna in early vedic Hinduism.
These "comparisons" aren't true or even accurate in any way.
Here's a good image refuting these "claims" of plagiarism:
As for the others not referenced in the image such as Hercules and Attis, they are the same. Nothing about Jesus was "stolen" from them. Attis was not born from a virgin or born on December 25th. He was born from a woman who was impregnated by a tree bearing the seed of Agdistis (it bore its seed because it grew from his chopped off penis), a god who was a hermaphrodite (both male and female), and she later abandoned him. Hercules was a half human, half god who killed and performed what became known as the "Labours of Hercules" in service of a king to be rewarded with immortality, also to repent for murdering his own children and wife. So no comparison to Jesus at all.
In fact as we all should know by now, "December 25th" bares no significance. Even if these pagan gods were born on this date it means nothing because nowhere in The Bible is this date mentioned as being the day Jesus was born. It came centuries later when Christians wanted to do away with Pagan festivals and so put Christmas on this date in an attempt to get Pagans to convert to Christianity (as many pagan festivals were in December) this of course doesn't make Christmas pagan either as many of the traditions associated with Christmas come from Christianity (Christmas trees come from Saint Boniface and Santa Claus and his gift giving comes from Saint Nicolas who used to go around giving gifts to the poor so the day is very much to celebrate him as much as Jesus).
When we research all these pagan gods. We find that the claims of plagiarism all originate from atheist and anti-Christian sources who are looking to discredit Christianity. One of their sources I mentioned previously come from a known charlatan named Gerald Massey who was simply a poet who fabricated all these claims about their gods. If you read Egyptian material, there are no references to the claims made here. Same with Greek sources. It's like the "Anup the baptizer" character, who according to the myth perpetuated by believers of this nonsense, supposedly baptised Horus but he is not mentioned in any Egyptian records. This character is actually an invention from Bill Maher's documentary "Religulous" and presumably he has based the character off of Anubis, the Egyptian god associated with protecting the dead and preparing their way to the underworld, so he also became known as the god of embalming and mummification. The Egyptian rites for "preparing the way into the underworld" were not similar to baptism. It is simply ludicrous to compare the mummification and embalming of a corpse to the water and spiritual baptism of someone who is alive which also involves the acceptance of Jesus.
Look at Mithra, he was born from a rock. He did not rise from the dead and recent scholars actually contend that the Roman worship of him started years after Jesus was known. So there would be no chance of Christianity burrowing anything from this source. Still no similarities to Jesus.
Horus was not born from a virgin. He was born from a goddess named Isis (the Egyptian goddess of fertility) who used the semen of her dead lover (a god named Osiris) to impregnate herself. Accounts differ. One story says Isis was able to temporarily bring Osiris back from the dead to have sex with him but another states she practically raped the dead corpse of Osiris to become impregnated by him. So not the same as being born from a virgin. Horus later nearly ended up being raped by his uncle (Set), went to war with him and later kills him. Oh and what's more, Osiris and Isis were actually brother and sister so not only did Isis copulate with a corpse but Horus was the product of incest. Still not seeing the similarity with Christianity and Jesus here.
Prometheus was never crucified. He stole fire from the gods and they chained him to some rocks where a eagle would visit him every day to eat his ever regenerating liver. This punishment was eternal. According to Greek mythology he should still be on that rock serving his eternal punishment. So not the same as being crucified, dying from it and rising from the dead three days later.
Dionysus was not born of a virgin. He was the son of Zeus and a human called Semele. While Dionysus did die, he only "resurrected" after Zeus brought him back to life by essentially recreating him. He was killed when the Titans cannibalized him as a baby. It was only after that Zeus brought him back by using his heart (the only thing that remained of him). Again no comparison to Jesus rising from the dead after being dead for days from the cross.
When we examine these other gods we find none compare to Jesus at all. None of these gods were crucified like Jesus. The myths invented about them are nothing but fabrications and one need only check any Egyptian or Greek mythology book or source on the internet. Everything supposed similarity mentioned comes only from atheist sites which continue to spread these debunked lies. None of these "similarities" are mentioned in actual Greek or Egyptian sources.
Now what I want to know is why are there some people so desperate to discredit and disprove Christianity that will use any lie to help them? It's normally certain atheists who say they are free-thinkers but will blindly believe anything they read that is against Christianity.
I think it's insecurity on their part. Jesus existing is detrimental to their worldview and what they believe so they try to use anything they possibly can to debunk him. Sadly for them, what they use is so easily debunked because what they use are lies and facts always triumph in the end.
It's just a shame that even after so many years, we have these same debunked lies going around on the internet with many new atheists continuing to fall for them in their quest to "destroy" Christianity.
Submitted January 09, 2016 at 02:09PM by Unknown
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