If copyright laws existed 2000 years ago then the authors of the NT would have been sued heavily.

MITHRAISM (1500 B.C.)

Mithras slaying the bull.[1]

Us too you have saved by shedding blood which grants eternity

Similarities between Mithras and Christ/Christianity[2]:

• Both saved mankind by performing sacrificial deeds
  
• Both had virgin births in a sense. (Mithras was born as an adult out of a rock).
  
• Both Mithraism and Christianity celebrated the birth of their god on the winter solstice, the 25th of December according to the Julian calendar.
  
• Both told of a Last Supper linked with the blood sacrifice whose symbolic recreation by eating bread and wine provided salvation for all worshippers.
  
• Both told of a Last Supper linked with the blood sacrifice whose symbolic recreation by eating bread and wine provided salvation for all worshippers.
  
• Both emphasized purification through baptism, Mithraists by washing themselves in the blood of sacrificial oxen.
  
• Both featured secret temples located underground. For Christians it was a temporary expedient to avoid persecution, but for Mithraists it became a permanent institution.
  
• Both told of a major flood, in the case of Mithra through his having shot an arrow into a stone cliff to quench mankind's thirst. Unfortunately, the entire world's population was drowned in a flood produced by the water spout that gushed from the hole his arrow produced. One man alone (a Noah figure borrowed from the earlier Sumerian myth of Atrahasis) was warned in time and could therefore save himself and his cattle in an ark.
  
• Both the Old Testament and Mithraic legend told of the first human couple having been created.
  
• As opposed to other early religions, which consigned all the dead to an underworld, both Christianity and Zoroastrian dogma located hell in the underworld and heaven in the sky, where God was located.

EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY (~3100 B.C.)

Isis-Mari (Isis the beloved) with son Horus/Mary with son Jesus.[3]


Similarities between Horus and Christ[4][5]:

• Both begotten Sons of the Father (Osiris in Horus' case).
  
• Mothers: Isis-Meri -> Horus, Mary -> Jesus
  
• Earthly fathers: Seb (aka Jo-Seph) -> Horus, Joseph -> Jesus
  
• Both of royal descent.
  
• Both mothers were told by an angel of their son-to-be.
  
• Birth heralded by: Sirius (the morning star) -> Horus, "star in the East" -> Jesus.
  
• Both have their birthdays celebrated during the winter solstice.
  
• Death threat during infancy: Herut -> Horus, Herod -> Jesus
  
• Both have no data of life events between ages 12-30
  
• Baptism location: river Eridanus -> Horus, river Jordan -> Jesus
  
• Baptiser: Anup the Baptiser -> Horus, John the Baptist -> Jesus.
  
• Both transfigured on a mountain.
  
• Both were referred to as Christ i.e. the anointed one (KRST for Horus).
  

The list goes on and on and on but you can check that out for yourself.

GREEK MYTHOLOGY (~1300 B.C?)

Heracles (or Hercules in Roman) performing one of his 12 deeds as the saviour of humanity[6].


Similarities between Heracles and Christ[7]:

• Both their mothers became pregnant through union with God (Alcmene/Zeus or Jupiter in Roman).
  
• Both had earthly fathers (Heracles' father was called Amphitryon).
  
• Both their parents made a trip from their hometown elsewhere where the son was born. Heracles' parents went from Mycenae to Thebes where he would be born.
  
• Both are known to hail from their parents' hometown even though they were born in a different town.
  
• Both nearly died as infants. Hera attempted to kill Heracles.
  
• Both were tempted before their ministry. Hermes took Heracles to a high mountain where the tempations happened.
  
• Both walked on water and raised someone from the dead (Alcestis in Heracles' case).
  
• Both had someone who betrayed them. Heracles' second wife Deianira caused his death and this horror led her to hang herself.
  
• Both died, resurrected and ascended to heaven.

HELLENISTIC JUDAISM (~200 B.C.)

It's thanks to this new breed of religious people that the stories of Christ came to be. Their interpretation of the OT gave rise to allegories found in the Gospel of Mark and the epistles of the early Christians. I have made numerous threads on this topic showing where various details about Jesus' life came from in the OT.

As we have seen, the life of Jesus is not one bit original. It can be said that the ideas are all similar to past religions, but ultimately the way in which the Jesus story gets told in detail comes from the OT and other documents around at the time (like Josephus' life and works). This is where the Jesus story gets its form.

Sources
[1]http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5095/5426972313_50704c0551_z.jpg
[2]http://edwardjayne.com/christology/mithra.html
[3]http://www.eyeofhorus.biz/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/IsisHorusMaryJesus.jpg
[4]http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5b.htm
[5]http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa5d.htm
[6]http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/heracles-199x300.jpg
[7]http://www.jesusgranskad.se/jesus_parallels.htm

Special pleading from Christians in 3....2....1....

One can only hope that they will see the light of day eventually.

(September 24, 2012 at 1:35 am)FallentoReason Wrote: One can only hope that they will see the light of day eventually.

If only...it's pretty dark in JP Holding's butt.

(September 24, 2012 at 1:35 am)FallentoReason Wrote: One can only hope that they will see the light of day eventually.

The light of Christ works fine for me.

(September 24, 2012 at 5:08 am)Godschild Wrote:

(September 24, 2012 at 1:35 am)FallentoReason Wrote: One can only hope that they will see the light of day eventually.

The light of Christ works fine for me.

Excellent refutation of the OP there GC.

You showed him!!

(September 24, 2012 at 1:28 am)teaearlgreyhot Wrote: Special pleading from Christians in 3....2....1....

(September 24, 2012 at 5:08 am)Godschild Wrote:

(September 24, 2012 at 1:35 am)FallentoReason Wrote: One can only hope that they will see the light of day eventually.

The light of Christ works fine for me.

BLAST OFF!

(September 24, 2012 at 5:08 am)Godschild Wrote:

(September 24, 2012 at 1:35 am)FallentoReason Wrote: One can only hope that they will see the light of day eventually.

The light of Christ works fine for me.

Or was that the light of Horus the KRST?

(September 24, 2012 at 5:49 am)Zen Badger Wrote:

(September 24, 2012 at 5:08 am)Godschild Wrote: The light of Christ works fine for me.

Excellent refutation of the OP there GC.

You showed him!!

It's about the best G-C can manage.

(September 24, 2012 at 12:58 am)FallentoReason Wrote: Similarities between Mithras and Christ/Christianity[2]:

• Both saved mankind by performing sacrificial deeds
  
• Both had virgin births in a sense. (Mithras was born as an adult out of a rock).
  
• Both Mithraism and Christianity celebrated the birth of their god on the winter solstice, the 25th of December according to the Julian calendar.
  
• Both told of a Last Supper linked with the blood sacrifice whose symbolic recreation by eating bread and wine provided salvation for all worshippers.
  
• Both told of a Last Supper linked with the blood sacrifice whose symbolic recreation by eating bread and wine provided salvation for all worshippers.
  
• Both emphasized purification through baptism, Mithraists by washing themselves in the blood of sacrificial oxen.
  
• Both featured secret temples located underground. For Christians it was a temporary expedient to avoid persecution, but for Mithraists it became a permanent institution.
  
• Both told of a major flood, in the case of Mithra through his having shot an arrow into a stone cliff to quench mankind's thirst. Unfortunately, the entire world's population was drowned in a flood produced by the water spout that gushed from the hole his arrow produced. One man alone (a Noah figure borrowed from the earlier Sumerian myth of Atrahasis) was warned in time and could therefore save himself and his cattle in an ark.
  
• Both the Old Testament and Mithraic legend told of the first human couple having been created.
  
• As opposed to other early religions, which consigned all the dead to an underworld, both Christianity and Zoroastrian dogma located hell in the underworld and heaven in the sky, where God was located.

Mithraism vaguely has its roots in Persia, but no descriptive writings show up until after Christ:
http://www.religionfacts.com/greco-roman...hraism.htm

Quote:The origins of Mithraism as a Roman cult are not fully understood. It clearly derives from ancient Persia in some way, but scholars are divided on whether the Roman cult is a westernized Persian religion or an essentially western religion with Persian trimmings.
The time period in which Mithraism flourished is better known, thanks to the archaeological evidence. The cult of Mithras appears suddenly in the 2nd century AD - hundreds of inscriptions begin appearing after 136 AD. It then died out with the rest of Greco-Roman paganism after the conversion of Constantine in the 4th century.

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica,

Quote:The most plausible hypothesis seems to be that Roman Mithraism was practically a new creation, wrought by a religious genius who may have lived as late as c. AD 100 and who gave the old traditional Persian ceremonies a new Platonic interpretation that enabled Mithraism to become acceptable to the Roman world.

A commentary:

Quote: (2) Some apparent similarities exist; but in a number of details it is quite probable that Mithraism was the borrower from Christianity. Tertullian about 200 could say: "hesterni sumus et omnia vestra implevimus" ("we are but of yesterday, yet your whole world is full of us"). It is not unnatural to suppose that a religion which filled the whole world, should have been copied at least in some details by another religion which was quite popular during the third century. Moreover the resemblances pointed out are superficial and external. Similarity in words and names is nothing; it is the sense that matters. During these centuries Christianity was coining its own technical terms, and naturally took names, terms, and expressions current in that day; and so did Mithraism. But under identical terms each system thought its own thoughts. Mithra is called a mediator; and so is Christ; but Mithra originally only in a cosmogonic or astronomical sense; Christ, being God and man, is by nature the Mediator between God and man. And so in similar instances. Mithraism had a Eucharist, but the idea of a sacred banquet is as old as the human race and existed at all ages and amongst all peoples. Mithra saved the world by sacrificing a bull; Christ by sacrificing Himself. It is hardly possible to conceive a more radical difference than that between Mithra taurochtonos and Christ crucified. Christ was born of a Virgin; there is nothing to prove that the same was believed of Mithra born from the rock. Christ was born in a cave; and Mithraists worshipped in a cave, but Mithra was born under a tree near a river. Much as been made of the presence of adoring shepherds; but their existence on sculptures has not been proven, and considering that man had not yet appeared, it is an anachronism to suppose their presence.

In short, these “similarities” appeared right about when Christianity itself was gaining traction. With no concrete events to back them up, it seems to be an attempt to make Mithraism more appealing to the Roman world, riding on the popularity of Christianity.

(September 24, 2012 at 12:58 am)FallentoReason Wrote: Similarities between Horus and Christ[4][5]:

• Both begotten Sons of the Father (Osiris in Horus' case).
  
• Mothers: Isis-Meri -> Horus, Mary -> Jesus
  
• Earthly fathers: Seb (aka Jo-Seph) -> Horus, Joseph -> Jesus
  
• Both of royal descent.
  
• Both mothers were told by an angel of their son-to-be.
  
• Birth heralded by: Sirius (the morning star) -> Horus, "star in the East" -> Jesus.
  
• Both have their birthdays celebrated during the winter solstice.
  
• Death threat during infancy: Herut -> Horus, Herod -> Jesus
  
• Both have no data of life events between ages 12-30
  
• Baptism location: river Eridanus -> Horus, river Jordan -> Jesus
  
• Baptiser: Anup the Baptiser -> Horus, John the Baptist -> Jesus.
  
• Both transfigured on a mountain.
  
• Both were referred to as Christ i.e. the anointed one (KRST for Horus).
  

Horus has his birth in a book written by English poet Gerald Massey. Practically nothing is known of the ancient Horus but, like Dan Brown, this fiction writer has managed to spread his lies to anyone who will believe them:
http://stupidevilbastard.com/2005/01/end..._of_horus/

(September 24, 2012 at 12:58 am)FallentoReason Wrote: Similarities between Heracles and Christ[7]:

• Both their mothers became pregnant through union with God (Alcmene/Zeus or Jupiter in Roman).
  
• Both had earthly fathers (Heracles' father was called Amphitryon).
  
• Both their parents made a trip from their hometown elsewhere where the son was born. Heracles' parents went from Mycenae to Thebes where he would be born.
  
• Both are known to hail from their parents' hometown even though they were born in a different town.
  
• Both nearly died as infants. Hera attempted to kill Heracles.
  
• Both were tempted before their ministry. Hermes took Heracles to a high mountain where the tempations happened.
  
• Both walked on water and raised someone from the dead (Alcestis in Heracles' case).
  
• Both had someone who betrayed them. Heracles' second wife Deianira caused his death and this horror led her to hang herself.
  
• Both died, resurrected and ascended to heaven.

Heracles’ “similarities” are incidental and few. Their births are polar opposites—God never came in contact with Mary, while Heracles ermerged out of rape. Both had earthly fathers, but so did a hundred other half-bloods in Greek mythology. Heracles is nothing special. He is a plot device to link the gods to the people. Jesus was man for a purpose—he had to be human to save mankind from their sin. The rest of the similarities aren’t too impressive. Heracles being a hero, toying with death, being betrayed—these are all human themes.
It’s highly doubtful that Jews use a pagan religion for ideas, and even less likely for them to believe it. In the end, they believed because of all the prophecies fulfilled by Christ—prophecies written before Heracles and other challenging legends.

(September 24, 2012 at 12:58 am)FallentoReason Wrote: I have made numerous threads on this topic showing where various details about Jesus' life came from in the OT.

They should complement each other. That does not mean one came from the other. Rather, the fact one fulfills the other shows how diligent the authors would have had to have been in order to fabricate the NT. Other Holy Books don’t bother with fulfilled prophecies—the Quran has zero apart from self-fulfilled predictions like Muhammad promising to return to Mecca. Christ fulfills at least 351.