Jesusism - Just Another First Century Mystery Cult

[RoadRunner79]

Or perhaps you would prefer to talk about the OP and mystery religions.  I don't think that Christianity qualifies as a mystery religion.  Namely because it lacks the all important mystery (secretive) part from which it gets it's name.  Christianity doesn't promise secret knowledge upon initiation and advanced knowledge upon becoming a part of it.  Which in the case of the Mystery Religions leaves us with little knowledge about them.

From what I have gathered; apart from the argument from silence with imaginative editorializing (which we discussed before) this is the other of Carriers favored arguments.  However all I ever seen is loosely based comparison, that are reduced (or distorted) so much, to have little meaning.  Many of the comparisons to other god's are either inconsequential, so mundane as to be expected, or highly distorted.  And a number of them are not seen until after Christianity.  However, I do want to know if I am wrong, so let's dig into the meat of these claims, and examine them a little, and what follows or can be gathered from it!

Not concerning Carrier, but Gary Habernas commented on similar books and theories concerning mystery religions [Here]

The truth is that Allegro’s views are credible only to skeptics who already wish to find “evidence” to support their skepticism....

Unfortunately for skeptics, when Allegro’s theory—or that involving any other mystery tradition—is objectively examined and compared with Christianity, only superficial similarities remain because Christianity and the mystery religions are as distinct as night and day.Even secular scholars have rejected this idea of Christianity borrowing from the ancient mysteries. The well-respected Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard writes in Theories of Primitive Religion that “The evidence for this theory… is negligible.” Negligible is defined in Webster’s New World Dictio­nary as, that which “can be neglected or disregarded because small, unimpor­tant, etc.; trifling.”

When asked if other scholars agreed with his conclusions.

Habermas: Well, I think you going to have to agree to this extent: virtually nobody is going to say that the Christians copied off these ideas. That’s a pretty radical idea. You could find it a couple of decades ago with some of the Bultmannian ideas. You can find a hundred years ago with the history of religions movement of similarities and comparisons. Both have died death of a thousand qualifications. So in general, no one’s going to push the heathen accounts, but they want to get them on the table because they want to show you Jesus isn’t alone.

Personally I like, when he was talking about the differences of the Gospels occurring within history and current to those hearing

And I love the words of Plutarch, whose in his famous story of Isis and Osiris, he says, now listen don’t you guys think that this is a historical account, I’m telling you a story here, and he says that twice. So, I think that’s important that there’s a contrast. 

But as I said, if my information is wrong, I want to know... do you want to inspect these claims more closely and thoroughly?