TheChampion - 04 June 2008 02:45 PM
NoLongerDelusional - 04 June 2008 01:54 PM
go figure…chump didn’t make any retort to the facts listed.
What facts? Did anyone spout anything other than an insinuation that I was a bit obtuse for believing in those dusty old ancient scrolls pulled from caves, trenches, and holes in the ground.
(Have I spelled everything right?, can’t see without me glasses!)
Here, let me repost it…
It was a retort to your following remark:
But wait! We were here first. We got first dibs on the truth-o-meter. SHOTGUN…..there, we got the front seat. Billions of converts tells me that we can’t be wrong! The law of averages and statisical measures tells me that our universal belief in a God, in the real person of Jesus Christ, in the real person of the Holy Spirit, in the real belief of the rapture, 2nd coming, and all that, allllllllllllllllllllllllll these universal beliefs among millions of meek minded Christians, we can’t be wrong. WE CAN’T BE!
My retort:
Wrong again, as usual. Your limited and myopic reading has blinded you to facts.
First of all, the religion generally considered oldest is Hinduism…NOT Christianity. http://ask.yahoo.com/20011106.html
Further, there are many scholarly theories that Jesus was the result of blending many other myths.
Christianity drew heavily from other religions when created, including common themes such as resurrection, a December 25th birthday, communion, etc.
Here’s a brief snippet of what I’m referring to:
Predecessors and parallels
Further information: Comparative mythology
Further information: Pagan influences on Christianity
[edit] Myths in the ancient Roman, Hellenistic and Semitic world
Aspects of the Gospel stories of Jesus have parallels with life-death-rebirth gods in the widespread mystery religions prevalent in the Hellenistic culture amongst which Christianity was born. Closely related to this are mythemes of sacral kingship and “theophagy”, the eating of the body of a fertility god, traced by Walter Burkert to a neolithic fertility rite surrounding a god who needs to die and rise again in order to feed the community, sublimated in the Christian eucharist.
The central figure of one of the most widespread mysteries, Osiris-Dionysus, was consistently localised and deliberately merged with local deities in each area, since it was the mysteries which were imparted that were regarded as important, not the method by which they were taught. Other prominently cited parallels are with Tammuz, Horus and Mithras. Horus was one of the life-death-rebirth deities, and was connected and involved in the resurrection of Osiris, whose Egyptian name (Asar) is very similar to the root of Lazarus. In the view of some advocates of the Jesus Myth theory, most prominently Freke and Gandy in The Jesus Mysteries, Jewish mystics adapted their form of Osiris-Dionysus to match prior Jewish heroes like Moses and Joshua, hence creating Jesus.[1]
This can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_in_comparative_mythology
I read another article somewhere that did a better job of showing the parallels, but I can’t seem to remember where right now. I’ll find the source and cite it when I’m able.
The point is, Christianity was NOT first, it is not original in it’s ideologies nor its depiction of Christ-like deities.
Why don’t you do yourself a favor and read so you can effectively argue with facts, not myopic opinion.
Remember, there was a time when the entire world population believed the earth was flat…it was just accepted as truth.
Currently only about 33% of the world’s population is Christian.
Needless to say, if the entire world population was wrong about something observable, isn’t it highly probable that only 33% of the population could be wrong about something NOT observable. Of course.
Facts. They do exist, whether you like it or not.
best regards.
