Christianity is an ancient Pagan religion.
http://www.pocm.info/getting_started_pocm.html
You'll discover that ancient cultures around the Mediterranean shared
standard ideas about Gods and their powers and place in the universe=97
and that Christianity simply adopted those ideas, and applied them to
Jesus.
Christianity was a product of its time and place.
Greg
Isis and child
Mary and child
is about a question you probably never thought about: Did
Christianity borrow ideas from other religions? If you're like me, you
grew up thinking it didn't. We were taught Christianity began with a
big bang=97with Jesus. Jesus changed the world with ideas about God that
were new and revolutionary.
It ain't so. Our Christianity doesn't come from Jesus and a big bang.
It comes from the accumulation of legends and theologies by people who
believed in Jesus. The origin of those ideas wasn't Jesus. The origin
was the myths, legends, philosophies, prejudices, literature,
superstitions, and primitive cosmology of ancient western culture.
Christianity was a product of its time and place.
That's what POCM is about.
Jesus, third century AD
We'll start thinking about Christian borrowing by asking a simple
question:
By what criteria can we decide what ancient godman stories were new
and original, and what ancient godman stories were myths built up from
the religious ideas of their day?
Here's what I mean..
Athens, sixth century BC
Don't believe Greg. Click the thumbnails to see the ancient evidence.
<< When Osiris is said to bring his believers eternal life in Egyptian
Heaven, contemplating the unutterable, indescribable glory of God, we
understand that as a myth.
When the sacred rites of Demeter at Eleusis are described as bringing
believers happiness in their eternal life, we understand that as a
myth. >>
<< In fact, when ancient writers tell us that in general ancient
people believed in eternal life, with the good going to the Elysian
Fields and the not so good going to Hades, we understand that as a
myth.
<< When Vespatian's spittle healed a blind man, we understand that as
a myth.
When Apollonius of Tyana raised a girl from death, we understand that
as a myth. >>
<< When the Pythia , the priestess at the Oracle at Delphi, in Greece,
prophesied, and over and over again for a thousand years, the
prophecies came true, we understand that as a myth.
When Dionysus turned water into wine, we understand that as a myth.
When Dionysus believers are filled with atay, the Spirit of God, we
understand that as a myth. >>
<< When Romulus is described as the Son of God, born of a virgin, we
understand that as a myth.
When Alexander the Great is described as the Son of God, born of a
mortal woman, we understand that as a myth. >>
=2E
Mr. A. Great
<< When Augustus is described as the Son of God, born of a mortal , we
understand that as a myth. woman
When Dionysus is described as the Son of God, born of a mortal woman,
we understand that as a myth. >>
<< When Scipio Africanus (Scipio Africanus, for Christ's sake) is
described as the Son of God, born of a mortal woman, we understand
that as a myth.
So how come when Jesus is described as
the Son of God,
born of a mortal woman,
according to prophecy,
turning water into wine,
raising girls from the dead, and
<-------- healing blind men with his spittle,
and setting it up so His believers got eternal life
in Heaven contemplating the unutterable, indescribable glory of God,
and off to Hades=97er, I mean Hell=97for the bad folks...
how come that's not a myth?
And how come, in a culture with all those Sons of God, where miracles
were science, where Heaven and Hell and God and eternal life and
salvation were in the temples, in the philosophies, in the books, were
dancing and howling in street festivals, how come we imagine Jesus and
the stories about him developed all on their own, all by themselves,
without picking up any of their stuff from the culture they sprang
from, the culture full of the same sort of stuff?
POCM answers these questions by looking at what ancient people wrote
about ancient religion. What the ancient evidence will show you is
that ancient western culture had conventional ideas about Gods and
their powers and place in the universe. Christianity adopted those
ideas.
Ancient Pagans believed in various levels of divinity, with miraculous
powers, coming down and going up to its home in the sky. Divine beings
cared about people, listened to and answered their prayers. Gave them
the power to prophesy. Even gave them a better deal in the eternal
life that comes after death.
Christianity is a product of it's time and place. Christianity is an
ancient Pagan religion.
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