CS_Grad

Just wondering...

I know the scholarship of "The Worlds 16 Crucified Saviors" has been called into serious question. Since my study of comparitive religion is lacking, which older religions did the New Testiment borrow from. I'm familiar with Mithra and Zoroaser, but what exactly was borrowed and what are some of the other religions?

Thanks in advance from a newbie to the forum.

sighhswolf

A lot of people dont agree with some of her
ideas and she is controversial, but Acharya S.. has a very complete listing of most if not all of the myths that have been compared to the Jesus story, and the side by side comparisons are very well done.

"The origins of Christianity and the Quest for the Historical Jesus Christ."
Acharya S. web site " www.truthbeknown.com "

At least her web site is written in a very entertaining manner and not dry to the bone like "The Jesus Mysteries" Earls site.

The Secular Web Library is one of the best places to find information quickly and get you started in the right direction, anyway.

Richards work is there along with Robert Price, Scott Oser
Earl Doherty contemporary writers and researchers. There is also plenty of information from historical writers.

I really enjoy the library, because you can access information very quickly, or you can
find the volumes that you need for research.

Course you could always just go to the Skeptics Annotated Bible, at the named URL.

Cute Little Baby

Chrisianity in general is an irrational, absurd philosophy, as most all skeptics know, but skepticism itself is not perfect - Acharya_S is a complete idiot who is neither well versed in what she is talking about or even half way sane, and, to a lesser extent, so are most of the people who spout the crap about Jesus being nonexistent and directly plagiarized from pagan myths, including oxygen theives like Kersey Graves. Mithras was NOT born of a virgin, seen by shepards, or placed in a tomb that was later found empty, and none of the pagan Gods died to save humanity, or even had deaths that were greatly similar to Jesus' cricifiction. Some similarities in the Jesus story can be seen in Pagan legends (such as that of Hercules), and I suppose a couple of Jesus' miracles may bear more than a passing resemblance to popular pagan miracles at or before the time of the Gospels being written (his healing of the blind man by spitting in his eyes, for example, probably was influenced by the similar tale told of Emperor Vespasian, which supposedly happened around 70 A.D.), but tons of the Jesus nonsense in the Gospels is original, and tons of the 'Pagan Christ' nonsense is, well, just plain nonsense, that should be taken with a dumptruck full of salt. The 'Christ is a mythical Pagan God ripoff' argument is to history what Young Earth Creationism is to Paleontology. In other words: its complete B.S.

I suppose you could check out Jesus: One Hundred Years Before Christ or even The Jesus Mysteries : Was the 'Original Jesus' a Pagan God? if you want to find out more info on the various theories of Jesus being plagiarized from other religions ideas, teachings and Gods, though you should still be cautious of believing a great deal of what they say.

Boshko

Well the influences of Zoroastrianism on Christianity come mostly via Judaism. Judaism underwent a lot of changes during the Babylonian Exile and a lot of these were picked up from the local Zoroastrians (largely such ideas as Satan not being a servent of God and the concept of an "end time" I think).