nizari

Among young people of the internet generation, there is this notion that Christianity is influenced by pagan religions. This idea was made popular by the movie Zeitgeist, by Chris Crocker. IN the movie, Crocker lays out numerous links between the idea of Christ as a savior and ancient pagan religions, namely Coptic and Hellenic religions.

Most of Crocker's documentary is influenced by a book called "The Christ Conspiracy" by Acharya S. Crocker often quotes directly from the book, and all the ideas in the book are found in the documentary.

"The Christ Conspiracy" was a book based on the work of Col. James Churchward, who wrote numerous books and traveled extensively. Col. James Churchward's work focuses on the idea that human kind came from the same highly advanced super race called the Children of Mu. He theorized that there was a continent of Mu that sunk under the sea, like the story of Atlantis, and that Jesus Christ was on of the Children of Mu, a being with great power. Using his own brand of Astrology and history, Col. James Churchward established a link between all ancient religions in order to show that all divine traditions were offshoots of one original religion found on the continent of Mu.

In the Christ conspiracy, Acharya S. quotes and misquotes James Churchward in order to arrive at her own theory that all religions stem from the same superstition, particularly Christianity.

(the youtube video below was made by J Churchward's grandson in order to address the misquotations of Acharya S. in her book 'The Christ Conspiracy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeDplt0ISSw

Churchward's scholarship is not taken seriously. He has no material evidence to support his ideas, and his astrology and his history is mostly wrong, factually incorrect. Some accuse him of writing fiction but pretending it's real in order to sell books.

Acharya S. is even more guilty of scholarly mischief then Churchward is. She flagrantly takes Churchward himself out of context to prove her ideas, a blatant abuse of scholarly integrity. On top of this, Churchward himself, her main source of ideas, is not credible either.

An example of how bad this scholarship is. We will take one idea and examine it:

"Horus was the son of Osiris, born to the virgin Isis on December 25th, 3 kings followed a star in the east to find him. He had a somewhat shady childhood until around age 30 when he got baptized and began traveling around with his 12 apostles. He was later crucified and resurrected after 3 days."

Isis was never seen as a virgin. She was a god of magic, flesh (mortality) and fertility. She was the wife and sister of Osiris.

Horus was born to Osiris, but there is no tradition that has December 25th (the solstice) as his birthday.

There is no tradition in which Horus was ever killed, nor resurrected. Osiris was slain by Seth, or Set, and then Set was castrated by Horus in revenge. In some Hellenic mystery religions, Horus is seen as a sort of representation of the Spirit of Osiris, but these Hellenic Mystery religions come much later then Coptic Orthodox Horus myths, and still say nothing about apostles, virgins or December 25th.

Horus never had apostles. The word "apostle" comes from the Greek term that means "one sent out."

When Set killed Osiris, he cut him up into many peaces, and scattered the body parts all over the world. Isis, using her powers as a sorceress, traveled around for many years to find the scattered pieces so that she could unite his body again. When Osiris was united whole, the overlord god Ra gave him the gift of being overlord of the Underworld.

"Isis had Osiris' body returned to Egypt after his death; Set had retrieved the body of Osiris and dismembered it into 14 pieces which he scattered all over Egypt. Thus Isis went out to search for each piece which she then buried. This is why there are many tombs to Osiris. The only part she did not find in her search was the genitals of Osiris which were thrown into a river by Set. She fashioned a substitute penis after seeing the condition it was in once she had found it and proceeded to have intercourse with the dead Osiris which resulted in the conception of Horus the child."

Slammed.

GakuseiDon

This is all part of what is known as "diabolical scholarship mimicry". Devilishly inept authors used "plagiarism by anticipating 19th C works being out of copyright" to copy 100 year-old non-sourced claims of parallels between the Jesus story and pagan myths.

schilling.klaus

no, that 19th century scholarship is accurate,
as opposed to modern mainline scholars
who have absolutely no clue about Christian origins.

Klaus Schilling

matthewthomas

Thank you. I've been having a bad day and just had a huge rant about decling stadards in my current university (always going to put me in a foul mood), and (from the title) was expecting this thread to be another spouting of barely cogent nonsense about how Jesus was really a re-write, or whatever, of some entirely different Egyptian ideas. Fortunately, I was pleasantly mistaken.

Matthew

Toto

There is a thread on Acharya's sources for Zeitgeist here. Her latest Companion Guide appears to pay more attention to details, and she avoids the mistakes about Horus/Osiris that you list.

I checked the Christ Conspiracy on Google Books, and Churchward is quoted a few times, but it seems a stretch to say that his ideas were the basis of the CC, or even a major influence. At one point, Acharya S calls him "naive."

More on Churchward here.

Acharya S. does rely more on an Albert Churchward, author of "Origin and Evolution of Religion"

ApostateAbe

Normally, atheists have the intellectual high ground over Christians, which is the way it should be. When it comes to claims made by Acharya S, Christians have the intellectual advantage. Nizari, most of us here are already aware of how dismal the Acharya S claims are. I invite you to take your criticisms to the source--Acharya S and her core adherents--at her forum, Truth Be Known Nation, where you see an Emperor Palpatine Pope representing the attitude of that group.

schilling.klaus

all nonsensical desinformation , Acharya S. is on the right way
concerning the greater picture,
and even if all details fail, that's infinitely more accurate than
those mainliners who naively stick to a historical Jesus or first
century gospels or authentic Paulines or Jewish origins of Christianity
or similar errors that make the understanding of Christianity impossible,
and all their scholarly detail work is thus hilarious.

Anyways Acharya S. is a pantheist, not an atheist.

Klaus Schilling

Jeffrey Gibson

To show this, would you please provide evidence from primary sources that show or claim that Horus was born on Dec. 25th.

Jeffrey

jules?

Horus could be logically connected with dec25th, Horus, the Hawk in a united land of several solar gods evolved into the young son god, rising in the morning like the hawk. this made up for Ra being another sun god who got pushed into the role of the sun in the evening with Osiris being the sun god travelling in the underworld to be reborn. although Ra also makes the trip. But anyway a solar god will have his day and the solstice is as good as any. And 25 is almost 21 so QED Horus was born on 25th dec [and the 26th and the 27th and the.....] but JC was not born on the 25th so where is the fuss? But he was taken down [get it?] from the cross at sun set. And his crown of thorns looks just like rays of the sun! Anybody thought of that? see it all makes sense. And Pliny's christians had their meetings at sunrise. Wow.


Christ the borrowed pagan solar god could be an explanation, it is a bit lame but who says it is any less plausible than a more complex, better researched and believable theory?

Jeffrey Gibson

So you say. But where's the primary evidence that he was.

Actually, they meet before sunrise, didn't they, and then again later in the day -- i.e., before and after work.

Wow.

Jeffrey