Marduk

�Do you mean like Franz Cumont, the devout Catholic, who had to keep repeating again and again throughout his seminal work The Mysteries of Mithra that although what he found out about Mithra matched the stories of Jesus, �


Huh? Wasn�t Mithra the one who killed a bull and made humanity from bull�s blood? I don�t recall �Jesus the bullfighter�
And wasn�t Mithra made from a rock or something to that effect? I thought Jesus had a mommy.

�Many of the dying/rising gods are seasonal occurrences from agrarian societies celebrating a harvest and have nothing to do with the Jesus/Jewish tradition of atonement etc.
Which is utter nonsense. The Jesus stories aren't Jewish.�

They�re more of a Jewish tradition (skapegoat, putting your sins on something else) than annual dying/rising harvest gods like Ishtar. The Jewish Prophets hated these types of gods, especially Ishtar, In the Jesus story he only died and rose once, it wasn't a yearly event and had nothing to do with crops.
Many of the people who write such books are Sitchinesque hacks who are experts by their authority only.
I still think If you want to know about Mithra or Osiris read a book by an Egyptologist or someone familiar with Mithra, not an english major who doesn�t like Christianity.

The Mithra/Chistianity business was discussed a few months ago in BC&A by one of our very own, I tried the search function but came up empty unfortunately, the gist was that the two religions were so close in time that it�s hard to say who �copied� who and they weren�t all that similar.

Evoken

The christ-myhers thing is a profitable new age trend it seems, people making money out of trashing Christianity.

They just spread misinformation about Christianity AND about the other religions they twist and distort to fit their agenda.

I could use some money..I should start writting some christ-mists!

Biff the unclean

Marduk Huh? Wasn�t Mithra the one who killed a bull and made humanity from bull�s blood? I don�t recall "Jesus the bullfighter"
Oddly enough that bull scene was carved on the original "Throne of Saint Peter" on which the Pope sat until about 1600 when it was replaced by the present throne

And wasn�t Mithra made from a rock or something to that effect? I thought Jesus had a mommy.
Depends on which sect of Mithraism you are talking about. One has him being born from virgin rock of which he claimed "Upon this rock I shall found my church." At which point he was taken in and raised by shepherds who were tending their flocks. These guys called him "The good shepherd."

They�re more of a Jewish tradition (skapegoat, putting your sins on something else) than annual dying/rising harvest gods like Ishtar.
You do know that one spelling of Ishtar is Easter? And that the famous image of Mary holding the crucified Jesus in her lap is actually the classical image of Easter holding the slain Adonis in her lap for three days as she resurrects him.

The Jewish Prophets hated these types of gods, especially Ishtar,
My point exactly.

In the Jesus story he only died and rose once, it wasn't a yearly event and had nothing to do with crops.
And yet Jesus dies and returns from the dead on exactly the same days that the Hellenistic Gods did. The Christians didn't even bother to change the name of the holy day.
Only Apis, IIRC, died and was reborn each year. The other demigods had their resurrections reenacted each year. Easter, who has the direction named after her, was the Goddess of the dawn so the pagans would hold sunrise services on that day to welcome Adonis (Tammuz) back to life.
You could make a better case about Christians not doing the same thing if it weren't presently Lent.

Many of the people who write such books are Sitchinesque hacks who are experts by their authority only.
It is dangerous to attack Christianity and it is almost impossible to find a publisher will to print such books.

I still think If you want to know about Mithra or Osiris read a book by an Egyptologist or someone familiar with Mithra, not an english major who doesn�t like Christianity.
If you will look at the source I stated for Mithra you would find that Dr Franz Cumont was eminently qualified and did most of the groundbreaking research himself. He was also a devout Roman Catholic and so well versed in Christian tradition that I would not have known half the cases he points out. And please note that Cumont only points out the similarities in order to deny them. The reason he is so sure that Christianity did not copy Mithraism is because it is real and Mithra a myth.
Joseph Campbell also covers Mithra quite a bit.
What authors have you read on Mithra?

� the gist was that the two religions were so close in time that it�s hard to say who �copied� who and they weren�t all that similar.
Mithra is one of a group of Vedic gods:Indra, Mitra, Varuna and the two Ashvins. And that's about as old as you can get. "Modern" Mithraism which changes him from a messenger to a savior was a Zoroastrian heresy which puts it at about 550 BCE. Sects, like Mithra Tauroctonus and the Sol invictus, did split off after this but there is no doubt--save that concocted by Christian Apologists--as to which the far older religion.

Biff the unclean

I think that one of the things that points directly at the Gospels being copied from Dionysian and Mithrian tradition and not the other way around are all the Gospels that didn't copy them.
Until well into the 300's there were many more Gospels than we have remaining today. They all copy from older religions too, but they used different religions. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the Pistis Sophia draw from the religion of the Vestals. The Acts of John and The Gospel of Thomas use the Docetic doctrines of Mayhayana Buddhism. The so called Gnostic Gospels come from Hellenistic Gnosticism which predates Christianity by a couple of hundred years in Northern Africa.
Mithraism was the primary faith of the Legions. Dionysus' center of worship was Byzantium aka Constantinople. Not too hard to understand why the Gospels that survived, did.

Heurismus

One more good site I'll add to the list, Thanks for that one.
And all the other comments too. I should have added; the Hellenes are also an important area for so many other things, like studying State religion and the political connections too.