Quote:
Originally posted by Windy Willow:
<strong>I have a question, If Christianity is patterned after the myths of resurrected godmen "mystery religions" (Adonis, Dionysus, Cybele and Attis, Isis and Osiris). Then at what point was Christianity taken literally. How did it make the jump? How could the people of the first and second century that knew about the myths of resurrected godmen "mystery religions" be fooled into believe Christianity literally? Were they forced be "government"? I can see that Christianity was influenced by pagan thought but I don't understand why so many people in the beginning four centuries of the first millennium were tricked. Can some one clear this up?!</strong>
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Dear Windy,
Your answer would be found in a history of Christiany.
Here is an excerpt why Christianity became a main rival to other pagan religions. You are aware of course the Catholics/Orthodox upon gaining power purged BOTH non-Orthodox Christian and pagan sects out of existance(they let Jews "live" so that some would be around to witness Jesus' Second Coming")
Here is an excerpt of causes of the rise of Christianity
Quote:
Advantages of Christianity over Other Religions
Moral Causes:
...Christianity emerged at a time when the hellenistic world was already moving in a direction towards monotheism.-- Platonic philosophy had postulated an almighty Creator of the universe who dwelled in heaven. Evil powers were believed to control the lower levels of the universe, including the earth. Christians and Greek Platonists found that they shared a common basis of morals.
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When the pagan critic Celsus debated Origen, he accused Jesus of being just "another" magician. Origen admitted that there were other magicians who appeared to have similar powers to Jesus.-- But Origen argued it was Jesus' MORAL teachings that distinguished him from the other miracle workers! According to Origen, Jesus, "by the things he does, calls the spectators to moral reformation, or teaches the fear of God to those astounded by the show."
Pagans and Jews greatly criticized Christians because it emphasized FAITH as opposed to ALSO insisting that the believer perform GOOD WORKS. This meant that the more base elements of the population that were either lazy or unscrupulous (even ruthless) could be tempted to convert to Christianity because it promised them the MOST rewards for the least effort.
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Another distinct moral advantage Christians had over the mystery religions, was its leaders' DETERMINATION that ALL other religions (even RIVAL Christian sects) were really worshipping demons! This meant that belonging to another religion was the most heinous sin possible--for which the guilty were assured of being punished with eternal damnation in hell! Only Orthodox Christianity represented the TRUE religion, and worshiped the one God according to His commandments. Only Orthodoxy could offer eternal life in heaven, to those who professed faith in its dogmas. Even GOOD WORKS was not sufficient. Instead it was vital that everyone profess FAITH in the creeds of the Orthodox Church.
*** With so much at stake, Orthodox Christians felt justified in conducting purges against anyone (including other Christian sects) who disagreed with them. ***
The other mystery cults apparently did NOT consider it a sin to be a member of a competing mystery religions-- and indeed some adherents appear to have been members of more than ONE mystery cult. Probably, the belief in MANY gods made pagans relatively more tolerant to groups that worshiped different gods than themselves. That is, pagans were generally willing to compromise with groups who wished to worship their own local deities, as long as they added the "official" state gods to their own list.
Historical Causes:
Christians could point to their founder Jesus as a real HISTORICAL person who had lived within recent centuries. Many of the mystery religion gods, such as Osiris and Mithra purportedly lived much further ago in time--and therefore could be easily attacked as mythological.
Christians also used the historical, well-respected bible of the Jews, to claim that their ancient prophets had PREDICTED Jesus Christ.
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Social-Economic Causes:
Christianity was, no doubt, the most EGALITARIAN of all the religions of this time--being open to ALL members of society--including rich and poor, men and women, master and slave.
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from:
<a href="http://mac-2001.com/philo/crit/SUCCESS.TXT" target="_blank">http://mac-2001.com/philo/crit/SUCCESS.TXT</a>
or Section V, Chapter 3 from:
<a href="http://mac-2001.com/philo/crit/index.html" target="_blank">http://mac-2001.com/philo/crit/index.html</a>
[ October 12, 2002: Message edited by: Sojourner553 ]</p>
10-12-2002, 06:45 PM
