ForeverSeeking

This is a long site, but I wonder if anyone has had this thrown at them on a Christian board?

It really depends on your studies of savior-myths. Anyone an expert in this area?

<a href="http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycat.html" target="_blank">http://www.christian-thinktank.com/copycat.html</a>

An interesting read either way

CX

I don't have the time or inclination to read the entire article so I may be jumping the gun, but on the whole I think parallels between Jesus/Xianity and other myths/Relgions ARE overstated. It is one thing to say that the Judeo-Xian mythos is informed by the culture in which it sprang up and represents a certain amount of syncretism. Certainly the early Israelites were not originally monotheistic as one example. It is another thing entirely to say that the entire Judeo-Xian story is derivative or that it is stolen in it's entirety from other sources. Nearly all human relgious systems have common elements because they all address common questions and issues faced by everyone. On the other hand it is jsut as untenable to say, as the apologist does, that Xianity is totally unique and that all similarities between it and other relgions are the result of them borrowing from Xianity or that they are "demonic fictions" that anticipate Christ as Irenaeus or some other church father said in so many words.

Jayhawker Soule

"but" nothing - it is a painfully long site. Does it contain anything specific that you wish to address?

[ August 20, 2002: Message edited by: ReasonableDoubt ]</p>

cloudyphiz

too many christians defer what should be their own thinking to sites like this. if you spend much time on the boards (and i think i've seen you at carm & apologetics.org) you'll see it happen all the time.

as for this particular article, i haven't read it. i can't stomach anything by glenn miller. for instance, this is from his<a href="http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qnoslave.html" target="_blank">page on the rationalization of biblical slavery</a>:

notice what he says: "Not only was abusive treatment of servants strictly forbidden, but the Law held masters very accountable!". yeah, if your definition of servant is 'someone you own as property (from the very next verse!!! which, of course, he so conveniently neglected to include...) and your definition of abusive treatment is beating someone so severely that they die immediately as a result. pardon my insolance, but this guy is an idiot.

-gary

Bede

A rather shorter and more scholarly piece on pagan copy cats (which sadly, I didn't write myself):

<a href="http://www.bede.org.uk/frazer.htm" target="_blank">Christianity and paganism</a>

Yours

Bede

<a href="http://www.bede.org.uk" target="_blank">Bede's Library - faith and reason</a>

Vorkosigan

The author of that site wrote:

• "I cannot think of a single case in which Christianity can be shown to have borrowed a core doctrine from another religion."

Apparently he has never heard of Judaism.

Vorkosigan

Anunnaki

Maybe Bede should have his mini Justin Martyr write the author of <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2132417419" target="_blank">this</a> book and straighten him out.

“There is strong reason to believe that St. Paul fabricated the belief system of Christianity from Zoroastrian mythology. In order to hide Paul’s plaigerism… Christians burned the library of Alexandria in 390 A.D. Books in that library kept Mithra’s original story of what Pauline Doctrine is an almost exact copy. (George Sarton , Introduction to History of Sciences)

I was doing a search on ebay this afternoon for On30 gauge model trains and somehow this book ended up in my search results. Looks interesting and goes well with this thread.

[ August 20, 2002: Message edited by: Anunnaki ]</p>

Steven Carr

Let me see what your scholarly author writes
.
Amongst others he writes about Lord Raglans basic story line of a mythical hero.

'There are serious problems with Raglan: in order to get mythical figures to fit his schema, you often have to cheat quite blatantly; and, in any case, real-life historical figures such as Hitler and Napoleon fit the pattern just as well as the ancient heroes whom he adduced.'

and your author continues

'Even Raglan's schema falls down on this point, most obviously because Jesus didn't marry a princess.'

So Bede's hero complains that Lord Raglan's scheme does not fit Jesus, because Jesus did not marry a princess, while also claiming that it fits Hitler and Napoleon.

Did Hitler marry a princess?

And , of course, the claim that Christianity borrowed nothing from Judaism is sheer stupidity, which makes me wonder about the intelligence of the author.

Has Bede's anonymous hero never seen the front half of a Bible?

Vinnie

Not all Christians believe Paul actually converted to "Christianity" in the modern sense. Paul was Jewish before and after Damascus Road.

I use Paul as an early example of an early "Christian" from a time when the "Jewish Cult" was just getting underway.

Vinnie

[ August 21, 2002: Message edited by: ilgwamh ]</p>

Steven Carr

Curiously, many Christian fundamentalists think many cultures have borrowed flood myths from Judaism, while denying that Christianity ever borrowed anything.

Glenn Miller himself :-
<a href="http://www.christian-thinktank.com/q4china.html" target="_blank">http://www.christian-thinktank.com/q4china.html</a>

I doubt if Glenn will apply the standards for proof here that he does to sceptical allegations of Christian borrowing.