The Origins of Christianity

Ban yourself, you closed-minded person (sorry don't know your sex). As I said, I believe it was a good faith (but entirely too expansive) response to a question. I doubt you even looked at the link that was given. At first I too thought it was a biblical reference, but its not. I was ready to trash it as another bible thumping rampage, but its not. Its some other book thumping rampage. It is surely not a biblical reference.sorry I think I posted this to the wrong forum. But as I'm new here I really didn't know how. I just wanted to make sure that the closed minded person above read it and could reply.This message has been edited by entwine, 07-26-2004 02:15 AMThis message has been edited by entwine, 07-26-2004 02:17 AM

I am sorry whatever I am not looking to be preached at (I get enough of that from my family) I asked for research. The Bible proves NOTHING. Sorry to say your Beliefs also mean NOTHING (to me) without facts to back it up. It might do you good to do this research with me. Unless you have facts to back up your book it still means NOTHING! Saying that Christ was prophesied early in the Bible proves NOTHING (which it doesn't you people twist it to mean that). I am looking for facts not your little story book (which is what it is until it has facts).

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My site The Atheist BibleMy New Debate Fourms!

thank you very much. That is exactly what I needed

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My site The Atheist BibleMy New Debate Fourms!

Are you looking for origins of Christianity or of the Judaic faith? Are you looking for the precursors to many of the books in the old testament, the other religions that were contemporay too or preceeded the Bible?Are you looking for the history of the development of Christianity? The milestones and significant events that lead to modern Christianity?Just not sure what it is you are looking for.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

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Originally posted by entwine

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Seems everything new is borrowed. But I wonder who the borrowers took from.

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"Our forefathers in the most remote ages have handed down to their posterity a tradition, in the form of a myth, that these (celestial) bodies are gods and that the divine encloses the whole of nature. The rest of the tradition has been added later in mythical form . . .; they say that these gods are in the form of men or like some of the other animals . . . But if one were to separate the first point from these additions and take it alone - that they thought the first substances to be gods, one must regard this as an inspired utterance, and reflect that, while probably each art and each science has often been developed as far as possible and has again perished, these opinions, with others, have been preserved until the present like relics of the ancient treasure."Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book Lambda (1074,b)

the Topic's title was "Pagan Christianity". I was mainly looking for the borrowed stories of the New testament. However I would be interested in that as well.

I'm not sure if this is off topic so please don't be mad. I was reading the "The Da Vinci Code" and came upon a chapter that talked about some ideas of where some of the rituals and ideas of Christiany possibly originating from Pagan roots so I searched some sites.http://www.iranvision.com/mithras.html
From this site I found:

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Link to Christianity

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As Christianity gathered momentum and eventually became the Roman Empires state religion, Mithraism was not tolerated. The Apologist saw it as a satanic transversity of the holiest rites of their religion. Nevertheless Catholicism has preserved some of the outer form of Mithraism to name some; the timing of Christmas, Bishops adaptation of miters as sign of their office, Christians priests becoming Father despite Jesus specific proscription of the acceptance of such title. The Mithraic Holy father wore a red cap and garment and a ring, and carried a shepherd's staff. The Head Christian adopted the same title and outfitted himself in the same manner. While the outer appearance of Mithraism can be detected in Catholicism, some traces of the inner teachings of Mithraism can be found in Sufisim, therefore study of Sufisim allows a new insight into Mithraism, and possibly vise versa.

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Belief Systems

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The faithful referred to Mithras as "the Light of the World", symbol of truth, justice, and loyalty. He was mediator between heaven and earth and was a member of a Holy Trinity. The worshippers of Mithras held strong beliefs in a celestial heaven and an infernal hell. They believed that the benevolent powers of the god would sympathize with their suffering and grant them the final justice of immortality and eternal salvation in the world to come. They looked forward to a final day of judgment in which the dead would resurrect, and to a final conflict that would destroy the existing order of all things to bring about the triumph of light over darkness. Purification through a ritualistic baptism was required of the faithful, who also took part in a ceremony in which they drank wine and ate bread to symbolize the body and blood of the god. Sundays were held sacred, and the birth of the god was celebrated annually on December the 25th. After the earthly mission of this god had been accomplished, he took part in a Last Supper with his companions before ascending to heaven, to forever protect the faithful from above. However, it would be a vast oversimplification to suggest that Mithraism was the single forerunner of early Christianity. Aside from Christ and Mithras, there were plenty of other deities (such as Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, Balder, Attis, and Dionysus) said to have died and resurrected. Many classical heroic figures, such as Hercules, Perseus, and Theseus, were said to have been born through the union of a virgin mother and divine father. Virtually every pagan religious practice and festivity that couldn't be suppressed or driven underground was eventually incorporated into the rites of Christianity as it spread across Europe and throughout the world.

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I was also interested in this site: http://www.litjournal.com/docs/fea_pagan2.html

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In the Roman cultic version, Mythras was a sun-god born miraculously in a cave. The miracle pointed to future miraculous accomplishments (not unlike Horus or Jesus). His birthday was celebrated with the kindling of lights just after the winter solstice: namely December 25--a date that was considered as well to be that of the birth of the sun. Early Christian celebrated Jesus’ birth on January 6, currently the date of the feast of the Epiphany. January 6, by the way, may have also been a holdover from more ancient rites, as it was considered the date of the birth of Osiris. Christmas was later moved to December 25.

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I'm new to the forums so if I'm doing somethings wrong, please warn me so I could quit doing them. Thanks.This message has been edited by Tel Rinsiel, 08-10-2004 06:42 PM

Welcome Tel Rinsiel,I don't see that you're doing anything wrong. Your post seems to be exactly the type of information that DC85 was looking for.For future reference here is a link to some helpful formating info. Please be sure to also read our Forum Guidelines.Once again, welcome to EvC.

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