Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Is it time for Horus to ruin Christmas yet?

Soon I suppose we will once again hear how the narrative of Jesus' birth (and death and resurrection) was all stolen from existing pagan mythologies.

Get ready for Horus to drop in this season!



"We should not be surprised when people reject proof of Christ's resurrection in favor of demonstrable lies that let them remain in unbelief."

For a more scholarly presentation, here is Dr. William Lane Craig:



As it turns out, those pre-Christian deities aren’t much like Jesus after all. And in many cases, they are not pre-Christian at all. Skeptics of Christian faith say that the story of Jesus is not much different from scores of pagan religious stories about savior figures.

However, experts in the field are not making this claim. Professor Norman Geisler of Loyola University explains, “No Greek or Roman myth spoke of a literal incarnation of a monotheistic God into human form by way of a literal virgin birth, followed by his death and physical resurrection.” Furthermore, “Most of the evidence for the alleged similarities from the pagan myths date between the second to fourth centuries,” long after the New Testament had been written.

Nor were such stories very common at all. Only about fifteen such ancient stories are identified by claimants. British scholar Norman Anderson argues,
The basic difference between Christianity and the mysteries is the historic basis of one and the mythological character of the others. The deities of the mysteries were no more than ‘nebulous figures of an imaginary past,’ while the Christ whom the [apostles] proclaimed had lived and died only a few years before the first New Testament documents were written.
As Peter told the people of Jerusalem on Pentecost, you know this Jesus of whom I speak. Peter was not referring to a mythical figure of a hazy, distant past, but one whom his hearers had known personally.

Furthermore, “Most of the evidence for the alleged similarities from the pagan myths date between the second to fourth centuries,” [link] long after the New Testament had been written. If anything, most of those ancient myths are likely based on Jesus rather than the other way round.

See also,
Those Pre-Christian Deities Aren’t Much Like Jesus After All

Reasons to disbelieve that Jesus rose from the dead

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