even if it has pagan aspects, it is different from paganism.
why are the roots less glorious? Why do you think paganism is bad? Further, don’t most things develop out of other things, and those who do the developing and those who follow the develops tend to think of the developed thing as better?
that someone used a symbol, a similar one in this case, earlier, does not mean that the later use was derived from the earlier one. The later use can have developed for other reasons. AT the very least you need to demonstrate that Christians definitely derived their crucifix from the older cross.
'4) are you a theosophist? Is this why you are sure that Amen comes from ‘Amun’ (not as you said ‘Amen’)? This goes against what most scholars think and is not supported by the spelling of the word and its clear roots in Hebrew.
And as a pagan, sure, I find some stuff clearly taken from or influenced by paganism in Christianity. But that doesn’t make it paganism. Francis Bacon is not Velasquez or the same kind of painter either.
And astronomers refer often to planets and the sun. Does this make them astrologers, who, it seems, did this first?
Jesus was fisher of men. I don’t like fish. I am not a Christian.
The Zodiac symbol for Pisces is a pair of fish. I am a Gemini, which is symbolized by a pair of human children.
The Romans used to execute rebels on an upright cross. Railway crossings are marked by an X, with is a tilted cross. Trains were invented after Jesus died.
Christmas is celebrated at the winter solstice, just like all the pagan winter solstice holidays. This date was set in 336 Ad by Constantine, a Roman emperor who converted from paganism to Christianity.
Coincidence?
Well, maybe that last one.
The word “Amen” does go back a long way and some imagine, as you do, it is of pagan origin, as you described an Egyptian god called Amen-Ra.
It is not credible that God would invoke the name of a false pagan god.
Amen as described in Wikipedia, this excerpt is relevant to your description.
Etymology
Popular among some theosophists,[11] proponents of Afrocentric theories of history,[12] and adherents of esoteric Christianity [13][14] is the conjecture that amen is a derivative of the name of the Egyptian god Amun (which is sometimes also spelled Amen). Some adherents of Eastern religions believe that amen shares roots with the Hindu Sanskrit word, Aum.[15][16][17][18] Such external etymologies are not included in standard etymological reference works. The Hebrew word, as noted above, starts with aleph, while the Egyptian name begins with a yodh.
You might be, then, two fishermen. Your own religion in the offing?
Nevertheless Jesus got cross at the moneylenders and moneylenders were involved in the privitization of many countries railroads. Does this mean that Jesus would be cross at the current railroad companies or could we say he was crossed by them?
Lupercalia Eve. is Valentine’s Day. Lupercalia is a ritual cleansing of evil spirits. Is the urge to ask someone out caused by an evil spirit? Is modern love Pagan?
How can modern love have such an inglorious past?
Bush seems to have been a recent president of the US. But there have been bushes in existence for a long time. Does this mean that George Bush has plant roots? that he is not homo sapien?
Why aren’t Republicans hanging their heads in shame sort of like older sunflowers?
Christianity claims to be totally unpagan. Look at the Spanish Conquistadors and how they rudely wiped out the South American culture and their religion. Note - The Bible stories are just as savage, ruthless, and barbaric as any of the South American sacrificial ceremonies might have been. Christianity is just an arrogant and authoritarian religion which gives tyrants and nasty individuals a third party excuse to kill, murder and steal from other people.
That’s some pretty bad scholarship there. You may as well say Jesus is a sun God because the words Son and Sun are so similar. In fact, the same sorts of people that make these ‘pagan connections’ arguments DO say things like that, and it makes me giggle. The whole “Pagan origins of Christianity” argument dates from around the turn of the 20th Century, when we had a lot less historical information about the Gospels than we do now. It was more consistent with the evidence to believe that Jesus was a mythical figure who was deriviative of previous mythical figures. Historical knowledge has advanced since then, though, and we have solid evidence that Jesus was an actual guy who lived about when the Bible says he did, and was crucified and so on. Pretty much all the non-supernatural elements of his life have been confirmed. So trying to explain the origins of Christianity in terms of pagan myths is sort of a solution without a problem. It would be like saying Abraham Lincoln is ‘based on’ Moses. Real people aren’t based on things: if Jesus was crucified, then obviously there’s no explanation needed for where Christians get their cross symbolism from, or the connection between death and redemption, and etc.
It’s two perpendicular lines. It’s like a lot of things. Again, none of this matters because if Jesus was crucified, that event is obviously the reason Christians use a cross in their symbolism. It’s similarity to anything else is irrelvant.
Easter has nothing to do with fertility. What do you mean ‘most holidays are from’? The dates they are celebrated? Who cares? Seriously, what is the significance of what you’re saying? Christmas is celebrated kind of sort of near the solstice so therefore…what? Like I said in the previous post, this all loses it’s importance now that we’re in a post Jesus-myth society: the best explanation for Christian symbolism is the Gospel story it’s based on. Since that stuff happened, comparisons to previous symbols has no meaning.
… Easter has everything to do with fertility, it’s spring for one… which is the time for fertility and life… secondly, the egg… it represents being fertile, because it’s an egg and babies hatch out of eggs… and the rabbits, well… you can only imagine on your own what rabbits represent… well sex and multiplying. Plus kids like to chase them around and think they’re cute.
Christmas has it’s own story to how it originated, I don’t think it’s Christianities holiday either, nor is Halloween the birthday of Satan…
It did have to do with Rome and execution, but they got the symbol from a deity.
The significance is that Christians never came up with their own culture or traditions, they took old ones and morphed them into what they preferred, then took credit for such events/holidays when credit is not due to them. They twisted things from cultures into preferences that never meant what they were twisted into.
Eggs and rabbits aren’t Christian symbols, they’re secular symbols that are indeed based on pagan customs. Same with Christmas trees. You won’t find churches with rituals based around trees, eggs, and rabbits, nor will you find homilies on the important spiritual meaning of these things.
If the cross wasn’t used as a Christian symbol during the formation of Christianity, doesn’t that pretty much annihilate any argument that Christianity is ‘based on’ these preceding myths? You’re shooting yourself in the foot here.
Also, if you aren’t going to cite your source, I don’t care what they say about anything.
That's what happens when you have a religion that is based on actual historical events that occured, and the symbolism is of secondary importance at best. We're not talking about a 'faith' like Wicca where coming up with cool symbolism is literally the entirety of the content. Also, I think you need to think a little harder about what this process of 'morphing' and 'twisting' you're talking about is. The Christians ministered to a people that were celebrating a day in Spring using rabbits and eggs. The missionaries taught them about Jesus, and those people became Christians. Now they celebrate the Ressurection of Christ on that day instead, but they keep the rabbits and eggs around because it's a custom and the Church doesn't mind. Where is the sinister element there other than you desiring to paint it that way? Should the Christians have squashed all the eggs and killed all the rabbits and insisted the people celebrate with tombs and burial shrouds instead? That surely wouldn't have made you any happier about the whole thing.
It appears that you didn’t see either of the videos that I posted. They clearly explain all the facts about the Jesus myth and the deceptions of Christianity.
Son of God is a misinterpretation of ancient writings. It should be Sun of God. The 2 video’s explain that all the Biblical characters have similar sounding Pharaoh names which coincide exactly in the time line of history.
Again, it’s regurgitated bullshit from the early part of the 20th Century when we didn’t have as much evidence for the historicity of Jesus as we do now. I mean, aren’t you at least a little embarassed that you’re claiming “Sun” was mistaken for “Son” when Christianity had already been around for a thousand years before the language in which those two words are similar came to exist? Why would anybody mistake ἥλιος for υἱός, or ברא for ܫܡܫܐ?
It’s certainly true that Christianity stole a lot of stuff from Paganism. The mass, for example, in which the participants eat and drink the body and blood of their god, is lifted directly from the Pagan mystery religions. Similarly, the dying and resurrecting god at Easter is a very ancient motif.
Fundamentally, however, Christianity is not a Pagan religion, no matter how much it took from Paganism. No Pagan religion, for example, would ever seek to condemn followers of another god to hell, nor would it ever try to control the populace through guilt and sexual suppression. Like all monotheistic religions, Christianity is exclusivist, claiming to be the “one true way”, and that all the other “one true ways” are wrong.
So, while Chistianity does indeed have Pagan trappings, they are an empty shell, hiding an exclusivist monotheism.
Please quote from the 2 videos if you want to make a comment. You obviously still haven’t watched either video.
Religious people are blinded by their fanatical faith and can’t see what is in front of them. They have made up their mind long ago, and can’t be shifted, regardless of the evidence.
Here’s another video. Happy watching - Christians!
Actually I find that atheists tend to think their arguments make sense and are reasonable even if they are not, in fact, very logical and contain fallacies, not based on consensus scholarly opinion, and not supported by scientific evidence. Since I am not making psychic claims such as the one you are making here, I cannot say what your motivations/unconscious blocks are.
