How much of Christianity is based on Paganism?

It's a discussion even if your ideas a re rejected. You seem to think discussions are tings were everyone agrees with you.

I had sushi the other day. I'm out here in Seattle where you can get some pretty awesome cuts of meat. I've also had sushi in Japan. So it's fair to say that I've had a pretty full exposure to sushi. In the USA, you'll find many sushi items that you won't find in Japan. You'll see the use of some ingredients you won't see in Japan too.

I guess someone could argue that the Philly Roll is American. I think that's honest. Where the dishonesty would come however is if the person started to insist that the Philly Roll exists independent of the long history of sushi and that Japan has nothing to do with the Philly Roll.

I'm not arguing that Philly Rolls are inferior to other rolls, but to deny the relationship to traditional Japanese cuisine is a lie.

It is the same lie that you attempt when you try to deny the pagan contribution to your Christian mythology.

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Check up on Mithraism. It is believed that (though it seems as if your video addresses such possible relations). It was the biggest cult of ancient Roman times, and began as a god for soldiers, eventually expanding to men in general. But Christianity arose and Mithraism disappeared because the former was available for all ages, races, and genders. There is definitely a possibility of some sort of connection.

It was a rhetorical question anyway. It's obviously based on paganism.

Ahaha! Very good, Diest.




Fox-
Whats the point in having a discussion? You have already made up your mind!
It's not like the outcome of this thread is likely to be 'Oh no! Looks like there's more paganism in christianity than I first thought,maybe it is a cultural construct and i've been living a lie- I shall review my beliefs and renounce my christianity.'

Like Diest said, you're placement of christianity is an objective one for you believe it to be a truth and if you're going to take this stance, the cultural roots are irrelevant.
Paganism may have no relation to YOUR perception of christianity, but we weren't there when the whole thing developed. One could say, for the sake of making a large discussion topic because I'm revising and it's boring, that you are analogous to someone who doesn't know a thing about japan but visits a sushi restraunt every sunday and then gets upset when someone suggests the restraunt didn't just appear out of nowhere but was slowly developed over time by humans in far away lands.

Let the blood spill in the name of paganistic Christian sacrifice:

Jepthah's virgin daughter, and of course god's only begotten son and simultaneously god himself.......Jesus Christ Almighty!

a little late to the conversation, but better late then never, right?

Christianity is not based on pagan rituals, but has incorporated pagan rituals and celebrations as a way of inticing people of non-christian faith to enter into the fold and become a christian. After all, why not join a new religion where you can continue many of the same traditions you currently have. Thus, they have equinox holidays, they have solstice holidays and many saints are based in pagan myth.

I doubt that christianity would have been successful without embracing the beliefs and celebrating many of the same holidays as the pagans they wished to bring into the church. At the same time though, they managed to keep the core concepts of christianity.

All in all, I would ask "who cares?" So what if christianity has some paganism built in to it? It does not lessen the spirituality, not does it lessen what the christian religions have done for either good or bad. It has allowed it to become the successful religion that it is today.

I guess I'm having a hard time separating the two. Isn't the whole idea behind Christianity that Jesus died and was resurrected as "The Christ"? But if the story of his death and resurrection is just a copy of a prior myth, doesn't that kind of undermine the whole basis of Christianity?

Not sure if this has already been posted but here goes.

The number 13 is nowadays considered unlucky only becuse in paganism the number 13 is a very lucky number. When Christianity was created they changed it to an unlucky number

I had read that the number 13 was considered unlucky because, including Judas, there had been thirteen apostles.

Always hoped that I'd be an apostle
New that i could make it if I tried
Then when we retire, we can write the gospels
So they'll all talk about us when we've died . . .

Setanta Little Dog Superstar!

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because of this post, i had to listen to the jesus christ superstar soundtrack



lucky it's one of my faves

I free associate with song lyrics . . . been doin' it for as long as i can remember . . .

Now why'd you choose such a backward time
And such a strange land?

Don't ya get me wrong
Don't ya get me wrong
I only wanna know . . .

This Video was Michael Moored. Some of it is patently false and other parts are "reconfigured" to meet the makers point of view. You can find tons of debunking on this on the internet.

A lot of it is simple astronomical facts. Which parts of the video do you think are patently false?

Is Christianity actually a "pagan" religion in disguise?
JEWISH IDEAS:
1. A great king (aka messiah) coming to raise up Israel and bring peace to the world.
2. Some sort of end of the world as we know it. (Not entirely compatible with #1.)
3. A supreme god (although Persian Zoroastrianism and the reign of Akhenaten in Egypt also flirted with this.)

GRECO-EGYPTIAN IDEAS:
1. A god impregnating a human woman (sometimes perceived as virginal) who gives birth to a demi-god. (see Dyonisus)
2. The concept of "souls" being different than body. (see Pythagoreas, Plato and Persian Zoroastrianism)
3. A violent death or "passion" and resurrections ... particularly after visits to the underworld. (see Osiris, Dyonisus, etc., etc.)
4. The concept of judgment after death (see Osiris) with rewards and punishments (see Plato's Phaedo and Myth of Er, as well as Persian Zoroastrianism).
5. A "sacrament" of bread and wine. (see Demeter and Dyonisus. The Eulusian and Orphic mystery religions.)
6. Free will and a cosmic battle between good and evil. (see Persian Zoroastrianism.)

All evidence points to Jesus being a very regular Jewish reformer who had a lot of tired old Greco-Egyptian mythology appended to his story by the gospel authors who wrote in GREEK in what amounted to a HELLENISTIC empire. Therefore, Christians ARE the pagans they've railed against for so long.

It would seem so.

It seems that those darn pagans were busy building massive stone walls and fortresses along with guiding the creation of christianity.

Christianity is NOT based on Paganism. The traditions that people have and hold onto and use regularly don't have anything to do with the religion. As Christianity spread and people adopted it, it was natural for them to take elements from the previous religion that were already familiar with them and incorporate it into the new religion in anyway they could. However, the Bible says nothing about Christmas trees, lights and so forth. It also does not say anything about egg hunts at Easter, the Easter Bunny and so on (get the picture?).

Again the Pagan traditions that people use have nothing to do with the religion, but with people and how the past has managed to be incorporated into the future.

Has anyone read Barbara Thiering ?

I read her Dead Sea Scrolls thing, where she claimed that Christ lived to be 76 with a whole brood of larvae.

You know that has some problems in authenticity in concordia with other ritings, some of which dont even agree that such a man even existed, but was invented for the purpose of a "ripping religious yarn"