The Mysterious Dying God
An inscription in the Vatican states plainly, "He who will not eat of my body, nor drink of my blood, so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved." This is not terribly surprising, unless you consider that this is inscribed on the remains of the temple the Vatican was built on- one dedicated to the God Mithras. Mithras was a solar deity whose worshippers called him redeemer; his religion died out not long after the advent of Christianity.
Such eerie parallels between the pronouncements of Jesus and Mithras are not the only similarities between the two religions. Mithras was known to his followers as "The light of the world," or "The Good Shepherd," and exhorted his followers to share ritual communion meals of bread and wine. His preists were called "Father."
Mithras was also born in a cave, with shepherds in attendance, on the twenty-fifth of December. (Alternatively, he is assisted in his birth from a stone by shepherds.)
Are these just coincidences? Of course not.
Reader Michelle writes:
Coincidence? Of course not.
I have an article I wrote titled "The Astronomy of Christmas and the Epiphany" that discusses similarities in Christ and Mithras, and how the Epiphany occurs in conjunction with the astronomical Perihelion.
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Comments
The story of Jesus has many parallels with Dionyscious as well as Osirus, so there is much culpability of the part of the Roman Church in manufacturing a New Testament to fit their ideas of Religion! The Roman Empire never went away, it just changed its name of form!!
Many cultures have a god that is born, lives, dies, and arises again. It doesn’t take much to see that this is nothing more than phallic worship.
The dying-god archetype shows up in multiple religions of the northern hemispere (I haven’t studied religions of the southern hemisphere - yet). The Aztecs had Quetzalcoatl, the Hindus have Krisha, the Zoroastrians have Zoroaster, the Christians have Jesus, etc.
These cultures all had one thing in common - that they all experienced solar occurrences in the same way. All could observe the cycle of the seasons and begin to attribute the “health” of the sun to a weakening and strengthening god form. Is it an accident that the birth of the “sun god” (son of god?) is observed at (or very near) the Winter Solstice, when the days begin to grow longer? I think not.
Religion generally ties in to what people could observe and their subsequent attempts to understand what they observed. Xianity is a cheap ripoff of much older solar religions. The church has survived by destroying cultures after assimilating their religious practices and beliefs.
Coincidence??? Of course not.
I have an article I wrote titled “The Astronomy of Christmas and the Epiphany” that discusses similarities in Christ and Mithras, and how the Epiphany occurs in conjunction with the astronomical Perihelion.
Click on my name, or here is the url: http://phoenixqi.blogspot.com/2007/02/astronomy-of-christmas-and-epiphany.html
Name me one heathen god who exhibits, like Jesus Christ, self-revealing works that, for an indefinite time, can produce sustainable faith as a result of immortality demonstrated and shared with all admirers at the moment of His self-inflicted death on the cross! This is God!!!!!!!!!
You need to read more, Ephrem…
PS- Isis, Hermes Trismegistus, Dionysus
Ephrem… I would say Odin just as an example among hundreds others. As a matter of fact, Jesus himself represents many different ancient deities, as christianity is a total rip-off of the most common pagan believes.
“The Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they put a man called Christ in the place of the sun, and pay him the adoration originally payed to the sun.”
-Thomas Faine (1737-1809)
“Many cultures have a god that is born, lives, dies, and arises again. It doesn’t take much to see that this is nothing more than phallic worship.”
What an intriguing thought!
I think I’ll use this on a few fundie blogs and wait for the heads to explode…lol. Thanks, Jay!
I read your article on the your blog (I am assuming it’s yours) and I must say your blog is wonderful. Your vast encyclopedia of information is so amazing. You are a true Druid at heart…collection, sharing and most of all honoring all manner of knowledged. Thank you so much!!!!
That last comment is directed to Michelle that wrote the article your referred to. I also honor you Jennifer as a true Druid — seeker and keeper of knowledge and above all teacher. Thank you so much, too!!!
I doubt that this tardy intervention will find much of an audience, or that such an audience will be particularly receptive, but I thought I might as well speak my mind — & do so as clearly as possible — to shed a little light on a subject I consider to be very confusing for the layperson.
Proposing that the cult of Jesus is merely another face of “solar religion” (an artificial & reductionistic concept to start with) betrays a narrow-minded understanding of the complex mechanics of myth-making, & poor appreciation of the Judaeo-Hellenic context out of which Christianity emerged. That is not to say that Christianity does not have some strong “solar” elements — it does. Any religion with a soteriological aspect is bound to include metaphors of “light” & “the sun” in its allegorical language; this is only natural considering the critical, salvific role that star plays in our lives.
The early Christian Fathers were candid about this; the dates for the holidays were decided upon in large part to coincide with Roman Pagan holidays. This makes sense not only from a marketing perspective but also from a strictly pragmatic one — it was easier for Roman Christianity to adapt the popular holiday calendar than to completely change it. Note that Orthodox Christianity (manifest in the Greek, Ukrainian & Syriac Churches, just to name a few)does not have the same calendar. Note also that Christmas drastically increased in importance only recently in Christian history — prior to that, it was a rather minor holiday, indicating that this “heliocentric” obsession only ever developed as an afterthought, if at all.
I do not understand, moreover, how the assimilation of Pagan elements into Christianity might be taken to invalidate the cult of Christ. If you are sympathetic to Paganism, shouldn’t this syncretism rather increase Christianity’s validity?
If you wish to dabble in Comparative Religion, you had best understand that originality of concepts is no guarantee of spiritual value. Scientology, Raëlianism & Mormonism are all very interesting & original each in their own right, & yet we can relatively safely assume that our spiritual evolution will eventually see all such movements relegated to the dustbin of religious history. Meanwhile the Gospels continue to carry a positive moral message for Christians & non-Christians alike. Reconstructionism, occultism, the New Age — though all fascinating movements — will remain indebted to Judaeo-Christianity for having provided the cultural matrix for their articulation. Tragically, the theological works & the metaphysical foundation of the religious morality of the Ancient Pagans did not survive for us to witness. The theology & morality of Reconstructionism is therefore a construct of the Judaeo-Christian era.
The bogus novelty of adolescent critiques of any time-tested doctrine will never be able to shake the conviction of anyone whose faith is genuine. Not even under threat of force.
On a completely different note, I should very much like to know how many of the people who accuse Christianity of being a “phallic” religion have actually read into Christian theology — or, for that matter, Shaiva theology, which incorporates phalic themes. Having read into both these traditions extensively, I fail to see how they might be considered anyhow similar or related.
The deep mystery about Jesus Christ is His death exclusively by own free will and power demonstrating His divinity and much more! Can any other deity in alternative religion match this work?
Just this year, a Marine threw himself on a grenade to save his patrol- does that make him divine?
To answer your question, yes. What Jesus is said to have doen was neither original nor unique.
Mekashef, there’s a fine line between faith and blindness.
As the saying goes, Thou protest too much.
Jennifer, Thank you for including the link to my article in your post! It’s very appreciated!
Sandy S, Thank you for your compliments! So many things can be explained in the movements of the stars and planets….it is amazing even to me.
Ephrem, You would find it interesting to read about Odin (aka Woden and Wotan). Thousands of years BC he hung on a tree for nine days and nights, died and was reborn. (Death and rebirth into a divine state is a common phenomenon in mythologies from around the globe.)
Mekashef, Wow…a lot of great points! I do agree that there hasn’t been a new concept presented in any religion in forever….they all borrow from the past. (For example, there are over 300 flood myths from around the world.)
You said: “Raëlianism & Mormonism are all very interesting & original each in their own right, & yet we can relatively safely assume that our spiritual evolution will eventually see all such movements relegated to the dustbin of religious history.”
I wonder, why do you think to safely assume that? In a news story just a couple days ago it was reported that Muslims now outnumber Roman Catholics. I don’t think it is safe to assume that any particular religion will overcome another, unless you know they plan to do so by threat or annihilation.
You said: “I do not understand, moreover, how the assimilation of Pagan elements into Christianity might be taken to invalidate the cult of Christ. If you are sympathetic to Paganism, shouldn’t this syncretism rather increase Christianity’s validity?”
I doesn’t invalidate the cult, but the Christians didn’t incorporated those elements because they believed in them. It was strictly a marketing ploy to attract as many pagans as possible into the new religion. Today, most Christians vehemently deny they have borrowed anything from any other religion. Religions should be free to borrow all they want, but be honest about the reason.
You said: “The bogus novelty of adolescent critiques of any time-tested doctrine will never be able to shake the conviction of anyone whose faith is genuine. Not even under threat of force.”
I agree…the convictions of people whose faith is genuine cannot be shaken, and many Pagans and Christians and Baha’is and Muslims and people of hundreds of other religions have died to prove it.
Namaste
To Sandy S.
If you like the article about Epiphany and astronomy, you may like this one also.
It’s not my original writing, but a compliation I posted to my “Spirits In Harmony” blog of how the holidays/holy days of many religions are based on astronomical calculations.
The title of the article is “Astronomy in Religion” Click my name to go to the article.
Enjoy!
I just wanted to ask one simple question. What if Christianity didn’t “steal” its beliefs from Mithras? What if, in a carefully crafted lie by enemies of Christ,the followers of Mithras distorted the truth in an attempt to deny what they knew to be true? Seek for the truth and the truth will set you free!
Hysterically enough, that’s jsut what the Christians claimed had been done- in advance!!
I “protest too much”? I think any professional in the field is entitled to respond to the accusations made against the most honourable specimens of Religion. So much of the anti-Christianity of the alternative movements is the result of ignorance or limited exposition to Christian positions. That situation is deplorable. One does more service to humanity by underscoring commonalities rather than by trying to settle old scores.
Raëlianism is a fad. An academic would be expected to remain objective & respectful, but there are movements which we can objectively call “fads” — we have observed many such in history, & they all exhibit certain similiraties. One of the common traits of “fads” is that they depend on certain incidental conditions to subsist; Raëlianism depends on our limited understanding of genetic science. Scientific progress will see many claims of Raëlianism utterly refuted, & already the declining fervour of millenialists has decimated UFO cults around the globe. In the case of Mormonism, I will make no such defence, but observe that the most eccentric sects do not typically last a millenium, & do not leave much of a legacy. Roman Catholicism may well disappear, or go so many reforms as to become something entirely different, but its legacy can be expected to endure for as long as there are still humans on Earth — in very much the same way that Pagan Rome will never die.
- “It doesn’t invalidate the cult, but the Christians didn’t incorporated those elements because they believed in them. It was strictly a marketing ploy to attract as many pagans as possible into the new religion.”
I think those suspicions are a bit gratuitous. The Early Church Fathers retroprojected Christian values in Neo-Platonic philosophy & Pagan religion (including, as Mrs. Emick pointed out, in their accusation of Satanic deception). I think this is indicative of genuine belief in the value of certain powerful universal symbols — the sun, light, etc. The Pauline Epistles — earliest Christian literature in the Canon — use this sort of symbolism extensively while remaining extremely critical of both Jewish & Pagan practices. In my opinion, we should at least grant the Early Christians the benefit of doubt.
Shalom,