An Interesting Site.

Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth

introduces you to Christianity's origins in ancient Pagan religion. You'll discover the evidence, the scholarship, and the reasoning behind this eye opening understanding of western intellectual history.

You already know Christmas trees and Easter eggs were originally Pagan, and you probably know the seasonal timing of the two holidays is Pagan too. Mildly interesting. Not what you'll find here. What you'll discover at POCM is that ancient cultures around the Mediterranean shared standard ideas about Gods and their powers and place in the universe—and that Christianity simply adopted those ideas and applied them to Jesus. Ancient people knew godmen did miracles. The first Christians thought Jesus was a godman, so they told stories about Jesus doing miracles. They even had Him doing the same miracles as the other godmen.

The core of Christianity—the worship of a miracle working, walking, talking godman who brings salvation—was also the core of other ancient religions that began at least a thousand years before Jesus.

Heaven, hell, prophecy, daemon possession, sacrifice, initiation by baptism, communion with God through a holy meal, the Holy Spirit, monotheism, immortality of the soul, and many other "Christian" ideas all belonged to earlier, older Pagan faiths. They were simply part of ancient Mediterranean culture. Along with miracle working sons of God, born of a mortal woman, they were common elements of pre-Christian Pagan religion. Mithras had 'em. So did Dionysus, Attis, Osiris, and Orpheus. And more.

There is a lot to think about at this site. Thanks to John Shuck for pointing it out to me.

I think our faith can be strengthened if we know where it came from. The mythology doesn't mater. What matters is the way it teaches us to live.

Our Christianity doesn't come from Jesus and a big bang, it comes from the accumulation of legends and theologies by people who believed in Jesus. The origin of those legends and theologies wasn't Jesus. The origin was the myths, legends, philosophies, prejudices, literature, superstitions, and primitive cosmology of ancient western culture. Christianity was a product of its time and place.

The way to explain and understand Christian origins isn't to slop around four layers deep in Q. The way to explain and understand Christianity is to understand its connections to the rest of ancient culture.

For me Micha 6:8 says it all:

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?



Would that we did. Thanks for stopping by. ARTYAL. Hugs, j