29 Nov '05 07:16>1 edit
Seems like a lot of the ideas that were incorporated into Christianity were present in a religion that had existed for about 2800 years before the birth of Christ. This also happened to be the most popular cult religion in the Roman Empire in the first few centuries AD. HMMM. Anyway, here's an excerpt of an article on the god Mithra:
Mithraism and Christianity
Page 1 of 3
A Comparison:
Most of the research into Mithraism, a religion with many parallels to Christianity, comes from two writers, Cumont and Ulansey with a variety of other writers input. Some Similarities Between Mithraism and Christianity are:
Virgin birth
Twelve followers
Killing and resurrection
Miracles
Birthdate on December 25
Morality
Mankind's savior
Known as the Light of the world
Have you ever wondered why December 25th was chosen to celebrate the birth of Christ? If the accounts in the Bible are correct, the time of Jesus birth would have been closer to mid-summer, for this is when shepherds would have been "tending their flocks in the field" and the new lambs were born. Strange enough there is an ancient pagan religion, Mithraism, which dates back over 2,800 years that also celebrated the birth of their "savior" on that date. Many elements in the story of Jesus' life and birth are either coincidental or borrowings
from earlier and contemporary pagan religions. The most obviously similar of these is Mithraism.
http://www.vetssweatshop.net/dogma.htm
Mithraism and Christianity
Page 1 of 3
A Comparison:
Most of the research into Mithraism, a religion with many parallels to Christianity, comes from two writers, Cumont and Ulansey with a variety of other writers input. Some Similarities Between Mithraism and Christianity are:
Virgin birth
Twelve followers
Killing and resurrection
Miracles
Birthdate on December 25
Morality
Mankind's savior
Known as the Light of the world
Have you ever wondered why December 25th was chosen to celebrate the birth of Christ? If the accounts in the Bible are correct, the time of Jesus birth would have been closer to mid-summer, for this is when shepherds would have been "tending their flocks in the field" and the new lambs were born. Strange enough there is an ancient pagan religion, Mithraism, which dates back over 2,800 years that also celebrated the birth of their "savior" on that date. Many elements in the story of Jesus' life and birth are either coincidental or borrowings
from earlier and contemporary pagan religions. The most obviously similar of these is Mithraism.
http://www.vetssweatshop.net/dogma.htm