Christianity And Judaism Versus Mythology

[southern california guy]

Back when I was in grade school I loved mythology. I read every Greek mythology story I could find. The Roman mythology was pretty good too. And the Arabian Nights stories were great. I found the Egyptian mythology less exciting but I still read the stories.

One story, in Egyptian mythology, that atheists like to point to is the story of Osiris. They like to draw parallels between the story of Osiris and Jesus. If I remember the story correctly Osiris was executed, fought his way through the underworld, and on the third day he rose from the dead -- as a god! As I understand it the pyramids and elaborate Egyptian tombs were a preparation for the battle in the underworld after death. They wanted to become gods like Osiris.

Mythology is similar to religion. Some of the stories are similar, but Judaism Christianity in my opinion, differed radically from earlier mythology because it emphasized moral values to live by. Where were the moral values in mythology? Most of the stories were about getting a woman, or appeasing the gods. I can't think of any parallel between the Ten Commandments in Moses and mythology. And then there is the New Testament. The astrology (Jesus born under a star) and the parallels to Egyptian mythology aside the New Testament is full of moral teachings. In some cases they are revisions to the Old Testament. Like "Turn the other cheek", or Jesus arguing that any man who divorces his wife and remarries is committing adultery -- despite what Moses instructed concerning divorce and remarriage. I can't remember anything in mythology that was similar.

But it seems to me that modern Christianity is more like ancient mythology. There aren't any moral teachings anymore. Nobody concerns themselves with what Jesus taught about divorce and remarriage anymore. If they are Christian they simply argue that Jesus is a loving god and all you have to do if pray for forgiveness after divorce -- and then when you remarry it's not adultery. And the Catholics would argue that you just play along with the Catholic games that allow you to get an "annulment" -- and that is "exactly the same as never having been married" (Emperor's Fine Clothes). People don't worry about breaking the Third Commandment "Thou shalt not take the lord thy gods name in vain" -- which is what you do when you take a vow to god that you don't keep.

Instead modern Christianity seems to focus on "worship" on prayer. It reminds me of leaving sacrifices on alters to appease the gods. It seems like prayer is focused on getting on Jesus or Gods graces. People seem to have forgotten about Sodom and Gomorrah and the priesthood -- as well as pastors and ministers in protestant religions -- are full of openly non-repentant homosexuals. They know that the way they can change religion is to get involved and run things. And not surprisingly the gospels are vague -- and don't come close to discussing specific moral principles like Jesus did.

What would happen if more and more Pastors and Priests were to start speaking out against homosexuality, divorce and remarriage, sexual relations out of wedlock, and abortion? (At least some preach against abortion). Would people drop out of the religion? Would the divorcees, and homosexuals, and people living together out of wedlock get angry and throw a fit?

Has modern religion deteriorated into a sort of modern mythology -- lacking the moral basis of Christianity as Jesus Christ taught it??????

[Vincent Vega]

I think I might need to digest this for a while.

[HisChildForever]

The gods of mythology always struck me as very selfish.

[Hassan]

[quote name='HisChildForever' date='25 June 2010 - 11:14 PM' timestamp='1277522051' post='2134398']
The gods of mythology always struck me as very selfish.
[/quote]
Did they ask to be worshiped by their creation for all eternity?

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Hassan' date='25 June 2010 - 11:17 PM' timestamp='1277522254' post='2134401']
Did they ask to be worshiped by their creation for all eternity?
[/quote]

Ohh, I see what you did there!!111!!!1

[Hassan]

[quote name='HisChildForever' date='25 June 2010 - 11:40 PM' timestamp='1277523614' post='2134412']
Ohh, I see what you did there!!111!!!1
[/quote]


Yeah you did!




























And then you decided not to muster a response.

It is a fair question. Why are the gods of mythology so selfish next to what your God wants.

[Hassan]

[quote name='southern california guy' date='25 June 2010 - 10:54 PM' timestamp='1277520873' post='2134390']
Back when I was in grade school I loved mythology. I read every Greek mythology story I could find. The Roman mythology was pretty good too. And the Arabian Nights stories were great. I found the Egyptian mythology less exciting but I still read the stories.

One story, in Egyptian mythology, that atheists like to point to is the story of Osiris. They like to draw parallels between the story of Osiris and Jesus. If I remember the story correctly Osiris was executed, fought his way through the underworld, and on the third day he rose from the dead -- as a god! As I understand it the pyramids and elaborate Egyptian tombs were a preparation for the battle in the underworld after death. They wanted to become gods like Osiris.

Mythology is similar to religion. Some of the stories are similar, but Judaism Christianity in my opinion, differed radically from earlier mythology because it emphasized moral values to live by. Where were the moral values in mythology? Most of the stories were about getting a woman, or appeasing the gods. I can't think of any parallel between the Ten Commandments in Moses and mythology. And then there is the New Testament. The astrology (Jesus born under a star) and the parallels to Egyptian mythology aside the New Testament is full of moral teachings. In some cases they are revisions to the Old Testament. Like "Turn the other cheek", or Jesus arguing that any man who divorces his wife and remarries is committing adultery -- despite what Moses instructed concerning divorce and remarriage. I can't remember anything in mythology that was similar.

But it seems to me that modern Christianity is more like ancient mythology. There aren't any moral teachings anymore. Nobody concerns themselves with what Jesus taught about divorce and remarriage anymore. If they are Christian they simply argue that Jesus is a loving god and all you have to do if pray for forgiveness after divorce -- and then when you remarry it's not adultery. And the Catholics would argue that you just play along with the Catholic games that allow you to get an "annulment" -- and that is "exactly the same as never having been married" (Emperor's Fine Clothes). People don't worry about breaking the Third Commandment "Thou shalt not take the lord thy gods name in vain" -- which is what you do when you take a vow to god that you don't keep.

Instead modern Christianity seems to focus on "worship" on prayer. It reminds me of leaving sacrifices on alters to appease the gods. It seems like prayer is focused on getting on Jesus or Gods graces. People seem to have forgotten about Sodom and Gomorrah and the priesthood -- as well as pastors and ministers in protestant religions -- are full of openly non-repentant homosexuals. They know that the way they can change religion is to get involved and run things. And not surprisingly the gospels are vague -- and don't come close to discussing specific moral principles like Jesus did.

What would happen if more and more Pastors and Priests were to start speaking out against homosexuality, divorce and remarriage, sexual relations out of wedlock, and abortion? (At least some preach against abortion). Would people drop out of the religion? Would the divorcees, and homosexuals, and people living together out of wedlock get angry and throw a fit?

Has modern religion deteriorated into a sort of modern mythology -- lacking the moral basis of Christianity as Jesus Christ taught it??????
[/quote]


There's nothing more attractive than a man who can philosophize ; )

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Hassan' date='25 June 2010 - 11:45 PM' timestamp='1277523904' post='2134413']
Why are the gods of mythology so selfish next to what your God wants.
[/quote]

I don't recall the gods of mythology having a real interest in mankind.

[Hassan]

[quote name='HisChildForever' date='26 June 2010 - 12:09 AM' timestamp='1277525343' post='2134419']
I don't recall the gods of mythology having a real interest in mankind.
[/quote]

Your God has an interest in man kind. What you mean by 'real' interest I'm not exactly sure. Your God is supposed to have a loving disposition towards humanity. I don't call desiring that your creation worship you forever in heaven particularly loving, it seems pretty selfish.

Before anyone say it. No, this is not supposed to be flamebait.

[Innocent]

[quote name='HisChildForever' date='26 June 2010 - 10:39 AM' timestamp='1277525343' post='2134419']
I don't recall the gods of mythology having a real interest in mankind.
[/quote]

Strictly speaking this cannot be asserted with complete confidence.

At least in some religious traditions that I have encountered, it is the belief of the devotees that the gods of their mythologies have taken real interest in mankind.

e.g.,

[quote]Lord Vishnu's preserving, protecting powers have been manifested to the world in a variety of forms, called Avatars, in which one or more of his divine attributes were embodied in the shape of a human being or an animal or a human-animal combined form, possessing great and sometimes supernatural powers. All these Avatars of Vishnu appeared in the world either to correct some great evil or to effect some great good on earth. [/quote][url="http://www.hindunet.org/avatars/"]SOURCE[/url]


[quote]An incarnation is essentially an interference in the affairs and progression of the manifested worlds. It is an intervention that becomes necessary due to the activity of beings endowed with free will. The law of karma makes each individual being responsible for its action. But in some cases that alone may not deter some from causing a great imbalance in the working of the worlds or interfering with the lives of other people through their actions. When their number increases disproportionately, God decides to take matter into His own hands and comes down to earth in physical form to restore order and morality. Some times He may manifest Himself indirectly through His emanations or directly as an incarnation.[/quote][url="http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/concepts/avatar.asp"]SOURCE[/url]

[HisChildForever]

Yes, exactly why I chose the wording I did. "I don't [u]recall[/u]". And I was thinking of Greek mythology when I said that.

[Innocent]

[quote name='Hassan' date='26 June 2010 - 10:48 AM' timestamp='1277525931' post='2134424']
Your God has an interest in man kind. What you mean by 'real' interest I'm not exactly sure. Your God is supposed to have a loving disposition towards humanity. I don't call desiring that your creation worship you forever in heaven particularly loving, it seems pretty selfish.
[/quote]

Some years back, when I was trying to make up my mind about God and religion, I too thought about this a lot.

Finally I came to the conclusion (I think it was while reading the dialogue [i]Crito[/i] by Plato) that God can't help it that the nature of reality and existence is such that He is our highest good and is perfect in all ways and deserves our adoration.

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Hassan' date='26 June 2010 - 12:18 AM' timestamp='1277525931' post='2134424']
Your God has an interest in man kind. What you mean by 'real' interest I'm not exactly sure. Your God is supposed to have a loving disposition towards humanity. I don't call desiring that your creation worship you forever in heaven particularly loving, it seems pretty selfish.

Before anyone say it. No, this is not supposed to be flamebait.
[/quote]

The gods never struck me as personable or loving. Honestly, this is my opinion and what I remember from high school. I'm not trying to get into some insane argument with you.

[KnightofChrist]

"the gods" remind me more of humans with super powers, than gods. An ancient form of the Graphic Novel [i]Watchmen[/i].

[Innocent]

[quote name='southern california guy' date='26 June 2010 - 09:24 AM' timestamp='1277520873' post='2134390']

But it seems to me that modern Christianity is more like ancient mythology. There aren't any moral teachings anymore. Nobody concerns themselves with what Jesus taught about divorce and remarriage anymore. If they are Christian they simply argue that Jesus is a loving god and all you have to do if pray for forgiveness after divorce -- and then when you remarry it's not adultery. And the Catholics would argue that you just play along with the Catholic games that allow you to get an "annulment" -- and that is "exactly the same as never having been married" (Emperor's Fine Clothes). People don't worry about breaking the Third Commandment "Thou shalt not take the lord thy gods name in vain" -- which is what you do when you take a vow to god that you don't keep.

[/quote]

The Orthodox theologian David Hart in his essay [url="http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles2/HartChrist.shtml"][i]Christ And Nothing[/i][/url], made the point that a society that had developed a Christian culture and then moved away from Christian culture could not then go back to the earlier pagan state which had some nobility in it, but rather would inevitably fall into nihilism.

[quote]
In any event, developed Christian theology rejected nothing good in the metaphysics, ethics, or method of ancient philosophy, but--with a kind of omnivorous glee--assimilated such elements as served its ends, and always improved them in the process. Stoic morality, Plato's language of the Good, Aristotle's metaphysics of act and potency--all became richer and more coherent when emancipated from the morbid myths of sacrificial economy and tragic necessity. In truth, Christian theology nowhere more wantonly celebrated its triumph over the old gods than in the use it made of the so-called spolia Aegyptorum; and, by despoiling pagan philosophy of its most splendid achievements and integrating them into a vision of reality more complete than philosophy could attain on its own, theology took to itself irrevocably all the intellectual glories of antiquity. The temples were stripped of their gold and precious ornaments, the sacred vessels were carried away into the precincts of the Church and turned to better uses, and nothing was left behind but a few grim, gaunt ruins to lure back the occasional disenchanted Christian and shelter a few atavistic ghosts.

This last observation returns me at last to my earlier contention: that Christianity assisted in bringing the nihilism of modernity to pass. The command to have no other god but Him whom Christ revealed was never for Christians simply an invitation to forsake an old cult for a new, but was an announcement that the shape of the world had changed, from the depths of hell to the heaven of heavens, and all nations were called to submit to Jesus as Lord. In the great "transvaluation" that followed, there was no sphere of social, religious, or intellectual life that the Church did not claim for itself; much was abolished, and much of the grandeur and beauty of antiquity was preserved in a radically altered form, and Christian civilization--with its new synthesis and new creativity--was born.

But what is the consequence, then, when Christianity, as a living historical force, recedes? We have no need to speculate, as it happens; modernity speaks for itself: with the withdrawal of Christian culture, all the glories of the ancient world that it baptized and redeemed have perished with it in the general cataclysm. Christianity is the midwife of nihilism, not because it is itself nihilistic, but because it is too powerful in its embrace of the world and all of the world's mystery and beauty; and so to reject Christianity now is, of necessity, to reject everything except the barren anonymity of spontaneous subjectivity. As Ivan Karamazov's Grand Inquisitor tells Christ, the freedom that the gospel brings is too terrible to be borne indefinitely. Our sin makes us feeble and craven, and we long to flee from the liberty of the sons of God; but where now can we go? Everything is Christ's.[/quote] [url="http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles2/HartChrist.shtml"]SOURCE[/url]


Also, many pagan societies where religion was mainly based on mythology were not lawless and some had very harsh punishments. ([url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manusm%E1%B9%9Bti"]e.g.[/url])

Edited June 26, 2010 by Innocent