Catholic/christian Ties To Paganism

[Winchester]

I blame Joseph Campbell

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='Aloysius' date='08 October 2009 - 03:55 AM' timestamp='1254970500' post='1980574']
my anthropology professor once went through a list of many of Zeitgeist's flat out lies (when it talks about the pagan myth parallels to the Christian story). He picked one, the Egyptian one, because he knows a lot about Egyptology. Frankly, pretty much everything that Zeitgeist claims Egyptian myths parallel to the stories of Jesus are lies. flat out lies. as in there's no evidence, there's no basis, there's no facts involved at all. that's from someone with four degrees in anthropology, who specializes in Egyptology. it's simply not true.

that said, there are some pagan myths with some parallels to the Christian story, because the Christian story is a general archetype of a human story, it's the story which answers the human question. so obviously, people around the world asking the same question will develop some similar answer. but if someone starts listing off similarities between a pagan myth and the Christian story and starts getting more and more specific (saying there were 12 disciples, a birth in a manger, a death on a cross, et cetera...) then ask for their sources. Zeitgeist is not a reliable source, the only reason it goes unchallenged is because no one with any credentials in the fields of mythology and such would even bother to watch the thing let alone take the time to debunk it.
[/quote]


[quote name='Aloysius' date='08 October 2009 - 04:09 AM' timestamp='1254971346' post='1980586']
ahh a quick internet search reveals someone else is onto that fact about the Egyptian myths and provides the details I forgot:


http://www.gotquestions.org/zeitgeist-movie.html


it's actually quite transparent and funny to anyone who knows anything about Egyptian mythology. it'd be like if someone tried to convince you that Islam was the same as Christianity by telling you that Mohammad had been crucified and resurrected et cetera et cetera; what they did was just pick the name of a pagan god and plugged his name into the stories of Jesus.
[/quote]
Thanks for saving me the trouble of posting that, Al. As someone who studied Egyptology, the blatant errors always make me cringe.

As for the date of Christmas, [url="http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-012-v"]this[/url]is a really good article, IMHO. To give a basic rundown of the argument, the date of Christmas was calculated not because of the solstice, but based on the date of the Crucifixion. It was commonly believed that a prophet died on the day he was conceived or born. In the West the Crucifixion, and thus Annunciation, was calculated to be on 25 March; add 9 months and you get 25 December. In the East, the date of the Crucifixion, and Annunciation, was calculated to be 6 April, and thus Christmas in the East is on 6 January. The difference in dates results from trying to calculate this based on the Jewish lunar calendar (all agreed that Jesus was crucified on 14 Nisan by the Jewish calendar).

[JimR-OCDS]

The history behind the Church using December 25th for the celebration of the birth of Christ, is so complex, I doubt anyone can make
a definative claim as to how it came to be.

Anyway, if you have a problem with ensomnia some night, read the Catholic Encyclopedia's info on it.

[url="http://newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm"]http://newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm[/url]

You'll be able to sleep in about 10 minutes after you start reading. [img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/lol_grin.gif[/img]

Jim

[Winchester]

They rolled a 365 sided die.

[Socrates]

Zeitgeist is a ridiculous piece of poppycock.

And I'm not sure exactly what the connection between "debunking" the Christian Faith and pushing silly 9-11 conspiracy theories is supposed be. (Other than I guess that we're supposed to all reject Christ, vote Democrat, and worship Obama, or whomever their left-wing secular messiah-of-choice is.)

What's sad is that so many people who are oh-so-skeptical about anything and everything Christian are so quick to swallow hook, line and sinker any outlandish piece of half-baked sludge anybody posts on the internet.

[Winchester]

Skeptics are incredibly gullible.

[ardillacid]

[quote name='Winchester' date='11 October 2009 - 12:20 AM' timestamp='1255234822' post='1982876']
Skeptics are incredibly gullible.
[/quote]
Sceptics

[Winchester]

[quote name='notardillacid' date='11 October 2009 - 12:23 AM' timestamp='1255235015' post='1982881']
Sceptics
[/quote]
Yeah, who told you that?

[picchick]

[quote name='Socrates' date='08 October 2009 - 07:55 PM' timestamp='1255046119' post='1981302']
poppycock.
[/quote]



Sorry....I just had the picture of Mary Poppins with that word. And then I see your avatar...yeah so

[Winchester]

[quote name='picchick' date='11 October 2009 - 07:34 PM' timestamp='1255304053' post='1983334']


Sorry....I just had the picture of Mary Poppins with that word. And then I see your avatar...yeah so
[/quote]
That's who he is for Halloween [i]every [/i]year.

[infinitelord1]

[quote name='Laudate_Dominum' date='07 October 2009 - 02:46 PM' timestamp='1254944782' post='1980121']
Dude!! I haven't seen you in forever! What's up!?
[/quote]

Oh nothing much...good to hear from you also. Im currently in Iraq. Things are good.

[Laudate_Dominum]

[quote name='infinitelord1' date='12 October 2009 - 02:41 PM' timestamp='1255372861' post='1984024']
Oh nothing much...good to hear from you also. Im currently in Iraq. Things are good.
[/quote]
Excellent! It is great seeing you post again, I've wondered what happened with you. Hopefully this means you'll be a regular around here again.

Peace bro.