3 ms·

"I think you should take a look at judaism." I get what you are saying - but Judaism was the religion that went through the gambit to produce Christianity. Ye

"I think you should take a look at judaism." I get what you are saying - but Judaism was the religion that went through the gambit to produce Christianity. Yes - Yahweh in the old days, was very much like a 'Greek God'. Arguably, he's just one of the pantheon of those gods! After all - 'Bal' the God of the Canaanites, kind of 'existed' and Yahweh was just 'more badass' than him. But Judaism evolved and provided the foundation for what I described. Yahweh went from a 'personified entity' to basically 'an unknowable centre'. In practice, today - the Jews have a powerfully distinct moral motivation built into their religion. Rabbis have long been an important source of intellectual and motivation for a lot of people. "The Greeks would like to have a word with you" The Greek philosophers, yes, the religionists, no. And if you'd argue that some of these social ideals are 'Greek founded' - I'll give you that argument. But it was the Christians who got people inspired, and into to it for real. Not the Greeks. Otherwise, Constantine would have bought into a different religion. "There are oh-so-many parallels and straight up plagiarisms in christianity I don't know how you can say that and back it up." The difference between Greek polytheism and Christianity is more than obvious. Aside from some obvious creation-myth overlaps borrowed from other Mesopotamian/Egyptian stories, if you actually look at the Bible (New Testament) page by page, it's so much like any other religion that one can even wonder how they can be compared. Buddhist, Christian and Muslim works are a totally different ballgame than the works before them. At least in religious terms. And at least in the West, the Asian lineage is not so clear I suppose.

redial 10y ago
This is a classic case of "seeing what you want to see"; You agree with all my points yet remain with your original statement. > Aside from some obvious creation-myth overlaps borrowed from other Mesopotamian/Egyptian stories, if you actually look at the Bible (New Testament) page by page, it's so much like any other religion that one can even wonder how they can be compared. Just off the top of my head, Dionysus turning water into wine at least a century before Jesus. You keep wanting to make christianity something special when in reality it is just another amalgamation of beliefs and rituals from the area at the time (and since, christmas, easter, halloween, because it has not stopped evolving). It just happens to be the one that "won".
- edblarney 10y ago
  "You keep wanting to make christianity something special when in reality it is just another amalgamation of beliefs" Well, since there are no 'Christian rituals' in the New Testament, because Christianity did not exist at the time, I'm going to assume that you have not read it. From cover to cover, there's nothing Greek, Roman or Egyptian that resembles the New Testament, it doesn't even resemble the Old Testament. Arguably, it's closer to the Koran, or other Eastern works. And if you think it's about a (cherry picked) handful of similarities and borrowed 'magic powers' story bits like a'water into wine' or a 'Horus-like nativity story', then you're missing the point anyhow.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    > Well, since there are no 'Christian rituals' in the New Testament, because Christianity did not exist at the time At the time of the stories relayed in the Gospels, sure. The rest of the NT, from Acts on—but excluding Revelation—is either narrative about or discussion within the early Christian community. OTOH, I think it is correct that it doesn't describe Christian ritual to any significant degree.
  - redial 10y ago
    > Well, since there are no 'Christian rituals' in the New Testament, because Christianity did not exist at the time, I'm going to assume that you have not read it. See? classic case of cherry picking. You probably don't consider baptism a ritual, or the allegory of Yom Kippur a ritual. Or drinking wine and eating bread. You just read it like you want to. > And if you think it's about a (cherry picked) handful of similarities and borrowed 'magic powers' story bits like a'water into wine' or a 'Horus-like nativity story', then you're missing the point anyhow. Yes, forget that all the miracles of Jesus were "borrowed" from earlier gods, forget that all the life of Jesus is a carefully scripted retelling of the tales of the old testament. In fact, lest forget all the pieces that don't fit with your uniqueness narrative. After all, the point of the book is what you said it is, there is no one in the world who would read it any other way.
    - nate_meurer 10y ago

redial 10y ago

This is a classic case of "seeing what you want to see"; You agree with all my points yet remain with your original statement. > Aside from some obvious creation-myth overlaps borrowed from other Mesopotamian/Egyptian stories, if you actually look at the Bible (New Testament) page by page, it's so much like any other religion that one can even wonder how they can be compared. Just off the top of my head, Dionysus turning water into wine at least a century before Jesus. You keep wanting to make christianity something special when in reality it is just another amalgamation of beliefs and rituals from the area at the time (and since, christmas, easter, halloween, because it has not stopped evolving). It just happens to be the one that "won".

edblarney 10y ago
"You keep wanting to make christianity something special when in reality it is just another amalgamation of beliefs" Well, since there are no 'Christian rituals' in the New Testament, because Christianity did not exist at the time, I'm going to assume that you have not read it. From cover to cover, there's nothing Greek, Roman or Egyptian that resembles the New Testament, it doesn't even resemble the Old Testament. Arguably, it's closer to the Koran, or other Eastern works. And if you think it's about a (cherry picked) handful of similarities and borrowed 'magic powers' story bits like a'water into wine' or a 'Horus-like nativity story', then you're missing the point anyhow.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > Well, since there are no 'Christian rituals' in the New Testament, because Christianity did not exist at the time At the time of the stories relayed in the Gospels, sure. The rest of the NT, from Acts on—but excluding Revelation—is either narrative about or discussion within the early Christian community. OTOH, I think it is correct that it doesn't describe Christian ritual to any significant degree.
- redial 10y ago
  > Well, since there are no 'Christian rituals' in the New Testament, because Christianity did not exist at the time, I'm going to assume that you have not read it. See? classic case of cherry picking. You probably don't consider baptism a ritual, or the allegory of Yom Kippur a ritual. Or drinking wine and eating bread. You just read it like you want to. > And if you think it's about a (cherry picked) handful of similarities and borrowed 'magic powers' story bits like a'water into wine' or a 'Horus-like nativity story', then you're missing the point anyhow. Yes, forget that all the miracles of Jesus were "borrowed" from earlier gods, forget that all the life of Jesus is a carefully scripted retelling of the tales of the old testament. In fact, lest forget all the pieces that don't fit with your uniqueness narrative. After all, the point of the book is what you said it is, there is no one in the world who would read it any other way.
  - nate_meurer 10y ago