3 ms·

Several years ago I watched this interesting documentary about how Christianity had incorporated stories into their religions. Stories that we think of as "Chr

Several years ago I watched this interesting documentary about how Christianity had incorporated stories into their religions. Stories that we think of as "Christian", such as the star of Bethlehem, the 3 wise men and other stories from the life of Jesus, were based on stories that predated the birth of Jesus. I think we underestimate how different people were compared to what we are used to today. When we tell a story today, we base it on facts. People back then might have a different view. They essentially re-used mythology and these stories to "prove" the credibility of Jesus. Basically confirming that he must be the "one", because these holy events have also happened to him.

FredPret 4y ago
Kind of makes sense: they used symbolic logic, where everything was a symbol for some higher thing, and the two highest things were the good (god) and the bad (satan). So you can reason out a whole system of thought based purely on a couple of known symbols, even if they are completely unconnected in time and space. (Eg, there were three wise men and god is a trinity therefore it fits) Cause-and-effect thinking came along later, with the Enlightenment, and relies on facts. Some people are still caught up in symbolic thinking to this day.