OK so I went and finished up college and all, and I have a temporary job on campus until my lease here is up, so I'm pretty set and I realized I have no good excuse not to be posting at least weekly. So here goes with the first of a series.
The idea of this series is to show how completely unoriginal some of the biggest ideas of Christianity really are. The intent is to completely weaken some of the main principles of the religion, since, if they aren't original, why are they "truths", and please tell me why anyone should believe they REALLY happened?
I would like to start with Egyptian mythology, partly because I've already researched it, but mostly because the Jews lived in Egypt for a long time, so it is only understandable that they would pick up some or most of the tenants of the extremely unstructured Egyptian Mythology. In fact, I found seven links that occurred in the Egyptian religion far before Christianity came about, and explain some of the religious beliefs or practices of various sects of Christianity. (Some people call them denominations, but I call them sects.)
Link 1: Names of the Gods
This seems to be a rather trivial thing in my opinion, since there are really relatively few names in the world, but I think it is important to say that many of the Hebrew gods shared names with the Egyptian gods. And yes, Hebrew gods. Adon-Ra, which was the King of the Egyptian Gods, is very similar to the Hebrew word for Lord. Chem or Ham was actually the God of the Nile River Valley - or one of Noah's sons. Nissi is the Egyptian name for Mt. Sinai, the location where Osiris, the god of the afterlife was born and also the location where Noah named the Jewish God, Johova-Nissi. Coincidinque? I think not.
Link 2: The Two Natures of Osiris
Osiris was part god and part man (sound familiar?). He was killed by a hippo and his limbs scattered into the 4 winds. Isis, his wife, collected these pieces and put Osiris together again (I know, sounds like Humpty Dumpty). Osiris came back to life, but not on earth. Once a year Egyptians joined their priests on a melancholy procession through the city to mourn his death and celebrate his rebirth. If you never celebrated Good Friday & Easter as a Catholic, you probably wouldn't know that they actually have a melancholy procession through the city (church grounds usually now), and mourn his death and celebrate his rebirth.
Link 3: The Holy Trinity
Seems weird that something like this wouldn't be original, doesn't it? I mean, who can really explain how something can be three separate things and yet one? But the idea of a trinity? That is pretty much Egyptian. Egyptian gods were grouped in threes, and each city had their own special trinity (with some overlap). Thebes, for instance, had Amon-Ra, Athor, and Chonso - A father, mother, and son. Sometimes it was also arranged as father, son, and mother, with the son in the middle of the two parents. For Memphis, the trinity was made up of Isis, Nepththys, and Homsor (Also known as Isis Nephthys Osiris or Isis Osiris and Horus). This trinity was often declared as only being one god, rather than three, even as early as the 8th century BC. Hey, that's before the christian trinity!
Link 4: The Snake
I do not really know how much this one matters, but the snake was evil in Egyptian mythology too. Often a goddess was portrayed as conquering the evil snake. Hey - sounds like Mary!
Link 5: Luke 1, 2
These passages deal with the Annunciation, Conception, Birth, and Adoration of the Child. If you've never read them before, just read Luke 1:26-39, and Luke 2: 4-21 and you will get the important stuff (there's a lot of rambling in the Bible).
Well, similar stories were also associated with the birth of Egyptian Kings. Here's the story: Thoth, the messenger of the gods, tells the maiden queen that she will give birth to a son who is to be King _insert name here_. Then the god Kneph, the spirit, and the goddess Athor both take hold of the queen's hands and put into her mouth the character of life - which is the life of the coming child. The child is born and attending nurses then hold up the baby over which they write his name as declared by Thoth. He holds his finger to his mouth to mark his infancy, since he cannot yet speak. Then several gods and priests attend in adoration upon their knees to present gifts to the child.
I'm sorry, but that much similarity cannot possibly be a coincidence. The conception and birth of Jesus is an exact copy of the conception and birth of Egyptian Pharaohs, whose mothers were ALWAYS "virgins". The Egyptians even considered their kings to be the son of Ra - the King of the Gods - and sometimes the third part of the trinity. The newborn king does not owe his birth to the father from whom he inherited his crown, rather was born by a miraculous conception. His mother was often styled as the wife of Ra.
The other miraculous conception in Egyptian mythology (this makes me snicker), is that of Apis of Memphis - the holy bull - who was also born not of an earthly father, rather engendered with divine influence. The cow, it's mother and a virgin, never had a second calf.
Link 6: Atonement for Sins
One of the most common sculptures on the walls and columns of the temples is that of the King presenting his gift to the gods as atonement for his own sins as well as those of the people. The Kings were viewed as mediators between their people and the gods. In fact, ancient Egyptians worshiped in fear instead of gratitude a majority of the time. Their prayers and sacrifices were sin-offerings rather than thank-offerings.
This sounds so familiar that I cannot possibly believe that this principle did not provide the foundation for how Christianity approaches sins. It even explains why Jesus would die for his people's sins (and where the hell that bizarre story came from). Maybe it doesn't explain how Jesus dying atoned for sins (I really don't get it), but I can only assume that made sense to Egyptians at the time, or that it came from some strange cultural point of view.
Link 7: Priestly Practices
Celibacy in ancient Egyptian society probably always existed for some of the priestly class, but it was not considered a religious virtue until later. A certain select group of priests and priestesses lived their entire lives confined within the temple and probably never married.
Also, some priests practiced self-torture, something practiced by certain sects of Christianity, such as Opus Dei. Some of these practices included gashing their bodies with knives in order to show grief for their sins and unworthiness.
Also copied into Judaism is the crown of the high priest. It is similar to the crown of the kings of unified Egypt, the combination of the two crowns of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt: A combination of cloth and gold.
So, some people would argue that these similarities indicate that the fundamentals of Christianity must be in the right place, since they are older than Christianity itself. I offer that perhaps it is more an indication that religion is merely a cultural phenomenon, evolving over time based on influences and events, and that it has nothing to do with what is true at all.
Makes more sense to me.
Very nice ma'am.
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