It will take some time because I have a lot to do and I will find the pages etc. so you can see for your self.
I know it is hard to accept that there are many myths of many people and one doesn’t like the idea of something they were taught not to be the only person( or mythological person) who may have been added to one they were taught to be different. Just like the people who don’t or didn’t believe Elvis or John Kennedy was dead!
But I did. And it’s not there. It’s just not there.
Either prove me wrong by providing a cite, or admit that when you claimed that Osiris was said to have walked on water, you did not speak the truth.
What are you on about? I don’t think it’s the least bit hard to “accept that there are many myths of many people.” I also don’t think it’s the least bit hard to understand that religious and cultural traditions sometimes influence each other, borrowing traits and myths and stories. I certainly do not believe that Christianity is an exception - immune, somehow, to any and all influence from other religious or cultural traditions.
You seem to labor under the misconception that I am a Christian. I am not.
What I am, is someone who likes to get to the bottom of things.
So, back to Osiris and his (supposed) water-walk. You don’t have to re-read the entire book. You just have to check the index, under “W,” for “walking on water.” It should be at the very end of the second volume. Do it, please, and let me know what you find.
Isn’t that really a pretty trivial issue though? I mean according to Egyptian mythology the great god Kheprirolls the ball of the sun through the underworld from West to East every night, so how big of a deal is walking on water going to be?
What we are discussing here are supposed similarities between Jesus and any and all old Egyptian gods.
monavis claimed that one such similarity was that, like Jesus, Osiris was said to have walked on water. For the purposes of this discussion, this isn’t “pretty trivial” at all: As one of those supposed similarities, it’s perfectly relevant and on-topic.
Anyway, I asked for a cite for this claim; he didn’t provide one. I showed that the book where he claims to have encountered that claim does not, in fact, make that claim at all. He has stalled ever since.
Certainly, but both of you are missing the point in my opinion. What type of similarities are we going to consider important - those that are superficial or those that are actually meaningful?
Well, maybe a good way to go would be to list 'em all, and then go through them one by one, separating the superficial ones from the meaningful ones, not to mention the true ones from the false ones.
So far, monavis has given us nothing but weaksauce, easily picked apart by you, me, Dissonance and others.
I focussed in on monavis’ Osiris-was-said-to-have-walked-on-water claim not because I consider it an extraordinarily deep or meaningful example, but because it was one of his very few specific claims, which, if true, could be easily proven with a simple cite. But it’s not true, so he’s stalling.
You have a point there but then you open the way for people to focus only on those that are insignificant. So JC did this and so did X, JC was x years old when he first stubbed his toe and so was X, and so on.
It’s like those old Kennedy-Lincoln comparisons. You can eventually find enough insignificant points of comparison to make SOUND as if there is something meaningful there.
I started to read the first Volume of Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection and in the first 76 pages I found more simularites even more like what is said about Jesus and the God of Abraham. I will keep reading until I find the passage.
I am a little confused abotu what you are saying. “more simularites even more like what is said about Jesus and the God of Abraham”
What do you mean by that? Are you comparing Egyptian myths with the Bible itself, or with commentary on the Bible, or extra-Biblical sermons, or common folk religious superstitions, or what?
Consider this hypothetical for a second. Nuclear holocaust destroys much of human civilization. It takes centuries to rebuild, and much knowledge has been lost.
Two thousand year from now, future scholars try to rediscover history, based on books and documents that survived destruction. Scholars start to argue about Abraham Lincoln. Some believe he was a great leader of a great nation. But skeptics scoff at that idea.
The skeptics say, "Lincoln never existed. It’s OBVIOUS that he was just a myth, based on earlier legends of Jesus Christ. Look at the evidence;
Lincoln, like Jesus, wore a beard.
Lincoln, like Jesus, was venerated as a Great Liberator.
Lincoln, like Jesus, though destined for greatness, was born in a small, ramshackle wooden building.
Lincoln, like Jesus, preached benevolence, but was killed for it."
Now, are those parallels real? Sort of. But NONE of the parallels is close enough or eerie enough to suggest that Lincoln was just a fictional character based on Jesus. They wouldn’t persuade ANYONE who wasn’t already eager to believe that Lincoln wasn’t real.
Similarly, the much ballyhooed similarities between Jesus and other demigods of legend are pretty thin stuff.
As one example of astorian’s idea, I’ve heard it said by some that the story of Odin, in hanging himself from the World-Tree, might have been inspired by stories of Jesus as told to the Germans by Christian priests.
“Our God was hung on a cross…”
“Hm… Nice motif! We must incorporate that into our tales. Thank you!”
It would certainly seem possible…but how could we ever know for sure?
Coulda sworn I posted already a reply to this, but anyway:
Yeah, I see what you mean, but if all Massey’s Zeitgeistian Maherists (bandname…?) can deliver is a weak, shitty list of superficial similarities, well, then that stuff can easily be picked apart by the teeming millions.
And you should definitely do that, assuming you have the patience. Personally, I don’t. I’d rather distinguish between what’s relevant and what’s not and focus only on the former. But that’s just me. Of course if you see that other people are stupid enough to be swayed by the superficial bullshit, and the unfortunate fact of the matter is that they generally are, then if you have the fortitude to take up the fight, more power to you.
I hope you feel better. Take care. I had a bad cold recently that turned into bronchitis and meant a course of antibiotics. Better to take care of yourself now than pay for it later.