Before Christianity

[OREZ]

What any of this has to do with the original post is anyone's guess but...

Much of the NT and Torah is copied old myths from thousands of years before Jesus and even Moses. The same stories rehashed with different names. If the good book is really the word of a deity, then this deity wasn't very inventive. He couldn't come up with something new?
For example the Egyptian Sun God Horus:
Born of a virgin
Born on 25th of December
Star in the east was guiding
three kings to see him
was baptized in the river Jordan
started ministry at age 30
had 12 disciples
performed miracles such as healing the sick
was crucified
dead for 3 days
and resurrected

sounds familiar? So are Christians worshipping Horus, or Mithra or 38 other ancient stories with the same script?

That's actually garbage. You've been duped and you'd know that if you knew anything about Horus or ancient Egypt.

For the sake of not wanting to take up a whole page, let me take just one of those "similarities"

Virgin birth:

(I'm going to assume that we all know the Christian virgin birth story so I won't waste space here for that but let's compare it to the story of Horus.)

Horus' "virgin birth" story:

Horus was born of Isis and Osiris. Osiris and Isis were husband and wife. Anyone in a highly sensual and sexualized culture like ancient Egypt who believed that Isis was a virgin even though she had a husband would likely be laughed at but I'll let that go.

Seth, Osiris' enemy, killed and dismembered Osiris. Isis was able to able to retrieve all of his body parts and reassemble him... all except his penis, that is. She had a golden phallus made and attached it to Osiris and was then impregnated and that's how Horus was conceived.

So... yeah, as you say, the bible story of the virgin birth is obviously taken from this myth. Every one of your comparisons can be just as easily taken apart but as I said in my first sentence, this isn't the topic of this thread which, if you'd care to read it is, "Before Christianity what did your ancestors believe?"

[kgcayenne]

*bleep* don't count, even if they are gold.

[reasonist]

If you would care to read my first two posts, you would realize that I just did that: reply to the original thread question. After that, I just replied to replies.
Secondly, if the husband is dead at the time of conception, it is considered a 'virgin' birth in historical context.
And you are right; let's not bother with the other eleven similarities. How about the story of Moses (Mises of Egypt) or the fable of Adam and Eve (Greek Pandora fable), Sargon of Akkade, and so many others. Goodness, to post them all would take pages you are right.
So again: Before Christianity the main belief systems were Judaism/Zionism/Paganism, Zoroastrianism, and depending on culture and geographic location a slew of other faiths.

[Glacier]

If you would care to read my first two posts, you would realize that I just did that: reply to the original thread question. After that, I just replied to replies.

And your replies where so full of lies that they sidetracked the topic. If youre going to spread false stories such as "Horus was born on December 25th" at least try to do with the topic at hand.

So again: Before Christianity the main belief systems were Judaism/Zionism/Paganism, Zoroastrianism, and depending on culture and geographic location a slew of other faiths.

Most of us were pagans since we came from Europe. What is Zionism?

[reasonist]

removed.

[OREZ]

if the husband is dead at the time of conception, it is considered a 'virgin' birth in historical context.

Classic example of the tactics used by the Zeitgeist people: Take well known terminology from one belief and use it to express something completely different in another, as in this case. As long as your definition of a virgin is a woman who has sex with dead guys, the comparison is considered valid.

Like Ptolemy Soter advised, try reading something a little closer to source material if you're really interested in this stuff.

And I did read your posts. That's why I don't think you understand the question in the original post. The OP asked people to try an imagine, speculate or whatever, what it was that your ancestors believed before Christianity came into existence.

[JonyDarko]

*bleep* don't count, even if they are gold.

lol When I made the original post I would never have guessed this would be a post in my thread... thank you for that.

[Glacier]

Now I know what inspired Austin Powers in Goldmember. It was the pre-Christian gods! Silly me for thinking it had anything to do with 007 in Goldfinger.

[Healthyskeptic]

I bet my ancestors worshipped Odin, Thor, Balder.
I won't for two reasons. I'm Atheist and don't need myths to give my life meaning. And the Norse religion thing is just too white power- y for me.

[Donald G]

Suffice to say that there have been more than 2000 gods throughout history. All of them professed or professing to be the only true god who obviously waited 14 billion years since the origin of the earth to make their presence known to the individual inhabitants, some of whom have identified themselves on this thread.

[OREZ]

Suffice to say that there have been more than 2000 gods throughout history. All of them professed or professing to be the only true god....

That's not correct. Most of the gods in that 2,000 are likely part of polytheistic religions? In other words, not believed to be "the one true god."

[cliffy1]

That's not correct. Most of the gods in that 2,000 are likely part of polytheistic religions? In other words, not believed to be "the one true god."

That would be correct. The gods never said anything of the sort. That was left up to insecure humans who invented them.
So why do those of the Abrahamic religions believe their god is the one true god? Why do they reject all the others? What makes them so cock sure that they are right and everybody else is delusional? Could it be ego insecurity or arrogance?

[Glacier]

I'm not sure if it's ego, insecurity, or arrogance, but I believe 1+1=2 and all other answers are wrong. Maybe it's all three.

[OREZ]

That's not correct. Most of the gods in that 2,000 are likely part of polytheistic religions? In other words, not believed to be "the one true god."

That would be correct. The gods never said anything of the sort. That was left up to insecure humans who invented them.
So why do those of the Abrahamic religions believe their god is the one true god? Why do they reject all the others? What makes them so cock sure that they are right and everybody else is delusional? Could it be ego insecurity or arrogance?

I'm not sure. People on the internet are always asking for generalizations when obviously one person can't speak for billions. Tell us, what is it that makes you "so cock sure" that you're right? That's at least a little more specific.

[cliffy1]

I'm not sure. People on the internet are always asking for generalizations when obviously one person can't speak for billions. Tell us, what is it that makes you "so cock sure" that you're right? That's at least a little more specific.

You may or may have not noticed that I really haven't said what I believe but what I believe is true, is only relative to me and I don't expect or ask others to believe as I do. One of the reasons for that is that I do not believe anything that I have not personally experienced. What I know is very personal. It is based on 40 years of study and experiences in the spiritual realms. The only authority I trust is my own intuition. From decades of conversations with people of many different faiths, I concluded that religion of any stripe is not something I would put any faith in. I have met many religious people who live what they believe but their percentage among believers is very small.