CADRE Comments

It's just about Christmas time again, which means that 'skeptics' will be trotting out the old hoary 'Christ=Mithras' chestnuts again, while Christian apologists will be having oodles of fun poking holes in the theory. The latter get an early present this year: an excellent demolition job by Chris Romer. Enjoy!

One of the few claims made by the site discussed here (background Mithra post here ) that is supported by a reference is: ‘Today the Vatican stands where the last sacrament of the Phrygian taurobolium was celebrated.’ (S. Angus, The Mystery Religions , p235)." Although unstated, the point seems to be that this is further evidence that Christianity is derived from Mithraism. I have not been able to verify this claim, either to see what Angus says or the basis for his statement. In any event, even if the assertion is true it does not support the claim that Christianity is derived in some sense from Mithraism or some other mystery religion. Many cultures built holy sites on another culture's previous holy sites. This is not the result of a gradual evolution of, for example, a temple of one religion into a church of another. Instead, it is usually the result of an attempt of one distinct religion to supplant or replace another distinct religion. My first examples comes fr...

The desperation with which Jesus Myth sympathizers cling to the possibility of Christian copying of Mithraism is good evidence of their willingness to sacrifice reason and dispassionate inquiry. As a mini-case study I will look at the way a Jesus Myth website (jesusneverexisted.com) advances the Mithra-Christianity Copycat Theory (in an article titled, "Dress Rehearsal for Christianity"). This is Part 1. The article itself is not well organized, so please have patience as I work through it section by section. The Sources The site leads off with a list of 14 impressive sounding books identified as “Sources.” Although a few choice quotes are extracted from some of these books, most of the site's assertions are unsupported by any reference (to the listed sources or otherwise). For those tidbits that have citations, they generally are unrelated to the task of proving that Christianity copied Mithraism. Indeed, one of the books they cite so completely contradicts the si...