I'm not trying to make other people question their faith. I just have nagging doubts about my own based on things like this that make reasonable points that I can't refute. Shall I abandon intellectual debate because of where it might lead? I don't know.
Of course not, darsemnos, thanks for posting the video! It is always good to test your faith.
I would like to make a short comment about the pagan god's (from the video) which seem to resemble Christ/Christianity.
If such similarities were factual don't you think the historians and scholars would ALL discredit Christianity? The fact is, they do
not; though, I must admit, many claim Jesus Christ was merely a "good teacher". It is true that the pagan god's mentioned in the video preceded Christ in history;
however, their mentioned attributes/characteristics were most likely developed sometime in the first few centuries
AFTER Christ. It is widely known that with the so called "explosion" of Christianity in the first few centuries, many cult groups begin to adapt and copy the themes and teachings of Christianity in order to attract the masses.
To summarize, the "borrowing" of teachings
(i.e. Born of a Virgin, Star in the East, Resurrection) was actually done by the pagan religions,
NOT Christianity. Think about it, darsemnos; If the writers of the new testament really did just copy from other ancient religions
why did they suffer and die for the sake of the gospel? No person would die for a "Jesus" who they made up!
EDIT: Furthermore, what about all the old testament phrophecies of Christ dating back to before 4000BC?
As if the above facts alone are not enough to show the video (atleast the part about pagan gods) is a hoax, read on...
I sent an email to 20 of the world's leading Egyptologists, outlining the following claims put forth by Kuhn (and hence Harpur) [POSTER NOTE: Two man who seem partially responsible for the below claims]:
* That the name of Jesus was derived from the Egyptian "Iusa," which means "the coming divine Son who heals or saves".
* That the god Horus is "an Egyptian Christos, or Christ.... He and his mother, Isis, were the forerunners of the Christian Madonna and Child, and together they constituted a leading image in Egyptian religion for millennia prior to the Gospels."
* That Horus also "had a virgin birth, and that in one of his roles, he was 'a fisher of men with twelve followers.'"
* That "the letters KRST appear on Egyptian mummy coffins many centuries BCE, and . . . this word, when the vowels are filled in, is really Karast or Krist, signifying Christ."
* That the doctrine of the incarnation "is in fact the oldest, most universal mythos known to religion. It was current in the Osirian religion in Egypt at least four thousand years BCE."
Only one of the 10 experts who responded to my questions had ever heard of Kuhn, Higgins or Massey! Professor Kenneth A. Kitchen of the University of Liverpool pointed out that not one of these men is mentioned in M. L. Bierbrier's Who Was Who in Egyptology (1995), nor are any of their works listed in Ida B. Pratt's very extensive bibliography on Ancient Egypt (1925/1942). Since he died in 1834, Kitchen noted, "nothing by Higgins could be of any value whatsoever, because decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphs was still being finalized, very few texts were translated, and certainly not the vast mass of first-hand religious data."
Another distinguished Egyptologist wrote: "Egyptology has the unenviable distinction of being one of those disciplines that almost anyone can lay claim to, and the unfortunate distinction of being probably the one most beleaguered by false prophets." He goes on to refer to Kuhn's "fringe nonsense."
The responding scholars were unanimous in dismissing the suggested etymologies for Jesus and Christ. Professor Peter F. Dorman, of the University of Chicago, commented: "It is often tempting to suggest simplistic etymologies between Egyptian and Greek (or other languages), but similar sequences of consonants and/or vowels are insufficient to demonstrate any convincing connection."
Ron Leprohan, of the University of Toronto, pointed out that, while "sa" means "son" in ancient Egyptian and "iu" means 'to come," Kuhn/Harpur have the syntax all wrong. In any event, the name 'Iusa' simply does not exist in Egyptian. The name 'Jesus' is a Greek derivation of a Semitic name ("Jeshu'a") borne by many people in the first century.
While the image of the baby Horus with Isis has influenced the Christian iconography of Madonna and Child, this is where the similarity stops. [...] there is no evidence for the idea that Horus was virgin born. And the New Testament Mary was certainly not a goddess (like Isis).
There is no evidence for the idea that Horus was 'a fisher of men' -- or that his followers, the King's officials, were ever 12 in number. KRST is the word for "burial" ("coffin" is written "KRSW"), but there is no evidence whatsoever to link this with the Greek title "Christos" or the Hebrew "Mashiah".
[...]
Kuhn/Harper's redefinition of "incarnation," and their attempt to root this in Egyptian religion, is regarded as bogus by all the Egyptologists I consulted. According to one: "Only the pharaoh was believed to have a divine aspect, the divine power of kingship, incarnated in the human being currently serving as the king. No other Egyptians ever believed they possessed even 'a little bit of the divine'."
As you can see the claims made in the video are utter nonsense. It is a very well made video with very nonfactual information.
God bless! ;D
