Isn't it just a tad bit curious that Jesus was not the first "virgin" birth recorded in religious history? :shrug:
Fascinating coincidence. And even how many other gods took on some material form so they could walk among men, so to speak? But how do gods "get born", you might have asked the ancient yarn spinner, back in the day, as you were sitting around the campfire trying to work this out. There is only one way to get born, and that is: with the considerate help of a hostess. So how does the seed get planted? Well, the yarn spinner would quickly realize--invariably feeling uncomfortably backed into the corner--it couldn't be the seed of a man, because we know it produces only human babies. So... well we've
heard of births from women who
swore they were virgins. Aha! the man-god must be of virgin origins, too.
What's really great about religion is that it's so flexible. Or, to be more accurate, it's so quick to turn hard solid evidence into Silly Putty.
One really great consequence of the internet is that this primordial campfire is brought to us daily, amid the mountain of evidence we have to ascertain truth, to see this kind of phenomenon, the evolution of religion, for what it really is. Plus, even more interesting, is the vast denial that still abounds, even molded into some highly developed apologetics. Take for example this site that caught on to folks like you:
Mithraism was one of the major religions of the Roman Empire which was derived from the ancient Persian god of light and wisdom. The cult of Mithraism was quite prominent in ancient Rome, especially among the military. Mithra was the god of war, battle, justice, faith, and contract. According to Mithraism, Mithra was called the son of God, was born of a virgin, had disciples, was crucified, rose from the dead on the third day, atoned for the sins of mankind, and returned to heaven. Therefore, the critics maintain that Christianity borrowed its concepts from the Mithra cult. But is this the case? Can it be demonstrated that Christianity borrowed from the cult of Mithra as it developed its theology?
So they set this site up just to help their followers defend against such reasoning. But look at the really lame defense they give:
First of all, Christianity does not need any outside influence to derive any of its doctrines. All the doctrines of Christianity exists in the Old Testament where we can see the prophetic teachings of Jesus as the son of God (Zech. 12:10), born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), was crucified (Psalm 22), the blood atonement (Lev. 17:11), rose from the dead (Psalm 16:10), and salvation by faith (Hab. 2:4). Also, the writers of the gospels were eyewitnesses (or directed by eyewitnesses as were Mark and Luke) who accurately represented the life of Christ. So, what they did was write what Jesus taught as well as record the events of His life, death, and resurrection. In other words, they recorded history, actual events and had no need of fabrication or borrowing.
What a crock. This reflects one of the great fallacies of fundamentalism, that the Old Testament Jews were anticipating Christ. The first cite, Zech. 12:10, is utterly bogus, it makes mention of a son being stabbed, but is completely unaware of a crucifixion, or that this son is the putative Son of God. Then of course is the famous prophecy from Isaiah 7:14 -
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. This makes no sense either because Mary wasn't told by the angel to name him Emanuel, but Ieusous, which not only the wrong name, but the wrong language - Greek, not Hebrew. Besides, Isaiah 7:14 isn't connecting this son to a son of God either.
What these folks have done is: they have gone through the Old Testament and scoured it to find any phrase that might give them a clue that there was a connection. Then they invented the connection themselves. Then, to disguise their dishonesty, they accuse other Christian churches of being "man-made". This is especially effective in attacking Catholicism, so they can at the same time justify their heresy against the oldest surviving Western source of Christian tradition, which would seem to be more authentic - except of course it has this fatal flaw, it's a church created by men. Then they can just as easily rifle through their scriptures to find the passages that don't explain the things they see going on in Catholicism - that Jesus wanted a Roman pope to run his church, or that Mary was a saint etc.
This highly evolved dishonesty, with layer upon layer of deception, is acting under cover of the purveyor of the greatest standards of human ethical behavior. But it all boils down to the very thing that you pointed out, which is really remarkable: all of their basic tenets of faith are borrowed from other religions, other cultures, long lost legends and myths, and of course, generous doses of superstition. And then, since science conflicts with the tenets of their superstition, they get involved in politics, and try to bend society the same way they bend reality, the same way they bend the scriptures, and the same way they bend their followers.
I got a little carried away, but you made such a good point, it's often overlooked. Of all the flaws in fundamentalism, the many deep layers of denial blind them to the obvious connection between Jesus and Mithra, or of other similar archetypes in the region, from Persia to Egypt, and from Greek and Roman beliefs that prevailed during the time the Jesus story first took root.