Right Reason

The blog of Dr Glenn Andrew Peoples on Theology, Philosophy, and Social Issues

Tag: copycat theories

Have Yourself a Very Pagan Christmas! (not)

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On December 23, 2015

In Christianity, church history, theology and biblical studies

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It’s that time of year. Christmas is just days away, and I’m pleasantly surprised our media in New Zealand hasn’t trotted out the same “scholars” as last time to break the scandalous story that… I don’t know, Jesus never really existed (yawn), Nazareth didn’t exist (uh huh), Israel never existed, Jesus was a gay feminist or something equally likely.

One reliable Christmas theme is that really, Christmas isn’t Christian in origins. You’ll hear things like:

“Someone keeps putting up “Keep Christ in Christmas” and “Christ is the reason” signs all around my town. I’m guessing they don’t know about the celebration’s pagan roots.”

That’s the caption that was attached to this “pagan traditions” picture. If you do start hearing this sort of things from those heathen carollers of the internet, this year give the gift of knowledge.

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Episode 038: Zeitgeist

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On December 30, 2010

In atheism, New Testament, podcast, theology and biblical studies

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At the request of a couple of listeners, this episode is a response to the documentary: Zeitgeist.

As I promised in the episode, here are a few links.

First, a link to some astronomical illustrations: http://www.tracer345.org/zeitgeist.html

And here are the links to my three part blog series on evidence for the historical Jesus outside the New Testament, as promised:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

You might also find it helpful to check out my previous blogs on copycat theories about the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

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Merry Mithras!

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On December 20, 2009

In apologetics, theology and biblical studies

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The grinches are at it again. Every year at Easter and Christmas the tired old wheels start squeaking and some of the detractors of Christianity start wheeling out a few predictable canards, all connected to the idea that Christianity is just a copycat religion and that the accounts of the life of Jesus of Nazareth that we have in the New Testament were just borrowed from other older religions.

Generally these attempts are now limited to personal websites and message boards on the internet, as they are so discredited that bringing them up at, say, a conference on New Testament studies, would get one laughed all the way home. But, unhappily resigned to the fact that some people only know what they know about theology or biblical studies because they read it at a website, it’s worth addressing some of these claims.

I’ve already dealt with the claim that the virgin birth was borrowed from Buddhism and the claim that Jesus’ life is just a re-hashed version of the life of Osiris. Another common “copycat” theory that floats around online is the claim that Jesus is a mythical character copied from Mithras.1

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  1. Although there is a Mithra and a Mithras in different ancient traditions, the copycat theory that I frequently observed makes no distinction between them. [↩]

The “virgin birth” of Buddha

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On April 11, 2009

In apologetics, religion, theology and biblical studies

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Did the story of the virgin birth of Jesus have its origin in older religious beliefs, like Buddhism?

A while ago I started chipping away at a blog entry on the claim that the virgin birth of Jesus is just a copy cat tale used by the early Christian church. The idea is that Christians borrowed this fictional element of the life of Christ from countless other myths. The view, although not well attested in scholarly literature, gained some popularity with online sceptics with the release of the sensationalist but error-ridden documentary Zeitgeist. This claim circulates at so-called sceptic websites and forums, rather than in serious scholarly critiques of religious belief. Unfortunately, such online forums are often teeming with a credulous audience who devour conspiracy theories and tales of coverups, with very little actual scepticism. I’ve decided not to write one long blog entry. Every now and then I’ll blog on one of the figures that the virgin birth Jesus was supposedly copied from.

(So please do not waste your time replying by saying “sure, THAT connection might not exist, but what about this OTHER myth that Jesus was copied from?” I’ll do them one at a time.)

Candidate #1: Gotama (Gautama) Buddha

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Episode 019: Osiris and Jesus

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On October 18, 2008

In apologetics, podcast, theology and biblical studies

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Is Jesus just Osiris with a new face? In Episode 19 I look at the sceptical argument claiming that Christianity was really just a collection of beliefs borrowed from pagan religions, and that Jesus was just a re-hash of one or many other Messiah or god-man figures. As there would be no way to deal with all of these other religions in one episode, I’ve chosen to use the example of the ancient Egyptian deity Osiris. In short, the sceptical argument is not particularly well supported by the facts.

Glenn Peoples

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