[Natsu]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

It wasn't a technical comparison. I think you've read too much into it, although given the context I can see how you might interpret it that way. You're probably thinking of the movie Zeitgeist or something along those lines, but the line wasn't meant in that context.

OK, understood. I hope you'll forgive my insistence on that point, but I really wanted to check that out. I have nothing against the people who made Zeitgeist (though they are severely mistaken in most of what they claim), but I find pretty annoying to find some people repeating Zeitgeist's claims without checking one single fact out. I got specially angry when they started vandalizing the articles about Horus at wikipedia, both in English and Spanish (and those were the only two languages I could check out, don't know what happened in other languages). I am very much for people investigating and opening their minds, but I am totally against people believing blindly the first "alternative" theory they are given, repeating it everywhere as if it was sacred, and vandalizing the wikipedia article because Horus doesn't get crucified enough there and Isis has lots of sex to conceive him.

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

The exact line from the article was, "You go, Horus!" It was meant as hyperbole. I could just as easily have written, "You go, Apollo!"

Erm... Your "You go, Horus!" was preceded by:

you’ll encounter various theories that Christianity’s teachings were largely assembled from pre-Christian myths and that Jesus himself was merely a fictional character pieced together from earlier mythical figures. You go, Horus!

Forgive me if I misunderstood, but the full paragraph sounds as if you were endorsing the Christ as a myth based in Horus theory... as presented by Ascharya S (one of Zeitgeist's sources) and the likes. There is no problem in thinking Jesus Christ didn't exist, nor in knowing he was provided with pagan characteristics... the problem is when you think it's based in the figure of Horus. You can say a lot of stuff about Jesus being a myth... but whatever myth it was, it had strong Jewish roots, and was "invented" in ancient Israel. The pagan flavour was added lately by the Romans after Constantine made Christianity official (and fully spoiled it by associating it to power). If you tell me that four Jewish writers got drunk and made a contest to invent a story, agreeing on the details previously, and came up with the gospels, now that'd a more historically correct theory. Oh, well, I'll stop now, I could go on for ages.

In short: if you were not endorsing that theory, but just talking about pagan-Christian syncretism, that's perfectly OK, sorry for the misunderstanding. As you guessed, I have read a lot on the subject of comparative Mythology, and I well know that the Romans did a lot of "adorning" of the figure of Jesus Christ with all the pagan details they liked: the 25th of December birth and many details directly copied from Mithras and Elagabalus cults are only a few examples. I know of those sincretic and copied aspects, and certainly I wish that people who consider themselves Christian (of any branch) were more informed about it. But the forced comparison with Horus creeps me out, so I had to check out where you had gotten it. If it is an hyperbole and an attempt to make people investigate about that, that's OK. No, it's better than OK, it's absolutely great. As I wrote, I have no problems with the "Jesus didn't exist" theories... as long as they are historically believable. The "Jesus from Horus" is just not, and is a travesty of ancient Egyptian mythology. You had the bad luck of finding a reader who is passionate about Mythology, (it's one of the drawbacks of having millions of readers ). It's just that I have found many instances in which some people warp myths as they like to prove their points. Whether it's people saying Horus was crucified, or Wiccans saying their religion is a cult that has been working since Neolithic... and survived all the time until now, I just get annoyed, as a physicist would get if I stared inventing the number of neutrons in atoms just because it suited my agenda, whatever it was.

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I picked Horus because the Eye of Horus is a symbol of power much like the crucifix is for the church. This was meant as a jab at history repeating itself... needing a powerful figure to idolize as a symbol. Maybe I was too subtle about it, but I didn't think it was a big deal.

Maybe I was too stubborn about getting this answer, but please try to get into my shoes. I don't have any problem with people don't knowing, but I have a high intolerance for people spreading mistaken data, and there is a huge spread of the data provided in Zeitgeist throughout all the internet. I have been insulted by some Zeitgeist fans because I dared write that the coincidences between Horus and Jesus portrayed in that movie are absolutely wrong. You'd have to see their words when I proved it using Zeitgeist's own sources. I am sorry if I asked too bluntly, but I am a little bit fed up of having people repeating everything they have seen in a movie without checking out their facts first, and just wanted to know where you had gotten the info.

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

During the 1990s I spent a lot of time researching pre-Christian mythology for a computer game I was working on. Due to a number of problems, the game never got published, but I enjoyed learning about those belief systems. It was interesting to see how the same patterns repeat themselves today. It took a while for religion to figure out that tithes are better than animal sacrifices.

I totally agree on this point. I am a passionate of both History and Mythology... though Mythology is my favourite because it's sort of the beginning of epic fantasy. I mean, having Zeus and his pals you don't need soap operas to have fun . I totally agree that it's fun to see how details and stories permeate neighbouring cults, and how much politics and paganism influenced Christianity as it is known today. I guess I'm picky about what is said about whom in mankind's myths.

Well, hope I didn't offend anyone. In any case, if whoever reads your blog thinks you are endorsing the Jesus-is-a-copy-of-Horus theory and believes it without checking his facts out, it'd be his fault and not yours. I can't expect you to do other people's thinking.

Thank you for answering , and sorry for being such a pest.