[Megan]

Some of those people might not be as nice as you! I have a feeling Lot knew that already....

By Cylon, Yesterday, 09:40 PM

While trying to get to the bottom of this stuff, I came across Gnostic Christianity. From what I've read, it's possible that early Christianity viewed Christ as a metaphor, or perhaps as a mythology that you could perhaps relate to, without actually identifying with the literal belief that Christ was real.

Because when you start to believe that Christ was real, you owe it to yourself to learn about the pagan beliefs/stories that predate Christianity, which JUST HAPPEN TO BE VERY SIMILAR to Christianity, and give you a bigger picture of this belief that has dominated for two thousand years.

All the stories of Christ, that many think are exclusive to Christianity, inconveniently happen to be the stories of other Gods from that era and before.

I suppose the easiest solution to this conflict would be, Satan went back in time and created fairy tales that would end up being almost identical to the stories in the New Testament, in order to throw us off the path, and perhaps screw us out of eternal life. That Satan is a real clever sort.

Well, actually, the Satan story doesn't do a lot for me....

If the historicity of Jesus, in any degree, could be proved, it would give us reason for supposing - what I have personally always been inclined to believe - that there was also a historical nucleus for such personages as Osiris, Mithra, Krishna, Hercules, Apollo and the rest.

The question, in fact, narrows itself down to this, Have there been in the course of human evolution certain, so to speak, nodal points or periods at which the psychology currents ran together and condensed themselves for a new start, and has each such node or point of condensation been marked by the appearance of an actual and heroic man (or woman) who supplied a necessary impetus for the new departure, and gave his name to the resulting movement?

Or is it sufficient to suppose the automatic formation of such nodes or starting-points without the intervention of any special hero or genius, and to imagine that in each case the myth-making tendency of mankind created a legendary and inspiring figure and worshiped the same for a long period afterwards as a god?

As I have said before, this is a question which, interesting as it is, is not really very important.

The main thing being that the prophetic and creative spirit of mankind has from time to time evolved those figures as idealizations of its "heart's desire" and placed a halo round their heads.

The long procession of them becomes a real piece of history--the history of the evolution of the human heart, and of human consciousness.

--Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds

Joshiepoo, the reason this is really, really OK, I think, is that Jesus is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."