Back Into The Apologetic World

I’m quite proud of myself, as I have been feeling mighty academic lately.  In the past two weeks, I’ve managed to read three books.

• One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven by Mark Cahill
• The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
• What’s So Great About Christianity by Dinesh D’Souza

The latter will be finished today.  I have more books on the horizon, as for some reason, I’ve really enjoyed reading lately, once again.  It is challenging me daily to study into different concepts and ideas.

One of which I have posted previously.  In fact, I briefly mentioned it on my very first blog post EVER!

In many atheist circles, there is a bogus claim that the story of Jesus Christ is just another account of a god, based off of previous stories told about other Egyptian, Roman, Persian, and Hindu gods.  I’ve had the privilege over the past 24 hours to speak with an atheist I met on Yahoo! Answers, and it has been fun to say the least.  I’d like to share some of the conversation here.

It all started as I responded to the claim mentioned above, that Christ came from the story of Horus, and that Horus was crucified, resurrected, fed 5,000 people with bread, and other great things.  I simply posted:

Can you please show me where these stories occur that pre-date Christ?

Really, it’s a simple request.  I just want to know where these stories originate from.  Show me the book.  Show me the wall paintings and translation of the hieroglyphics that tell the story of the time that Horus fed 5000 people with bread.  Obviously, if this is common knowledge, as is constantly suggested, it is nothing more than easily accessible.

That’s when my new friend approached me.  He sent me an email through Yahoo! Answers with two websites enclosed.  Let me copy and paste his first email below, as it really sets the stage for what ensues:

 http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/HORUS.htm

3000 BC is 3000 years before your christ.

Horus, the Egyptian Falcon-god, is “lord of the sky” and a symbol of divine kingship. His name (“Har” in Egyptian) probably means “the high,” “the far-off,” “the distant one” and is connected with “Hry” (“one who is above/over”). The name appears on Egyptian hieroglyphs in the royal protocol at the very beginning of dynastic civilization (c. 3000 BC).

http://listverse.com/2009/04/13/10-christ-like-figures-who-pre-date-jesus/

seriously man, do a little reading and learning before making claims against people.

I replied back to him after looking at the second link.  I agreed that Horus predated Christ as a story, but I was still wanting to know where I could find the story where he fed 5000 people, was crucified, born of a virgin, or resurrected.  In fact, I just wanted any information that was parallel to that story of Christ.  So, after I emailed him, I looked at the first link.  This was interesting to me and showed me how great of a debate this would be.  It is a Christian website that debunks the Horus vs. Jesus parallels. 

Since then, I have been called names, stupid, childish, and expletives.  I’ve still not had a single thing sent to me that shows me where Horus is compared to Jesus.  All in all, he has replied with nine emails, most of them filled with hate because I’m a Christian refusing to see the “truth” of….I haven’t figured that one out.

So, when he made those claims, I explained to him the story of Horus:

• Horus was known as the “sky god”
• Horus was not the son of a virgin.  Instead, his mother Isis was married to Osiris.  Nowhere are claims made that he was born of a virgin.  Although, he was born in a miraculous way.  Horus’ father was killed by Seth.  Isis decided to put Osiris’ body back together after he was dismembered and have sex with it.  Voila, we have Horus.
• There are no records of Horus’ mother being called “Meri” as many of them claim.  Her name was Isis.  It was not Isis-Meri, Meri-Isis, or just Meri.  It was Isis. This comes from the book by Acharya S. which many Christ mythers read and use.  The problem is when this claim is made, there is no footnote to where this claim can be validated…
• Horus was born in a swamp.
• Horus was never recorded as feeding 5000 people.
• Horus was not crucified.  Instead, there are two stories.  One, he is killed and cut into fourteen different pieces and cast into the water.  Later, he was fished out by a crocodile.  The second story is the prevailing story in which he is never killed at all.

It pays to know what you’re talking about.  A little research into the real stories behind Horus, Hercules, Isis, Osiris, Mithra, Zeus, Odin, or any of the other gods that atheists seem to be obsessed with quickly reveals what the real story is.  

After I presented all of this information to my new friend, he simply ignored it.  His response was, “Prove Jesus was real.”  One thing I have learned is that when you’ve ticked someone off because you’ve proven them false, they’re not going to listen to you.  I simply told him, “The moment that you present factual evidence for your claims, I’ll do the same for mine.”  That was five emails ago.  Poor guy.  I actually got four different emails while I slept.  He insulted me and my intelligence in all of them, but again, he never provided any proof for his claims.

The conversation turned to Hercules after Horus, which quickly was finished there too.

Basically, Hercules is claimed to have been killed on a funeral pyre when he was lit on fire which brought some sort of freedom to all people so they didn’t have to face his problems or something of the sort.  The problem is there are no stories where Hercules dies.  Before he is burned alive on the Pyre, he is brought to Mt. Olympus by Hera because he had suffered enough.  Also, no stories record his death as bringing salvation or anything to other people.

Mithra was next, but I think I made him mad.  I sent an article from Tufts university about Hercules.  I pointed out that this is definitely a neutral source.  I even appealed to the fact that Daniel Dennett, a renown atheist works at Tufts.  To this, he told me that is not a valid source as it is a church funded university, so everything they write would have a Christian slant.  To each his own, I suppose.

Simply put, Christ mythers ignore evidence.  Their sources are the movie Zeitgeist or something of the sort.  They’ll read books by Acharya S and Gerald Massey which present evidence but have no sources for their evidence.  A simple look at the real stories and translations of these pagan gods quickly reveals the truth.

I hope this has been interesting and helpful to somebody.  If you’ve ever debated with anyone, then you understand the frustration that comes.  If you’ve ever had doubts, then this should reaffirm you.  

Christianity is a unique story put in place by a wonderful, magnificent, Creator.