The Philosopher Celsus critisised Christians for trying to pass off the Jesus story as a new revelation when it was actually an inferior imitation of pagan myths. He asked:
" Are these distinctive happenings unique to the Christians - and if so, how are they unique"? Or are ours to be accounted myths and theirs believed? What reasons do Christians give for the distinctiveness of their beliefs? In truth there is nothing at all about what the Christians believe, except that they believe it to exclusion of the more comprehensive truths about god" Indeed, and well said that man.
How could pagan myths which predate Christian beliefs about their god-man Jesus by hundreds if not thousands of years (in the case of Mesopotamian myths and legends) have so much in common with the life story ' one and only savior ' Jesus ?
The common thread that relates all the gods and heroes of many cultures and religions is the myth that these deities, for one reason or another , die and then after their corpse's have been left stinking and rotting in one kind of a tomb or grave for days on end, they have suddenly and for reasons explainable, have just, hey presto! sprung back to life.!!! like is was all magic trick. <<<<< there may be some truth to that yet.
It also appears that many of these - once dead for a few days and come alive again gods - have another thing in common, they are all, or many of them are born of virgins where some god/ or ghost or spirit as come unto them while they slept and then come into them thereby impregnating them with the new god or hero them.
Examples:
Gautama Buddha: born of the virgin Maya Around 600 BC
Dionysus: Greek god, born of a virgin in a stable and turned water into wine !!!
Quirrnus: born of a virgin and known as a Savior.
Attis: born of a virgin in Phrygia around 200 BC
Indra: born of a virgin in Tibet around 700 BC.
Krishna: Hindu god, born of a virgin devaki around 1200BC.
Adonis: Babylonian god born of a virgin ishtar.
Zoroaster: born of a virgin around 1500 BC.
And there is Mithra. Mithra is particularly problematic for Christians as I once explained here #12 and here's why:
Christianity/ Christians, who have adopted all kinds of myths and legends (and gods) ,from many cultures will deny anything that shines a light on how fraudulent their `religion` actually is. The whole foundation of their/christian ideology comes from Persia. Before the Christ there have been many dying and rising gods born of "virgins" but the one in particular that is awkward for Christians is the cult of Mithra; born of a virgin, in a stable on 25 December over 600 years before Christ!!!! Mithraism is an off-shoot of the more ancient Persian cult of Zoroaster which was introduced into the Roman Empire around 67 BC.
Zoroastrian beliefs and doctrines include immortality, a sacramental meal, a savior god, resurrection, last judgment, heaven hell and a few other things that I can't remember off the top of my head. Yet you can guarantee that Christians will have it that Mithraism/ Zoroastrianism are both pagan religions, while denying that their own religion has very firm foundations in both these `pagan` cultures.
So, over the centuries it can be clearly seen that many innocent young girls have been giving birth to children of gods and if the Romans had decided to adopt any other one of these dying and rising gods born of virgins, then we may have been reading things like ' Attis loves you, ' or `Quirrnus saves ' in the back windows of modern vehicles today in the 21st century.