Some people see plagiarism as just borrowing an idea and not giving the person who created it acknowledgement or credit, but it’s much more serious than that. To put it bluntly, plagiarism is blatant fraud, and deception, thus giving someone the impression that the work, be it arts, or literature, is a work of their own. Nowadays books, movies and music are classed as intellectual property and are often protected by copyright laws, and if they are infringed, legal action often ensues.

To present something as an original piece of work without giving credit to the source surely can’t be that important, can it? It can if a population of over 2,000,000,000 people take the work literally, and allow it to control their lives, the lives of others, govern nations or states, and be responsible for the outbreak of countless wars and conflicts. When you look at it that way, it’s extremely important and detrimental to society.

 

The Holy Bible

So let’s look at the Bible, and attempt to gather evidence to support its alleged authenticity. The Old Testament is said to have been started from as far back as 1200 years BC, and is the original Hebrew Bible containing alleged scriptures, stories and ‘word of God’ from the Jewish faith, and the New Testament was allegedly written by Christians in the first century AD.

Dare I say that perhaps the Bible wasn’t God’s word after all, and a collection of scammers got together after studying ancient traditions, stories and lore from cultures and civilisations that pre-dated them, and decided to copy and paste, just changing a few details to embellish the story. If it was God’s word, then surely he’d have left out all the abominable acts of cruelty that he was responsible for, as what kind of God wishes for his legacy to be a tyrannical, evil dictator, that gets upset when his name is taken in vain, or someone dares to do go against his will. Considering Satan is painted out to be the evil one, he’s not mentioned that much in the Bible, and in comparison to God, he’s a bit of a lightweight in the world of evil.

 

Creationism

Young Earth creationism is the most common form of creationism, which believes that the Earth, the Universe and all in it, was created by God in six days, between six thousand and ten thousand years ago, beginning with Adam and Eve.

If this is the case, then why was it thousands of years before anyone started writing the Bible, and why didn’t God offer Adam a Quill and some parchment and get him to learn shorthand, so God could inform him of the facts?

 

Jesus

I’ve read up about the myth surrounding Jesus recently and the suggestions that Jesus wasn’t one man, but many preachers in the areas of Canaan, and stories about them were gathered and compiled into one legend, the legend ‘Jesus son of Joseph’. This would have been how people addressed him, as the father’s name was always included. He would have only been called Jesus Christ after his death, as Hebrews believed he was an incarnation of God, and Christ means the ‘Messiah’.

If he was the son of God, and was the result of an immaculate conception, why? Why did Mary go through childbirth, and Joseph have to live a lie pretending that he was the biological father? If God was able to build Adam from dust, and Eve from a rib, why didn’t he just send Jesus down as a grown man, instead of having to endure being a child, going through puberty and growing into a man? It makes absolutely no sense forcing a young married couple to bring up a child that they weren’t planning on having.

 

Canaan

Why are all the events in the Bible located in and around Canaan? The world is a vast place, with many civilisations pre-dating the Bible by thousands of years, yet none of them can corroborate any of the events that took place in the Bible.

Just look how close Egypt is to Israel. If there was a Great Flood, would Egyptian scholars not have made a record of it, or at least mention that the deserts were a little moist for a few months?

The Pyramid of Khafre, which is part of the Pyramids of Giza date back to what some archaeologists maintain as far as 4,500 years BC, so there’s a high chance that they existed during the time of the alleged flood. The pyramids were made from limestone and the outer layer was polished, which historians claimed was robbed, not damaged by a flood, and as you can see in the below photograph, part of the outer layer still exists at the peak, that’s said to have originally been covered with a shiny metal, perhaps gold.

Mesopotamia

I wrote an article a week ago about Iraq, and covered Mesopotamia.

‘Before the 6th century the area of Iraq, Syria and south Eastern Turkey was known as Mesopotamia (between two rivers) and the land was known as ‘Al-Jazirah’ (The Ísland) by Arabs. Due to the land being so fertile, civilisation goes back as far as 10,000 BCE due to archaeological discoveries.’

 

10,000 years BCE? Surely that contradicts the Young Creationists belief that the Earth is no older than 10,000 years old?

 

‘In Mesopotamian pantheism there were over 1,000 deities, and many of the stories from the Bible have been taken from Mesopotamian lore, including (Enûma Eliš), the Babylon creation myth, and Noah’s Great Flood. Mesopotamian society were described by archaeologists and historians as the first to bring many useful resources to civilised society, that include: The First Moral Ideals.‘

 

Noah

So the creation myth, and moral ideals are two things that Christianity have blatantly stolen with no shame or remorse. So let’s look at our old friend, Noah. He was apparently 600 years old when God sent the flood, despite this from a previous chapter.

 

‘Genesis 6:3  Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.‘

 

We can let that inconsistency stand, as maybe God forgot.

 

The thing that baffles me about Christianity is how can they love a God, and believe that he loves them, when he says that humans were a mistake, and on top of that, he punishes all of the Earth’s wildlife too.

 

Genesis 6.7 I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them’

 

Utnapishtim

Utnapishtim, is a character in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is a Mesopotamian poem , written in the Akkadian language. Mesopotamians were polytheists and in the story of Utnapishtim, the Gods decided to send a flood to destroy all life, but Ea (God of wisdom and water) gave Utnapishtim forewarning advising him to build a ship, save his family and all the plants and wildlife he could gather. After the flood he and his wife were made immortal by the Gods and became ancestors to humanity. Sound familiar?

The Epic of Gilgamesh was written during the time of Third Dynasty of Ur, which was 22nd to 21st century BC, a thousand years before the writers of the Old Testament began.

 

Jesus vs Dionysus

Let’s go back to our other Biblical friend, Jesus. Now as we well know, he’s not only an incarnation of God, but he’s also God’s son (hmm, okay). He was born to a mortal mother by immaculate conception. He walked on water, turned water to wine, was betrayed and executed, died for our sins and rose from the dead.

Dionysus, was a Greco-Roman God of wine (wine? Hmm) who was a prominent fable in the Mycenaean culture which dates back almost 2,000 years AD. Dionysus was a son of Zeus, the leader of all the Gods, and daughter of a mortal woman called Semele, and he eventually became one of Twelve Olympians who lived on Mount Olympus. (Twelve? All sounding familiar again).

He was killed by Titans under Hera’s command, Zeus’ wife, and came back to life, coincidence? Even the idea that Jesus was born on the 25th of December has controversy surrounding it, as why did it take until 5th century AD before Christians claimed the date? The Romans claimed 25th December was the birth date of their God, Sol Invictus, that the Roman Emperor Aurelian created the cult of during his reign, and Sol Invictus was renowned for defeating the darkness .

Historian Dr Thomas said this in his book, ‘Clash of the Gods’

 

‘Early Christian art is rich with Dionysiac associations, whether in boisterous representations of agape feasting, in the miracle of water-into-wine at Cana, in wine and vine motifs alluding to the Eucharaist, and most markedly…in the use of Dionysiac facial traits for representations of Christ.’

 

Mithra

Mithra, or Mithras, was a Persian God, who was the God of light, and was actually a religion in the Roman Empire and known as Mithraism, and it died off when Christianity became popular, as it was heavily persecuted by Roman Christians. The first recorded mention of Mithra goes back 1,400 years BC, before the Bible was written. Mithra was allegedly the portrayer of truth, and some scholars claim he was born of a virgin, and was executed after being betrayed.

I’ve researched this heavily and in all honesty I think the Mithras–Jesus myths may have borrowed from each other, although Mithras’ birthday was allegedly 25th December. And whilst scholars and historians can’t make direct claims of plagiarism, but perhaps sharing a common theme of the age. Self-sacrifice, both born of Gods, and both died as saviours, are certainly similar but was it the culture of the moment?

 

Pandora’s Box

In Greek mythology, Pandora is the first woman and is known as the ‘one who bears all the gifts’ All of the Gods gave her one of their traits, and she was give. special gifts that were kept in a pithos, and she was told never to open it, but being a human, curiosity outweighed her obedience and she opened it letting out greed, envy, hatred, pain, disease, hunger, poverty, war, and death.

I’m sure that you’ll agree that there are two distinct similarities between Pandora and Eve. Both are created in the image of the creator. Both are told to leave something alone, yet their curiosity gets the better of them, and disobeying good judgement can have dire consequences. Both Christianity and Greek polytheism use disobeying God as the reason why humans suffer from disease and sin. Eve’s punishment was women having extreme pain during child birth, and Pandora was punishment for man accepting the gift of fire from Prometheus.

Try engaging with any Christian about other religions and they’ll always say the same thing.

‘Yahweh is the one true God’

 

My opinion of this has always been a mixture of them either being ignorant, or arrogant or perhaps even both at times. If they believe that all other fables of Gods aren’t to be taken seriously, they should look at the comparisons in Christianity to many other religions, then surely their argument has little to no weight.

 

Zoroastrianism

There is a strong possibility that the majority of the world’s religions were heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism, which predates almost every existing religion, and is still practised to this day in parts of Iran and India. It deals with the concept of free will, and the dualism of good and evil. Zarathustra, an Iranian prophet is said to be the founder of Zoroastrianism, and the worship of the creator God, Ahura Mazdā. He allegedly created twin spirits, Spenta Mainyu was good, and Angra Mainyu was evil.

Historians believe that Zarathustra heavily influenced Judaism, and from that came the birth of Christianity. And many scholars accept that Judaism, and it’s Heaven and Hell, angels and demons is borrowed directly from Persian culture.

“As the Bible narrative unfolds, the depiction of the God of Israel gradually and perhaps inconsistently in parts evolves from a God of anger and vengeance who orders the massacre of entire peoples to a compassionate father of His people in the later prophetic books which serve as a bridge between Judaism and Christianity. The geographical and societal relationship between Zoroastrianism and Judaism could be used to explain this transformation” – Owlcation

 

Every good protagonist needs a good antagonist , and Zoroastrianism doesn’t let us down. Ahriman is God’s adversary and is responsible for everything that’s bad, wicked and evil, like anger, greed, envy and more serious things like death and disease. In Islam he’s called Iblis, and in Christianity he’s called Satan.