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you are here: > Key
Founders of Christianity > Chapter 02
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Chapter 2-The forgotten religious heritage | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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No religion begins in a vacuum. A religion is as much about an expression of a culture, a time and place in history as it is about how a group of humans see themselves in respect of this world, the universe and some greater spiritual being. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Except for the earliest religions of humanity, all other religions owe their birth to the pre-existence of other religions. |
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In other words, all religions of the world today have common religious parents, whether they know it or not or whether they believe it or not. |
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These common elements exist through different religions because of their shared importance and symbolism- for example the symbolism of life, death and resurrection. In another example, the symbolism of divine birth and the sacrifice of a king. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The existence of these common historical elements to older religions than Christianity and Christianity itself does not necessarily lessen the credibility or importance of Christianity. It merely removes Christianity from an unrealistic “bubble” and returns it to a cultural and historical context. |
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Major religions existed before Christianity. The ancient religions shared many of the common and most important symbols of human culture. |
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These are some of the most important cultural symbols of humanity, of which Christianity represents a cultural heritage with the past: |
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All of these common threads existed prior to Christianity. The evidence of these common themes come from multiple sources of archeological evidence that are without dispute. |
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Yet for many readers, this might be the first time you have ever seen such lists presented this way. The effect being profoundly disturbing, possibly even sickening. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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One question that might quickly come to mind is that if such evidence does really exist of Christianity sharing so many common themes with older religions, why haven't you heard about it before? The answer is it has and secondly because the "Impenetrable barrier of credibility" frequently makes us blind to the evidence. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Evidence of the pagan heritage of Christianity has existed for as long as Christianity has existed. By the height of the Dark Ages in 1000 CE, the ancient world had largely been burnt, destroyed and buried. But by the 19th Century, books about the evidence began to emerge across the world as archeology begane to unearth the past and decode ancient lost languages. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Unfortunately in the world of today, many shows and books try to sensationalize the information listed in the tables above- as if it is some grand conspiracy. It is no wonder why many Christians choose to ignore such information. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In truth, the fact that Christianity shares so much in common with older pagan religions is not evidence of itself to explain the history of Christianity, nor provide rational explanations to anomolies of behaviour between its founder Jesus Christ and generations of Popes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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At best it should explain why Christianity found such fertile ground across such a diverse cross section of cultures on different continents around planet Earth - because many of the themes are part of the common mythology and story of the human race. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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