What religions do Christianity get there beliefs from?

Charles: What religions do Christianity get there beliefs from?
Ok I don’t believe in God for many reasons. But, someone told me that the Bible gets it information from other religions that where around before it was written. Of course Christians are going to say this not true. If there are any people out there that know history could you tell me if it is true.

Answers and Views:

Answer by HTacianas
Christianity has its origins in Judaism. The notion that Christianity borrowed its beliefs from other religions is false. But no, I cannot list for you all the claims made by detractors and why they are wrong. You’ll have to find them for yourself.

Answer by CC
Christianity bases itself on Judaism.

In addition, it weaves in a lot of resurrection mythology, and sacrifice mythology from ancient Egypt and Greece.

Answer by Jasper
The old testament of the bible is the jewish torah, which is the holy book of the jews. If christ existed, he was a Jew, and only later were his followers named Christians. Christianity has strong roots in, and many similarities with Judaism.

Answer by elyon
christian here – not true (I couldn’t help myself)

Answer by Old Fart
Most of Pauline Christianity comes from the Roman Mithra cult.

Answer by Bush43
Why would you ask the question if you knew what us Christian’s were going to say? Heres the thing: I belive in The Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit. I know for a fact that I will be with the Father, The Son and the Holy spirit for eternity when I die or when the Rapture takes place which ever comes first. Don’t try to question these things. Your choice not to belive in God, it is not such a good one beacuse you are missing out on a lot of Joy and probably don’t have a lot of peace in your life. I am sorry! I belive what the Holy word of the Lord my God says, nothing more! It is the total and absolute truth, the person who told this did not have their facts straight or you wouldnt have to come and ask this on here! God Bless You!

Answer by patheher
the people you are talking about say that there are SIMILARITIES between Christianity and other, older religions, like the gods of ancient Egypt and Greece. But these similarities are pretty much the same for nearly all religions. That some omnipotent being(s) created the universe and people, and so on and so forth.

Answer by Sarah
They based their holidays on Pagan sabbats to get Pagans to convert to Christianity.
Also, the symbol on a lot of Catholic churches, the triquetta, symbolizes the Mother, Maiden, and Crone, not the holy trinity or whatever Christians say it means. The triquetta was a Pagan symbol before the Christians started using it.

Some more info for the Christians who don’t believe me –

Here’s where Easter came from (Pretty much, the Christians f*cked up Pagan
customs and symbols to fit their holiday.)

To the casual observer, the two aspects of Easter seem somewhat incongruous. On
the one hand is the secular holiday, where children hunt for brightly colored
eggs in the grass and receive candy and toys in baskets brought by an
anthropomorphic rabbit. On the other hand is the religious observance, where the
Christian faithful mark the miraculous resurrection of their savior. While the
two sides seem to have nothing at all in common, they begin to make greater
sense when one considers the pagan roots of the holiday.

Fertility Goddesses
The word Easter itself is likely derived from Eostre, the Saxon mother goddess,
whose name in turn was adapted from Eastre, an ancient word for spring. The
Norse equivalent of Eostre was the goddess Ostara, whose symbols were an egg and
a hare, both denoting fertility. Festivals honoring these goddesses were
celebrated on or around the vernal equinox, and even today, when Easter has
supposedly been Christianized, the date of the holiday falls according to rather
pagan reckonings, i.e. on the Sunday following the first full moon after the
vernal equinox.

Bunnies, Eggs and Lilies

Rabbits, of course, are a potent symbol of fertility due to their prodigious
output of young. Eggs, likewise, have always been considered representative of
new life, fertility, and reincarnation. Painted eggs, thought to imitate the
bright sunlight and gaily colored flowers of spring, have been used in rituals
since the days of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. Lilies were also seen
as fertility symbols because of their perceived resemblance to male genitalia.
Even hot cross buns, associated with Lent, derive from the ancient Greeks and
Romans, who baked “magic” wheat cakes with crosses scored in the top; two of
these cakes were discovered in the ruins of Herculaneum, which was destroyed by
the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE.

Roots of Resurrection

The pagan celebrations most associated with modern Christian practices derive
from Mediterranean cultures. The Phrygians celebrated a spring festival honoring
Cybele, a fertility goddess. Cybele had a consort god named Attis, who was born
of a virgin, and who died and was resurrected after three days, an occurrence
commemorated sometime around the vernal equinox. Worshippers of Attis mourned
the god’s death on Black Friday, then celebrated his rebirth on the following
Sunday.
Attis was simply the latest manifestation of earlier resurrection myths, like
those of Osiris, Orpheus, Tammuz and Dionysus, who were likewise said to have
been born of virgins and resurrected three days after their deaths. In areas
where Christian beliefs later took hold, these already existing tales were
grafted onto the story of Jesus Christ, and continue to be retold to this day.
It seems that ever since the dawn of civilization, ancient peoples have always
associated spring with rebirth and resurrection, with nature’s reawakening
after the “death” of barren winter, and have further embodied the concept in
the person of a god or goddess.

Read more:

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And Christmas –

The answer lies in the pagan
origins of Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess
of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating
and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.
In Rome, the Winter Solstice
was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ. The Romans called their
winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. In January,
they observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over
death. This whole season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of
the Unconquered Sun. The festival season was marked by much merrymaking. It is
in ancient Rome that the tradition of the Mummers was born. The Mummers were
groups of costumed singers and dancers who traveled from house to house
entertaining their neighbors. From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was
born.
In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian
worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The
pagans of northern Europe celebrated the their own winter solstice, known as
Yule. Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was
observed on the shortest day of the year. As the Sun God grew and matured, the
days became longer and warmer. It was customary to light a candle to encourage
Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.
Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule itself means
“wheel,” the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun. Mistletoe was
considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began
as a fertility ritual. Hollyberries were thought to be a food of the gods.
The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all the northern European winter
solstices. Live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the harsh
winters as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again.
Evergreen boughs were sometimes carried as totems of good luck and were often
present at weddings, representing fertility. The Druids used the tree as a
religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and
worshipping huge trees.
In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on
December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as
possible for pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to
Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts
would not be taken away from them.
Christmas (Christ-Mass) as we know it today, most historians agree, began in
Germany, though Catholics and Lutherans still disagree about which church
celebrated it first. The earliest record of an evergreen being decorated in a
Christian celebration was in 1521 in the Alsace region of Germany. A prominent
Lutheran minister of the day cried blasphemy: “Better that they should look to
the true tree of life, Christ.”
The controversy continues even today in some fundamentalist sects.

Answer by mt75689
So lets see… you believe what someone told you, and then you assume what Christians are going to say…

I hate to blow your mind with facts, considering you don’t appear to operate with them, but Christianity has it’s roots in the Jewish religion. That’s it.

Some will try to insert mysticism and gnosticism in order to cheapen and disqualify it, but it simply isn’t true.

Sarah, in her over-zealous efforts to defame Christianity is actually speaking of The Roman Catholic Church ~ which isn’t really Christian. They are the ones who have embraced pagan rituals and practices and have “christianized” them in effort to swallow up entire cultures.

The Bible makes no mention of Easter and Christmas, and it doesn’t instruct the followers of Christ to observe those days. None of the things Sarah mentioned are the things Jesus and the apostles taught the church.

Answer by Dark616
Try this short film. Of course hard core christians will tell you its all rubbish. They are wrong.

Answer by 侍Samurai侍
Judaism and little of Sumerian legends Mesopotamian mythology

Answer by Fireball
from THE BIBLE….JESUS WAS BORN IN A MANGER…THATS Christmas. He rose on sunday…Thats Easter….He died on good friday..
someone told you wrong…WE WORSHIP the Trinity..

Answer by evelin d
Well it stems from Judaism.
It has a lot of pagan beliefs as well.
Which stem from Egyptian and Greek mythology.
In fact the mythology of Dionysus is very very similar to the story of Christ.

Answer by joe b
“””Ok I don’t believe in God for many reasons. But, someone told me that the Bible gets it information from other religions that where around before it was written.”””

There is simply no end to the misinformation put forth by those that oppose Christianity. They put out books and have endless websites and they all have an appearance of validity.
People actually believe what they see on TV and what they see in news.
One thing is for certain, you will never come to the understanding of the truth by those that oppose it. Its like going to the KKK to learn about the NAACP.

Answer by Matt
while in captivity in babylon, the jews picked up on many babylonian beliefs (see code of hammurabi). later when they were freed by the persians, who were zoroastrians, they adopted a lot more from their liberators.

Answer by princessdicicco
Judaism. Judaism believes that Yahweh( God) is going to send a Messiah( savior) to cleanse the people of their sins. In Chirstainity we believe that God( Yahweh) sent sent his son Jesus, who was a jew, to die on the cross for our sins and rose again the the third day. However Jews ar still waiting for their Messiah.

Answer by kodiak570
I don’t know if it was based on this, but dig a little bit and you find comparisons in the Old and New Testament to the Jewish Kabbalah ( Tree of Life), Astonomy (study of the night sky), Greek and Roman mythology, and the story of Jesus has MANY comparative stories in Hindu and Buddhist religions. Just so you know, the bible was edited. Look up Emporer Constantine and you will see he wanted a World government and a World religion, and he chose Christianity to replace the Paganism of the Romans.

Answer by rumbler_12
Christianity’s roots like those of our Islamic brother and sisters has it’s roots in Judaism.

Christianity as it is practiced today has a lot of pagan influences as well. People do not like to admit it but it is none-the less true.

Answer by The_Cricket misses her mom
Okay, I’ll bite. I’m a Christian, but I’ve studied various mythologies and other religions for many years. These are some of my findings:
1. Many cultures have a deluge story that bears some similarity to the account of the flood in Genesis.
2. All mythologies have some sort of creation story.
3. There are several monotheistic religions besides Christianity (Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and to an extent, Hinduism. The only difference in Hinduism is that although there’s technically only one God, that one God manifests in many other forms.). Most of Christianity’s beliefs come from Judaism, but there’s a theory that Jews were influenced by Zoroastrianism while in captivity in Babylon.
4. There are a couple of similarities between the teachings of the Buddha, and the teachings of Jesus. My theory is it’s because both had some teachings that were universal (be decent to each other, for example).
5. There are some similarities between the teachings of Stoicism and Christianity, mostly in the fact that the physical world means nothing, and one should work hard to be kind to others.

Beyond that, I’ve found very few similarities between Christianity and other religions, apart from the teachings that are universal.

I don’t have a degree, but I’ve read a lot of books that are required for college courses, and the amount of study I’ve done independently is equal to at least a master’s degree, if not a doctorate.

I can get you my sources, if you’d like.

Answer by shorty
christianity did not come from any religion.paul the apostle wrote the new testament . jesus deciples were taught by jesus and was the author of christian faith.after jesus was hung on the cross,and resurrected,back to heaven,the apostasy happened(beaak-up of the truth) ‘roman paganism+fake christians formed religion.this is why we have a diverse religious cultures in the world.’jesus said” i am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father but through me,this is the backbone of the christian faith..