<< When I look around and see the various answers to the problem of death, it's then that Jesus Christ stands alone among all the other so called gods by rising from the dead! >>
Myths of Gods that rose from the dead, that predate the Jesus myth, are a dime a dozen....
The "savior," Adonis, after being put to death, "rose from the dead," and the Syrians celebrate the festival of the "Resurrection of Adonis " in the early spring. The festival was observed in Alexandria, the cradle of Christianism, in the time of Bishop Cyril (412 C.E.); and at Antioch, the ancient capital of the Greek Kings of Syria, where the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians" in the Emperor Jillian's time (363 C.E.). The celebration in
honor of the Resurrection of Adonis came at last to be known as a Christian festival, and the ceremonies held in Catholic countries on Good Friday and Easter Sunday are nothing more than the festival of the death and resurrection of Adonis. This god is propitiated as "O Adonai" in one of the Greater Antiphons of the Roman Catholic Church. Osiris, after being put to death, "rose from the dead," and bore the title of the "Resurrected One." "It is astonishing to find," says Mr. Bonwick, "that at least 5,000 years ago men treated an Osiris as 'a risen savior,' and confidently hoped to rise, as he arose, from the grave." ["Egyptian Belief."]
The Phrygian savior, Attys or Atyces, and the Persian savior and "mediator between god and man," Mithra, were "put to death and rose again." Tammuz, the Babylonian savior, son of the virgin Mylitta; Bacchus, son of the virgin Semele; Hercules, son of Zeus; Memnon, whose mother Eos wept tears at his death, like Mary is said to have done for Jesus; Baldur, the Scandinavian lord and savior; and the Greek Amphiarius, "all rose again after death."
MIRACLES are imaginary deviations from the known laws of nature by the supposed will and power of a deity, which laws have been proved by experience to be firm and unalterable; no deviation from them having ever yet been known. Belief in miracles is generally the result either of ignorance, or of the confusion of belief with knowledge; and their acceptance, without proper verification, is responsible for the countless errors, delusions, and superstitions which have gained possession of the human mind.
There was a disposition among the people who lived contemporary with Jesus to believe in anything. It was a credulous age. All leaders of religion had recommended themselves to the public by working miracles and curing diseases. The expected messiah, in order to stand any
chance of success, must therefore work miracles and heal from sickness. The Essenes, pretended to effect miracles and extraordinary cures, and Jesus was an Essene. The biographers of Jesus, therefore, not wishing their master to be outdone, made him also a performer of miracles, of which prodigies and wonders the legendary history of Jesus contained in the New Testament is full. Without them Christianism could not have prospered. "The Hindu sacred books represent Krishna, their savior and redeemer, as in
constant strife against the evil spirit, surmounting extraordinary dangers, strewing his way with miracles, raising the dead, healing the sick, restoring the maimed, the deaf, and the blind; everywhere supporting the weak against the strong, the oppressed against the powerful. The people crowded his way and adored him as a god, and these pretended miracles were the evidences of his divinity for centuries before the time of Jesus. [Doane --"Bible Myths."] Buddha performed what appeared to be "great miracles for the good of mankind, and the legends concerning him are full of the most extravagant prodigies and wonders." "It was by belief in these," says Burnouf, "that the religion of Buddha was established." Innumerable are the miracles ascribed to Buddhist saints. Their garments and staffs were supposed to imbibe some mysterious power, and blessed were they who were allowed to touch them. A Buddhist saint, who attained the power called "perfection," was able to rise and float along through the air, his body becoming imponderous. Buddhist annals give accounts of miraculous suspensions in the air. We are also told that in B.C. 217 nineteen Buddhist missionary priests entered China to propagate their faith, and were imprisoned by the emperor; but that an angel came and opened the prison door and liberated them. The Hindu sage, Vasudeva (i.e., Krishna), was liberated from prison in like manner. We may, therefore, easily see where the legends of Peter and his release from prison (Acts v.), and the Ascension, came from. infidels.org
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