Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : History's effect on Religion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (118)	5/12/2003 9:47:36 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 520

If I get the chance, I will dig this deeper (of course you are weclome to research this on your own to and share the results). For now this is what I remember of Mithra of Rome. - Association of god with a benign being (remember that original Roman gods came from Greece which were just selfish moody super humans). - The belief in the breath of god as the source of life. - The belief in heaven and hell (originally both Romans and Jews believed only in Hell). - Association of Hell with fire and burning rocks. - The belief in resurection. - Cross as the symbol of Mithra. - Association of God with light and the faithful living near the god. This is the short list but highlights some very significant comonalities. I don't accept the arguments that run along the lines of "we just don't know much about Mithra of Romans because there are no scriptures left". I can say the same about Christianity. There is hardly if anything left of early Christianity. And there was a big effort later on to destroy all pagan writings, just as there had been a great effort to destroy all the Christian writings before that...Persian and Roman empires lived right next door to each other. So I think whatever you find about Mithra in Persia of the same era, is a very good proxy for whatever Mithra must have been like in Rome as well. You are correct about one thing though, There was no place for Ahura Mazda in Rome (at least as far as I know). In Rome Mithraism did break free from Zoroasterianism and I find it likely it was also mingled with Helenic perceptions. But it was still Mithra of Zoroastrianism and carried its roots with it.