To: Berry Picker who wrote (35392 ) 6/8/2003 9:45:04 PM From: 2MAR$ Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 39621 least bit uncomfortable calling the Holy Bible "fairy tales" while yet quoting from a work that contains a disclaimer on every page by people who openly confess themselves to be "infidels"? ....here brian , if you are going to repost that link twice at least try and read it . Here it points out the reflections some of the most prominent early Church father's admitting their plagiarism , or at least that they followed the same urges as any heathen (as you call them ) in turning a humble rabbai into a demigod , for the Christians were just inserting and patterning themselves afterwhat had previously been believed for an age or two or three. The point is not just made by this one fellow Brian , but by numerous and prominent writers and historians back in Rome down to the Rennaisance thinkers who felt this too ( but couldn;t expressit upon pain of death) , and on further down to the "Age of Reason & Enlightenment" when the entire method of the early church's establishing a larger body of it's mythologies on earlier systems and creeds. What you see going on was methodical , planned , calculated in it's carrying out. Do you think for a moment that this one link is all that is out there that supports this idea of Christians stealing many of their creeds and myths ? There are Universities all over the free-world brian , that do teach anthropology , philosophy, comparitive religion and history of mankind , that do recognize this syncretism and plagiarism . This is how Christianity spread itself brian , by appealing to the pagan and incorporating pagan motifs to sway them into belief . All very natural you know , but was rejected by the Hebrew(Jew) ofcourse for being too pagan.<G> I could provide you with endless studies upon studies that do back this idea up , that even the early church father's admitted too. It doesn't make your belief less valid , just shows you where it came from . Jeshua was hardly the first man known to be the "Son of God " or "savior" it's just a fact brian . From St Justin :infidels.org Again, that ancient pillar of the Christian church, St. Justin, concedes that the ancient oriental heathen held all the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith relating to the incarnation long prior to the introduction and establishment of Christianity. Hear him: Addressing the pagans, he says, "For by declaring the Logos the first begotten Son of God, our Master, Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin without any human mixture, and to be crucified, and dead, and to have risen again into heaven, we say no more in this than what you say of those whom you style the sons of Jove." St Justin had to make this confession , brian ...for it was true that the idea of "Son of God" was already centuries old by the time of the humble rabbai Jeshua's alleged birth....