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[Dreading This]

One thing I cannot understand or comprehend, besides the fact of believing in imaginary people that live in the sky, is why are religions nowadays more believable than those that existed before? Mads Mikkelson argued that if you believe in Thor and Odin, people laugh themselves to death, yet it is okay to believe in a man that turned water into wine and walked on water. For Horus, however, Christianity is not an original idea or concept; the story of Horus in Egyptian mythology is identical to Jesus Christ. Why is one story held up as a main religion and belief system when it can be argued that it just copied what Egyptians believed for millennia? Other stories were written in history before Jesus which are similar, yet these are neglected and forgotten as well being classed as laughable bullshit.

[jimwalton]

There is a notable distinction between mythography and historiography. Historiography (the intent of the biblical writers) is interested in portraying events that happened, possibly just to record them, but occasionally to add an interpretation. Mythography, on the other, is interested in showing the meaning of the world by addressing how the world works and how it got that way. Generally speaking, mythography is not interested in those events as historical events that can be connected with the human world. While the writers of mythography believe those events were real, they don't consider them to be historical. That's vastly different than the writers of the Bible. So saying, I can assert that mythography has a different referent than historiography, though it is not considered by its advocates to be less real. Mythography deals with ideology; the Bible, on the other hand, present historiography representing actual events in the human realm.

In addition, the historiography of the Bible claims repeated and perpetual eye-witnesses to the accounts rendered, something mythography never does. People were there who wrote about seeing Jesus turn water to wine; no one claims such for Odin.

As to your accusation that Christianity not an original idea but a cheap imitation of Horus in Egyptian mythology, this betrays that your knowledge of both Horus and Jesus are deeply lacking. A few minor points of remote possible similarity does not make them identical.

It's Jesus' historicity and the impact he made on people and the world that set him apart. He obviously brought about a radical change in the lives of thousands in the city of his death, people who were radically devoted to their current belief system. Only a profound event of convincing evidence could dislodge so many adherents. That's what sets Jesus apart. I'm sure you'll want to talk more; I'd love to.