So I'm watching banned from the Bible on the History Channel....

[WCGreen]

And they are talking about arch angels and regular angels. These Arch angels are like the lesser gods of Greek and Roman and Egyptian mythology.

So there is only one god but a whole slew of immortal being at God's beck and call.

So is the monotheism or not...

Then the Catholics have all those Saints flying around and the Christians have the angels.

So Heaven is populated with all these other folks who, to the Greeks and romans, be considered gods.

I am so confused....

[shadowknows69]

1. It is called absorbing other myths to create your religion with.

[Flabbergasted]

4. My question...

Was this an intentional process, a natural societal synthesis, or both.

[imdjh]

8. It was a remarkable plan.

To craft a state religion from an existing problem (the spread of Judaism and Messianic Judaism) to create a point of cultural unification to add a commonality to a diverse empire.

Now whether the Roman Church intended to assimilate the western European religions, or if that happened organically I don't know.

As I understand it, Malaysian Islam is vastly different from Islamic orthodoxy and features weather and harvest type demigods.

[Flabbergasted]

10. I would argue that it was both, There was a culture war and one side was the victor.

[WCGreen]

11. It was actually the Eastern Roman empire that consolidated the

ecumenical tradition. The west was already in decline.

[Taverner]

2. Christianity is a polytheistic religion

Even when you go fundy, you still have the trinity. And that's tres amigo!

[sam sarrha]

15. having no Idols 'before' him meant all the other Idols must be 'Behind' him on the Altar

[Echo In Light]

46. Ha

:)

[madokie]

3. I gave up on trying to make sense of it all years ago

and haven't looked back.

[eleny]

5. Saints don't fly...

They just beam over when you need them. Like when you pray to St. Anthony because you lost something.

St. Anthony, St. Anthony come around
Something is lost and cannot be found.

:D

[imdjh]

9. Matthew Mark Luke and John, hold the horse while I get on.

[eleny]

16. LOL!

:rofl:

[eShirl]

28. Romper bomper stomper boo, tell me, tell me, tell me true

the Romper Room lady never saw me in the Magic Mirror :(

[eleny]

44. And I bet you were such a good doo bee

[knowbody0]

6. just be nice in case they're real

[onager]

55. Damn! You've managed to dumb down Pascal's Wager!

And I thought that was impossible.

[Fire1]

7. Oh, and this is the perfect place for clarification. n/t

[WCGreen]

12. Of course...

[ColbertWatcher]

13. I'm confused how crap like that is considered "history". n/t

[TheMadMonk]

26. Um becasue it shaped our past.

Not to mention present and future.

History of religion is NOT theology.

[redqueen]

49. What about all the Armageddon shows?

They never get tired of that stuff it seems.

[ColbertWatcher]

52. "History of religion is NOT theology." While that may be true ...

... history of religion on TV is theology.

Especially the way the History Channel does it.

[sam sarrha]

14. this is all Sumerian Mythology.. Genesis/Noah/ etc are all Sumerian, and Angels aren't human like

Abraham's father was a polytheistic Idol maker, he stoled his Fathers new idol, the god of "Prosperity" and headed south to Egypt cause of climate change and famine, they got work from the Pharaoh and were hired as mercenaries to guard the outer north east Nile delta from invading Assyrians/etc. they were never slaves.

[DeSwiss]

27. Bingo!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/1594623295/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books">
Bible Myths And Their Parallels in Other Religions - 1882

Here's a good place for anyone interested, to start finding the answers for these questions.....

[theHandpuppet]

32. Here are some links

Free download: http://www.archive.org/details/biblemythsandthe00doanuoft

Another copy of the book you can read online from the Google Digitized Library:
http://tinyurl.com/n8jyo3

[DeSwiss]

35. Thanks a lot for those links!!!

[lxlxlxl]

17. thats what you get for watching the Bible Channel...I mean the nostradamus channel...

since when is this stuff considered 'history'? on what planet...

[WCGreen]

18. It could very well be considered the history of Western thought...

THe consolidation of the dogma that guided the west for ten centuries before Martin Luther banged his thesis on the church door.

[eShirl]

29. well it didn't stop there, I'm sorry to say

[lxlxlxl]

43. agree...the 'history' channel takes infotainment to whole new levels

If anyone watches the history channel thinking they are learning anything about history they are really really really off the mark.

[Hugabear]

19. You mean the Ooga-Booga channel?

It ceased being the "History" channel when they began concentrating on UFOs, ghosts, Bigfoot, Nostradamus, 2012, and all this other nonsense.

[theHandpuppet]

31. Unfortunately real history doesn't garner ratings

There are a thousand subjects I'd love to see tackled by The History Channel but I know that just isn't going to happen. Once in a while they put forth a fascinating series, like the one they aired on "The Barbarians" and some other shows they've done on the Presidents, but unless the subject matter includes a lot of violence and battles, chances are slim you'll ever see it developed for TV. Their shows are also disproportionately geared towards European/Judeo-Christian themes.

I would love to see some programs exploring all the Native American peoples, African history, the history of our neighbors Mexico and Canada, much more on Asian & Pacific Islander cultures, the history of arts in various cultures, etc. It's really disgraceful there haven't been more programs on the era of slavery and segregation in this country. And if you're a woman? Forget it! History appears to be all about men. Women don't have a history and have contributed nothing of substance to the world. :sarcasm:

[Better Believe It]

20. I have an image of Jesus on my saltine cracker! Top that if you can!

[imdjh]

21. I dated Jesus.

For almost a week. He was nice, but I couldn't speak Spanish well enough for us to have conversations. At the time I thought that was important.

[obliviously]

22. I have his holy spirit

living inside me. Just eat the cracker or it will get soggy!

[eShirl]

30. with a slice of cheese and a parsley sprig?

[Iggo]

23. Sounds like The Silmarillion.

[paulsby]

24. not surprising

CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien both believed Christianity to be "true myth"

[Matariki]

25. I thought Catholics *were* Christians

Now I'm confused ;-)

[WCGreen]

38. Christians don't believe so...

As a born again...

[knitter4democracy]

57. Evangelicals are only one variety of Christian.

They don't get to define the entire faith.

[Baclava]

33. Jews Christians and Muslims all believe in the same god.

They may quibble about the details, but they all borrow from each other.

And they've all been fighting over the same spot of Holy Land for the past 2500 years.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

58. One small point

Neither Islam nor Christianity have been around for 2,500 years.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

34. There is one god, and he's a badass ...

... with a posse. Or, it's a story.

:hi:

Mind the eleventh commandment: Thou shalt not bogart that joint, nay, nor even the bong or the hash-pipe.

[spin]

45. Nah, the eleventh commandment is...

Don't get caught.

[moggie]

36. Catholics AND Christians?

Silly me, there was I thinking that Catholics were Christian.

[WCGreen]

39. Not to Christians...

Especially of the born again kind...

Papists.

[moggie]

41. You appear to stand by the assertion, then

Since you didn't write "not to SOME Christians", you're still claiming that Catholics aren't Christian. It's not the first time I've seen that on DU, but it still makes me laugh.

[WCGreen]

47. I don't believe in any kind of higher power....

All I am stating is that a significant number of people I have met who consider themselves Christian do not believe that Catholics are true Christians.

Look, Catholics were harassed by the Ku Klux Klan in the name of true Christians. Many Christians consider Catholics as worshipers of the pope.

[redqueen]

50. deleted

[Ganja Ninja]

42. And what fine examples of Christianity they are.

:eyes:

[ismnotwasm]

37. You don't need the banned stuff to get confused

I was reading 1 Samuel from the old testament. I was looking for the love story between the future King David and King Saul's son Jonathan. I found it of course. One of the greatest love stories in the bible if you ask me. Most folks think they were just very good friends.

All kinds of weird stuff. God putting evil spirits in Saul heart for instance. And then all the blood thirsty war stories. God talking to a select few. Hannah's rather odd song to God (one of the cherry picked parts of the bible that you hear quoted around) And this is one of the 'historical' chapters.

[Ganja Ninja]

40. You must be confused because Catholics are Christians.

Saints are simply people who are believed to have gone to heaven after their death. They don't fly around. Angels are also part of Jewish and Catholic mythology from the old testament. The reason some of the other Christian sects don't have saints is because they haven't been in business for 2000 years. They're recent religious start-ups historically speaking. Besides a Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell really don't measure up to the standards for Sainthood like say a Mother Teresa.

[WCGreen]

48. Many christians consider Catholics as not true Christians.

A lot of the conservative, born agains believe Catholics worship the pope and not Jesus.

I was raised Catholic although now I am not a true believer of any higher power. Still, over the years, I have come in contact with many Conservative Christians who considered Catholics as the enemy of true christians.

[redqueen]

51. The description of that show offended me once.

It read something like, "some people say that the bible has been edited..." and blah blah blah. What idiocy.

I think that the last time I saw it aired, it had been corrected. Thankfully.

[ZombieHorde]

53. What offended you? nt

[redqueen]

54. That they attempted to portray the fact as merely a rumor. (nt)

[onager]

56. I just watched Alternative Jesuses on NatGeo...

The show was actually called "The Secret Lives of Jesus." Bart Ehrman participated, so parts of it were pretty good.

But since I'm a Fundamentalist Atheist, the religious should probably take my recommendations with a grain of salt about the size of Mrs. Lot, after she was Sodom-and-Gomorrah-ized.

Overlapping with some of the Hitler Channel shows mentioned above, this one talked about the so-called "banned," non-canonical gospels--the Gospels of Judas, Mary Magdalene, etc. etc.

I've read most of those, and in some cases it's easy to see why they were chucked out. They come across as nothing but very bad early Xian fan-fic.

The best, at least for entertainment value, are the Infancy Narratives, depicting Baby Jesus...well, Pre-School Jesus...as a really bad-tempered little fucker who went around smiting his playmates with supernatural powers whenever they annoyed him. He "withers" one kid, kills another just for bumping into him in the street, and raises yet another from the dead.

Imagine the life of Jesus as written by Stephen King and you're not far wrong.

What really cracked me up about this show was the one Bible expert who kept whining that the banned books "have no basis in historical fact."

Here, have a little irony. It's good for your blood...