Christianity has roots in other religions besides Judaism.

My first argument shall be the Egyptian God Horus. Egypt was in an area where it would have had a lot of influence over Judea, and the Romans adopted and spread many of their gods during that era, making it so that the Jews of that time would have had a lot of exposure to that. The same can be said of the god Mithra and the cult of Dionysus and any Greco-Roman mythology. -Horus and Jesus -Both born of virgins -Mother was Meri/Isis. (in the Jesus story it is Mary) -Foster father is Seb, the Jo in josephs name can be attributed to a lingual prefix -Only son of his father -Birthdays celebrated about 4 days difference (Horus dec. 21, Jesus the 25) -Herut tried to kill Horus, in the Jesus story the guys name was Herod -No information is given between the age of 12-30 for both -Baptized in a river at the age of 30 -Tempted in the desert by his fathers arch rival -Their baptizer's were beheaded -Raised Osiris from the dead. (Osiris is also known as Asar, translated to Elazarus in Hebrew, pretty close to Lazarus) -Both Crucified -Both went into hell and came back roughly 3 days later, for Jesus it was not a full three days, but rather the night of the first, the second and the morning of the third. -Often known as KRST (pretty close to Christ once you add vowels) -Both criticized for being around sinners. http://www.andrew.cmu.edu... Much of our information of Horus in found in documents from pyramids and tombs, preserved from much before C.E. began. The stories would have been kept well and alive by documents in Alexandria and temples, also by oral tradition. Then there is Orion. Ever heard of his belt in the constellation? -He was born of a deity and a god -He walked on water Although passed down mostly by oral tradition, his story was kept well intact by some small amounts of writings and temples. The cult of Mithra -Birthday celebrated on the 25th of December - Water related miracles http://en.wikipedia.org... The cult of Dionysus -Monotheism (sort of) -Eucharist is performed - Birthday celebrated on the 25th of December - Importance of wine and bread - Dionysus charged with claiming divinity, brought before the king The stories of Dionysus were much before the time of Jesus, however the actual cult did not form until around the time Christianity existed. http://en.wikipedia.org... Something else that is staggering evidence is the birth date. The bible, as described in the site below, says facts that lead to the conclusion that December could not have been the birth date. So why then, was the birthday celebrated at the time it was, right around all the other religion's holidays? It was to compete with them, rather than force the romans to change, it was far easier to convert the Romans when you don't force them to move their holidays. http://www.ucg.org... I will save Krishna for the final round, but I rest my case. How could such similarities exist? Is it just random that almost everything in the Jesus story matched up with another religion? How is this possible without influence. Keep in mind that during the Roan empire's control of Judea (which is when Christianity came to be) the early Christians had a lot of exposure to these religions. It would not have been out of the ordinary for this religion to have been based in other Mediterranean or near Middle Eastern or even Indian faiths. (Though in the case of Hindu, it is more likely that they influenced other religions which later influenced Christianity and was not a direct influence.)