The legend of Jesus is remarkably similar to that of the Egyptian God Horus

A note on my opponent’s source Before moving on to address my opponent’s argument, I want to take a second to address what would seem to be a rather obvious point. It’s important to remember that we are not simply comparing alleged parallels between these two figures, but rather actual similarities as described by the authoritative sources of information on the subject, including such texts as the Book of the Dead and the Bible. On that note, it seems noteworthy to mention that the webpage my opponent has provided contains a suspicious lack of citation for some of the claims being made. If we take this into account alongside the fact that the webpage’s title contains the words “Alleged Claims”, it would seem reasonable to expect that my opponent should provide a more serious and direct foundation for her claims from here on out. Also, a few pieces of information on that page, even if correct, don’t even necessarily support her accusations. In short, I would appreciate if my opponent would supply more than simply the words of some Christ myth theorist for the very simple reason that there seem to be a good deal of twisted truths presented by proponents of said position in the name of sensationalism- “truths” that just don’t line up with the facts upon further research. ==================================================== Responses 1. Virgin Birth The fact of the matter is that this particular claim is not nearly as cut and dry as my opponent would have you believe. Even the webpage she provided admits that this may not be the case- and rightly so. The historical legend surrounding the birth of Horus and the pregnancy of his mother goes as such “In the Osiris myths she searched for her husband's body, who was killed by her brother Seth. She retrieved and reassembled the body, and in this connection she took on the role of a goddess of the dead and of the funeral rights. Isis impregnated herself from the Osiris' body and gave birth to Horus in the swamps of Khemnis in the Nile Delta. ” (1) From what I could gather, the last sentence of that paragraph would be referring to the following, from the Book of the Dead: “She made to rise up the helpless members of him whose heart was at rest, she drew from him his essence, and she made therefrom an heir. ” (2) Also, here’s a picture supposedly from the Book of the Dead illustrating the reconstruction of Osiris before Horus was born. . http://www.mesacc.edu... In the process of reconstructing her husband, Isis also formed a golden phallus, his manhood being the only part of fourteen that she had been unable to collect. (3) (4) It should be fairly obvious why I included this piece of information considering the fact that we’re debating her virginity. As you can see, this can easily be dismissed as nothing more than a desperate effort to connect the nonexistent dots between these two mothers and their pregnancy experiences. Are both stories fascinating and out of the ordinary? Yes. Are they the same? Clearly not, when you take into account of the birth of Jesus (6). 2. People were lead to their births by a star The webpage doesn’t seem to have a source for this particular claim. It’s difficult to argue against such a claim because I have no idea where the information came from. That being said, it does list the name of the star. However, I can find no information on Sirius concerning it’s mechanism as a beacon for travellers. I believe it’s fair to say that the burden rests on my opponent. 3. Both born around the Winter Solstice Here we have another example of my opponent’s source not necessarily supporting her case. From her webpage: Concerning Horus “Ancient Egyptians paraded a manger and child representing Horus through the streets at the time of the winter solstice (about DEC-21). In reality, he had no birth date; he was not a human. ” Concerning Jesus “Born during the fall. However, his birth date is now celebrated on DEC-25. The date was chosen to occur on the same date as the birth of Mithra, Dionysus and the Sol Invictus (unconquerable Sun), etc. ” If my opponent doesn’t understand how these don’t support her claim, I’ll be more than willing to address the topic in the following round (It has something to do with the difference between “celebrated on” and “recognized as” though). Regardless, I’m going to continue on since my opponent has given me a total of nine claims to address. 4. Birth announced by angels I don’t have access to Harpur’s book, the source cited for this claim. As such, I can’t really tell where he gets his information from. 5. Birth witnessed by shepherds Same as above. I don’t have access to the book. I assume that my opponent doesn’t either. 6. Herut tried to kill Horus during infancy, Herud tried to kill Jesus during infancy Interestingly enough, the website that my opponent has so graciously provided doesn’t seem to be able to cite a source for this particular claim. Upon further research, it seems that the only ‘sources’ who mention someone named Herut are blogs of people who have either seen that page on religioustolerance. com or have seen Zeitgeist. I can’t find any historical texts whatsoever making this claim. The general lack of evidence and the fact that the individual actually being referred to is probably Seth (Who never seems to have been called Herut) (5) leads me to believe that proponents of this particular assertion are relying on dishonest word games. 7. No data on either one between the ages of 12 and 30 No source provided. 8. Both were baptized in a river at the age of 30 No source provided. 9. Both of their baptizers were beheaded later in life No source provided. A note to my opponent As I hand it back over to my opponent, I want to respectfully request that they take my second paragraph seriously, as the general lack of sources and presence of limited questionable/inaccessible sources is proving to be somewhat of a hindrance to the quality of this debate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. . http://www.pantheon.org... 2. . http://www.sacred-texts.com... 3. . http://tinyurl.com... 4. . http://tinyurl.com... 5. . http://www.pantheon.org... 6. . http://www.biblegateway.com...