Question:
I recently saw the movie Religulous, and one part was completely devastating for Christianity, where Bill Maher showed how every detail of Jesus' life was copied from Horus. His entire story is an ancient Egyptian myth, so how can you keep believing it?
Answer:
For those who many have never seen Religulous, you can watch the relevant part here.
Before I get into the details, it should be noted that every god in every religion has certain traits in common: they perform miracles, they sometimes raise the dead, they are supernaturally powerful, and most pagan gods engage in sex and produce offspring.
Now, on to Bill Maher's movie, and the claims made within it. It turns out that Bill Maher did not actually read the Egyptian book of the dead, and he got all of his information from a bad series of sources that all originated with the book, "The Natural Genesis," written by Gerald Massey. Massey never documented a single one of his claims about the parallels between Jesus and Horus, and every single thing he wrote about them has been debunked by genuine Egyptologists.
For those who would like to stop reading now, the quick summary of the following section is that every single claim made in the movie Religulous is ridiculous, and completely false. If anyone is interested, almost everything I post here can be verified by a simple Wikipedia search on Krishna, Mithra and Horus.
Now, on to each claim individually.
Claim: Krishna was a carpenter.
Truth: Neither Krishna nor his father are ever mentioned working with wood in any fashion, nor are they ever called carpenters.
Claim: Krishna was born of a virgin.
Truth: Krishna's mother and father were locked in a prison cell where they had seven children prior to his birth, and all of these were the result of sex with her husband, so clearly, she could not have been a virgin.
Claim: Krishna was baptized in a river.
Truth: Baptism is not a Hindu concept, and there is no record of Krishna ever being baptized, in a river or any other place.
Claim: Mithra was born on December 25.
Truth: First, the Bible does not claim Jesus was born on December 25. That idea is first appears in Christian writings in the fourth century. Even today, no one really knows the date of His birth. Second, Mithras was not actually born, as he sprang full grown from a rock, and the date of this event is not recorded anywhere.
Claim: Mithra performed miracles.
Truth: All "gods" are recorded as having performed miracles, in every religion in every age in every culture. That is part of the whole "god" thing.
Claim: Mithra was resurrected on the third day.
Truth: This would be difficult as there is no record of Mithras ever dying, thus, there are no stories of his resurrection.
Claim: Mithra was known as the Lamb, the Way, the Truth, the Light, the Savior, and the Messiah.
Truth: There is no record of any of these terms ever being used in reference to Mithra. The closest is that he was a sun-god, which happens to give off "light." But he was never called, "the light." The word "Messiah" is an exclusively Jewish concept, and is never found in any other culture. Mithra WAS called a "Mediator," however, he was not a mediator between man and god, but between the good gods and the evil gods. Further, almost all of the references we have to Mithra appear more than 100 years AFTER Christianity was already on the scene.
Claim: Horus is the son of Osiris
Truth: Yes, he is described as the son of Osiris. He was birthed as a result of sexual intercourse between two gods, and was not eternal, as Jesus is.
Claim: Horus was born to a virgin mother.
Truth: Isis had sex with Osiris after having reconstructed his various parts (he had been killed and chopped up) and temporarily brought him back to life. His phallus could not be found, so a gold phallus was constructed, and substituted, which allowed her to have sex with Osiris, become impregnated, and later give birth to Horus. Clearly, she was neither a human woman NOR a virgin.
Claim: Horus was baptized in a river by Anup the Baptizer, who was later beheaded.
Truth: There is no record in any Egyptian text of a guy named Anup the Baptizer, and the concept of "baptism" did not exist in ancient Egypt, so Horus was never baptized by anyone. Clearly, if there is no reference to the guy, he could not have been beheaded.
Claim: Horus was tempt while alone in the desert.
Truth: Horus fought the god Seth in the desert. Seth was not trying to tempt him, he was trying to kill him. Not the same thing.
Claim: Horus healed the sick, the blind, cast out demons and walked on water.
Truth: Horus did perform miracles, as he was a god. But none of these particular miracles are ever recorded as having been performed by Horus. Supposedly there was a monument to Horus that had a spell on it that could heal the sick. If chanted, the spirit of Horus possessed the person and healed them. That's as close as it gets.
Claim: Horus raised Asar from the dead; Asar translates as Lazarus.
Truth: Actually, Asar is the original Egyptian name for Osiris (Osiris is the Greek name). Osiris was briefly brought back to life so that Isis could have sex with him, get pregnant, and give birth to Horus. Horus had nothing to do with this, and Asar is NOT the Egyptian form of the Hebrew name Lazarus.
Claim: Horus had 12 disciples.
Truth: At various times there were four or six guys who followed him around (some of them were semi-gods), and various people at various times would follow him. At no time are 12 followers mentioned, and the total number of followers he had at various times does not add up to twelve.
Claim: Horus was crucified.
Truth: Crucifixion was a Roman form of execution, so obviously, it could not happen in ancient Egypt. There are two recorded "deaths" of Horus; one was being chopped up as a child, the other was from poisoning (by Seth). He is often depicted with his arms outstretched, but that is not connected to being crucified, but to his expansive power.
Claim: After three days, two women annouced that Horus, the savior of humanity, had been resurrected.
Truth: As a child, Horus was torn to pieces and the pieces were thrown into the river. He was brought back to life when his mother prayed to the Egyptian crocodile god who collected the pieces for her so she could bring him back to life (remember, his mother was a god herself). No women announced the event.
There are numerous claims from a variety of sources, including books and movies, that the elements of Jesus' story are copies of some ancient pagan gods, including Horus, Mithra, Osiris, Dionysus, and Krishna. A refutation of each and every one of these claims can be found at numerous places on the web. One that addresses most of these is found here.
Bottom line, despite Bill Maher's assurances, not a single parallel he touts in his movie is in any way historical, or even remotely accurate. It is all false.
The story of Jesus is true, accurate, and completely unique.
For those interested in a little humor, here is a recent parody produced by "The Lutheran Satire" called "Horus Ruins Christmas" that takes on some of these claims in a witty, humorous fashion.
Horus Ruins Christmas
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