A Case for Super Powers

Metamythology

So I found a link in Waltz Invictus 's blog, to a movie: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/main.htm

The first part of it is an examination of the narrative of Jesus in comparison to other figures from other mythologies and religions...basically all adding up to the big reveal where they say that Jesus didn't really exist, historically, and that his life is an allegory for astrology.

Specifically, it says that many details of Jesus' life (you may note the one word that I conspicuously always omit when talking about Jesus. Here's a hint: it begins with C) are, in fact, mythological motifs that spring up in many other "Sun Deities".

They start with the Egyptian Sun-God Horus, and list the following facts about Horus:
Was born of a Virgin (Isis-Mary, they called her) on December 25th
His birth was signaled by a star in the east
He was adored by three kings,
became a teacher at 12,
was baptized and started a ministry at 30,
had 12 disciples,
healed the sick, walked on water
He was called "The Truth," "The Light," "God's Anointed Son," "The Good Shepherd," and "The Lamb of God"
He was betrayed by Typhon (presumably one of his disciples),
crucified,
buried for three days,
and then resurrected.


Holy Crap! That sounds exactly like Jesus! Jesus' whole life was plagiarized!

Only...

Upon performing some of the simplest research on the internet, this doesn't appear to bear out. Let's start with some of the facts about which I, regardless of how many sources I search, can find neither confirmation nor refutation of, regarding Horus:

1) Born on December 25th: These guys must have read some pretty obscure books, because no source I found ANYWHERE says ANYTHING about the date Horus was born. Furthermore, it seems awfully strange to me that they could even determine that it was exactly December 25th, given that "December 25th" is a reference to a calendar that didn't exist 5000 years ago, especially not in Egypt. I would imagine the best you could do would be to approximate that it was sometime in what would become the month of December, and if Horus was born on December 5, that makes the similarities between their birth dates considerably less impressive. Also, it is actually quite well known, even among Christians, that December 25th is only the HOLIDAY, the CELEBRATION of Jesus' birth. Even Christians acknowledge that this is not reflective of Jesus' actual birth date, and that the date was chosen for the holiday in order to coincide with the holidays of other religions.

2) Horus' birth was signaled by a star in the East: once again, I don't know what books they're reading, but somebody (undoubtedly somebody involved in the vast conspiracy) must be keeping this information off the internet, because I can't find anything about any stars heralding his birth. THE MAN strikes again!

Oh the heck with specific analyses, they'll all say the same thing anyway! None of these things ever turned up in my research of Horus (if anybody can tell me where to find this information, other than the film I'm talking about, please let me know):

Any reference to three kings
Anything regarding becoming a 12 year old teacher, being baptized, and starting a ministry
Any reference to any number of disciples (though a great many subjects)
Any references to healing the sick or walking on water
Any epithets other than "The Falcon" "Son of Isis" "Horus the Elder" "Horus the younger" (oh yeah, there were more than one. In fact, there were a lot of Horuses. Or...Hori, maybe, if you prefer) "The Distant One" "The Great Black One" "He Who Has No Eyes" "He Who Has Eyes" "Lord of the Djeba ('perch/finger')" "Horus of Two Eyes"...okay, a lot of epithets, but none of the ones listed in the film...odd...
Any references to betrayal, crucifixion, or resurrection

IN FACT...
- In ancient Egyptian mythology, ALL kings WERE, in fact, Horus...Earthly incarnations, anyway. Therefore, it would be absurd for him to have been "adored by three kings"...because it would essentially mean being adored by three different incarnations of himself.
- Horus was not human, at all. He was purely a Deity. He wasn't any kind of teacher or minister. Those kinds of things are human banalities.
- Baptism does not appear to have existed in Ancient Egypt at all.
- As Horus was not a teacher or minister, but a god and a ruler, he did not have disciples, he had subjects and worshippers.
- Horus was responsible, in fact, for quite the opposite of healing the sick. He in fact was a war god, and was responsible for killing many enemies. I have found no references to healing whatsoever.
- Horus was a falcon. He could fly. Why would he walk on water?
- Typhon was a GREEK God, and had nothing to do with Egyptian mythology in general, or Horus in particular.
- There does not appear to be any evidence that ancient Egyptians practiced crucifixion.
- Horus' narrative is, in fact, absent any mention of his death, and therefore any evidence of resurrection. Possibly because there were, in fact, several deities names "Horus"
- As a bonus, I have never found any mention of the Goddess Isis with "Mary" added to it.

As for Horus being born of a virgin, Isis was hardly a virgin. If you want to get technical, Isis conceived Horus using her husband's dead body (all together now, "eeeeewwwwww!").

Whew! There were some other deities mentioned by this film as being similar to Jesus, but...quite frankly, my thorough dissection of the Horus part kind of took a lot out of me. Suffice to say that they are all equally shoddy.

Oh, my favorite one is that the Hindu god Krishna was born of a virgin. Krishna was the eight (EIGHTH!) son born to the princess Devaki and her HUSBAND. Wow, how many miracles did THAT family go through, if she was a virgin through eight straight births?

The film goes on to explain how the story of Jesus and these other deities is an allegory of the path of the Sun itself, part of which is the sun's path, through winter, to it's apparent "death", where it sits still, perceivably, for three days, before going back the other direction...resurrection.

Only...this three-day "death" occurs in late December. So why is Jesus' death by crucifixion supposed to occur in March or April?

After this whole section, full of so many holes that I was worried I might fall through, the film cuts to the one image that no conspiracy theory worth its salt should be without: The Last Supper, by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Now, look...I don't believe that Jesus was the son of God. I don't think he walked on water, healed the sick, raised the dead, or turned water into wine. I don't think he was the product of a virgin birth. I don't think he was resurrected. But I do believe he existed. Because every historical source says so, both religious and secular. In my opinion, he was more a political figure than a spiritual one, and his spiritual nature was tacked on to make the superstitious people follow him. After the spiritual aspect was added, was Jesus' life blended with aspects of other deities before him? Possibly. Christianity has borrowed a lot of different elements from different religions and mythologies. That doesn't mean he didn't exist.

The film actually does make some interesting observations regarding astrology and mythology in regards to history. It would make a pretty good science fiction/fantasy story.

As it is, it's just mythology about mythology. Hence, metamythology.