Discover more in these hand-picked books Tell me what you think; read what others say.  
Stuff you need to know before the POCM makes sense. Ideas, rituals and myths Christianity boosted from the Pagans. Some of the Pagan's dying-resurrected godmen The Triumph of Christianity Discover mainstream scholarship about Christianity's Pagan origins What did the Christians borrow? So what?
the ideas, myths and rituals christianity borrowed from the pagans Jesus saves -- Pagan Gods saved first gods whose dad was a god and whose mom was a mortal woman Christianity has baptism -- Paganism had it first Christians share a sacred meal with their God -- Pagans did it first Christians believe in eternal life -- but Paganism believed in it first
home > pagan origins > god & soul
Jesus did miracles -- Pagan Gods did them first Jesus fulfilled prophecy -- Pagan Gods fulfilled prophecy first God and the immortal soul -- Paganism had 'em first Christianity thinks it has monotheism -- Paganism had it first Jesus' God lives in Heaven on High -- Pagan Gods lived there first pagan dead went to the underworld Jesus made clever quips -- Pagan cynic philosophers made them first
God and the immortal soul -- Paganism had 'em first

Pagan God
Was Christianity new?  Was Christianity unique?  Let's talk about the ideas of God and the immortal human soul.

God
You know this, but I'll say it anyway. Although the standard modern view is that Judeo-Christianity invented / discovered "God," in fact the notion of God -- not only of supernatural beings, but also of transcendent divinity -- preceded Christianity by thousands of years. The Christian God was stamped from a Pagan mold.

The editor of Britannica's Great Books puts it this way >

"There are ...fundamental agreements between paganism and Judeo-Christian regarding the nature of the divine....The deities are conceived personally, not in terms of impersonal, brute forces. Conceived as beings with intelligence and will, the Gods concern themselves with earthly society; the aid or oppose man's plans and efforts; they reward men for fidelity and virtue and punish them for impiety and sin." [The Great Ideas, 1952, Ch. 29]

Christianity has the idea of God, but Paganism had the idea first.  
 
 

The next time you're in Church
ask yourself:"What about what I'm hearing was new and unique with Christianity, and what was already part of other religions in a culture where over and over again new religions were built with old parts?"

Next time you're in church... When they get to the part about a personal God interested in the affairs of individual men and women, a God who rewards and punishes us according to the lives we lead here on earth, remember the Greek and Roman Gods. You'll know you're hearing about stuff that predated Christianity by hundreds of years -- in a culture where over and over people built new religions out of old parts.

Wow!

 

 

Soul

 I'm still working on this page