The Myth of Jesus: A Refutation of the Zeitgeist — Part 5

The fifth pagan deity that Zeitgeist points out as a god much like Jesus was a very interesting one to look into, mostly because I ran into a brick wall while researching him. Unlike Horus, Dionysus, or even Krishna, there isn’t much information about Mithras. What information we do have about him is very imperfect and is based largely on educated guess work rather than on hard fact. However, it is not uncommon to find claims made about him on unreliable, unacademic conspiracy websites.

As for the claims made by Peter Joseph in Zeitgeist are,

Mithra, of Persia, born of a virgin on December 25th, he had 12 disciples and performed miracles, and upon his death was buried for 3 days and thus resurrected, he was also referred to as “The Truth,” “The Light,” and many others. Interestingly, the sacred day of worship of Mithra was Sunday.

Mithraism began to be practiced by Romans in the late first century A.D., but it didn’t enjoy widespread membership until the mid-second century A.D. — On the internet, I ran across claims about the existence of “mithraic scriptures,” but, in reality, there are no such known writtings. Being a “mystery religion,” there are no sacred writings of the cult like there are in other ancient religions such as Christianity, Hunduism and Buddhism. It is also doubtful that any such sacred texts ever existed.

There exists the popular misconception that Christianity and Mithraism were in bitter competition for the heat and soul of the Roman empire. — This is not true! The truth is that the Roman cult of Mithraism only allowed men to join while excluding women. Christianity, being much more open to membership, was therefore at an advantage. Also, despite the fact that several Roman emperors were initiates in the cult of Mithras it was never instated as the official Roman religion.

The claim that Mithras was born on December 25th seems to be relevant, however as pointed out in previous posts, this date has no relevance to the origins of Christianity since it was in the forth century in which it was instituted. The claim that he was born of a virgin is false since he was born by being forced out of a rock. I guess someone could make the argument that a rock is a virgin, but to argue that is relevant is absurd. As for claims that Mithras performed miracles, this is too generic to be of any relevance since miracles are to be expected in theistic and polytheistic religion. — There is no reference I could find that shows him having twelve disciples. It’s important to consider that Mithras didn’t travel, so he would have had no traveling companions.

Zeitgeist’s claim that Mithras was dead for three days and then resurrected is demonstrably false. Mithras did not die, and therefore was not resurrected. He simply ascended to heaven in the Sun’s chariot after killing the bull. When in heaven, he has a meal with the Sun in which they eat the meat of the bull that he killed. — Since he was said to have killed the bull right before he ascended to heaven, there is therefore no time for him to have died and resurrected.

On the surface, the mithraic holy day being Sunday would seem relevant, but that goes without taking into account that Jesus and the first Christians were, in facts, Jews meaning they celebrated the Sabbath on Saturday rather than Sunday. To make matters worse, we really don’t know on what days Mithraic rituals took place, so this partucular claim really should not be made, despite its constant repetition. — Also, having been raised as a Seventh-Day Adventist, this objection is even less affective on me than on most other Christians.

In summary, the alleged similarities between Jesus and Mithras as mentioned by Zeitgeist are mostly false. But even if the parallels were real, they would still be fail to demonstrate causation . . . due to to the time when Mithraism appears in the Roman empire. The Encyclopedia Britannica says,

There is little notice of the Persian god in the Roman world until the beginning of the 2nd century, but, from the year AD 136 onward, there are hundreds of dedicatory inscriptions to Mithra. This renewal of interest is not easily explained. The most plausible hypothesis seems to be that Roman Mithraism was practically a new creation, wrought by a religious genius who may have lived as late as c. AD 100 and who gave the old traditional Persian ceremonies a new Platonic interpretation that enabled Mithraism to become acceptable to the Roman world.

And as a final word, it has been suggested from this that rather than Christianity borrowing from Mithraism, the borrowing may have been the reverse. However, others suppose that neither religion borrowed from the other, prefering the possibility that the similarities that do exist between Christianity and Mithraism may be explained as having their origins in the Greco-Oriental mindset of the time. Either hypothesis is prefered, Zeitgeist’s implication that Jesus was an imitation of Mithras is less supported then it supposes. One pagan researcher (not a Christian apologist) I’ve read on this subject concludes, “Did Christianity steal from Mithraism? Most definitely not.”

References:
The Catholic Encyclopedia Mithraism.
Mithraism
Mithra & Mithraism: The Legend of Mithras
What Mithraism Isn’t
Encyclopedia Britannica, Mithraism.
The Cult of Mithras. UNRV History.

Further Reading:
Epologetics: Debunking the Jesus-Mithra Myth
Was the story of Jesus stolen from that of the Persian deity Mithra?, by J.P. Holding
Mithras: Mithraism and Christianity from SkepticWiki

The Myth of Jesus: A Refutation of the Zeitgeist — Part 4

In this blog I have been investigating the claims made by the film Zeitgeist that Jesus Christ is mearly an imitation of several other pagan gods that pre-date Christianity. However, so far I have investigated the first three of the five deities listed such as Horus, Attis, and Krishna and so far these claims have turned out to be bogus. This shows that the claim the film makes about wanting to be academically correct is just empty words.

Next up, the film then goes into a description of the Greek God, Dionysus. First, the film claims that Dionysus was born of a virgin on December 25th, performed miracles, was known as the “King of kings,” and the “Alpha and Omega.” And it also says he was resurrected after his death.

Dionysus was God of wine and the fertility of nature. He was also the son of the the greek god Zeus and the mortal woman Semele. — He was also said to be “twice born” because after his mother had been destroyed by Zeus’ thunder and lightning, Zeus rescued him from his mother’s ashes and sewed him into his thigh until the time had come for him to be born.

According the the Encyclopedia of Mythica,

Because Zeus slept with Semele secretly, Hera [Zeus' wife] only found out about the affair after the girl was pregnant [with Dionysus]. (Brackets mine, Emphasise mine)

The bottom line: Semele was not a virgin when Dionysus was conceived, therefore showing yet more intellectual dishonesty on the part of the film makers. Also, I have found no evidence that December 25 is the date of Dionysus’ birth or that it had any importance to him. — Not that it matters because that date has no significance to Christianity.

As for miracles, I have found none. That’s not to say that there aren’t any cases. But even if there were it would not mattar because, as I have said before on another post, miracles are a given and are expected of any divine being.

There are those that attempt to tie Jesus’ miracle of turning water to wine to Dionysus because the latter was known as the god of wine to the Greeks. (John 2: 1, 11) However, as far as I can tell, Dionysus didn’t turn water into wine though he was a wine-maker. He was, however, the god that showed mortal man how to make wine among other things.

I cannot confirm or deny that Dionysus was called either “king of kings” or the “Alpha and the omega.” — Considering that Zeus, not Dionysus was the king of the gods, I imagine that Zeus would be more likely to have been called the former. (Text Link) However, I cannot even find that title of “king of kings” for Zeus either. But certainly if Dionysus had usurped such a title I would wonder why Zeus didn’t kill him off to protect his authority.

As for the death and resurrection of Dionysus (click here),

Hera had the newborn Dionysus killed by a couple of Titan assassins who tore him to bits, even though he kept trying to escape them by changing forms to hide from them. When he died a pomegranate tree began to grow where his blood had fallen. Disconcerted by this, the Titans decided to be on the safe side and boil the pieces of his body in a great cauldron.

Luckily he was resurrected by his grandmother (though in some accounts it was by his half sister, Athena) and was entrusted to the goddess Persephone for safekeeping.

So even though it is true that there is a death and resurrection, as usual the details are way to different for one to conclude that this had any influence on Christianity and the Passion of Christ. The Myth of Jesus, as proposed by Zeitgeist seems to be falling for the logical fallacy that since there is death and resurrection in both stories then therefore one had to have copied the other. However this is due to disregarding the vast differences between the two. — Dionysus was murdered when he was a newborn , his body was then dismembered and boiled — A very different story than that of Jesus.

The only other death and resurrection account is that “according to tradition, Dionysus died each winter and was reborn in the spring.” (Click here) From all this evidence it seems that all the claims that Jesus is a copycat of Dionysus is unfounded on the wishfull thinking of Athiests that are willing to go to any lenghths to prove that Christianity and the story of Jesus are not true. Unfortunately for them I actually check my facts.

The Myth of Jesus: A Refutation of the Zeitgeist– Part 3

The film Zeitgeist begins with list of pagan gods such Horus, Attis, Krishna, Dionysus and Mythra. It goes through the list of details associated with Jesus Christ and then applies them to these pagan gods in order to create the impression that Christianity is only a copycat religion. However, viewers (whether believers or skeptics) should watch this film with the realization that there is an agenda behind it. — And I advise anyone reading this to do the same with what I am about to say as well.

So, please bear with me as I go over the facts of this matter:

After Zeitgeist finishes its claims about Attis the film then makes similar claims about Krishna that he was born of a virgin, a star in the east announced his birth, performed miracles with his diciples and was resurrected upon his death.

According to the story of Krishna’s birth, Kasma (his uncle) offered to be the charioteer for the wedding of his sister, Devaki in her marriage to Vesudevu. While he was driving the chariot to the wedding hall he then heard a voice which said that the eighth child of his sister would destroy him. After hearing this, he decided to kill his sister on the spot.

However Vesudevu begged Kasma not to kill Devaki promising to hand over to him any child they would have and Kasma agreed. Every time the married couple had a child, they handed him over to Kasma. The seventh child, however was saved when the parents slipped it passed the sleeping guards. And when it came time for the eighth child to be born Kasma decided not to risk anything and had both Vasudeva and Devaki locked up in a dungeon and there Krishna, the eighth child, was born. At that moment, Vasudeva’s chains fell off and he decided to escape with his child. He replaced him with a female infant thinking Kasma wouldn’t kill her. Kasma, however, attempted to kill her not knowing she wasn’t the child he was looking for. However she disappeared before any harm could happen to her.

Now first, as for the claim that Krishna’s mother Devaki was a virgin at his birth according to the story of Krishna,

Krishna was of the royal family of Mathura, and was the eighth son born to the princess Devaki, and her husband Vasudeva, a noble of the court.

Krishna was the youngest of eight children meaning his mother Devaki could not possibly have been a virgin at the time of his birth. The story clearly says that Kasma would be destroyed by her eighth child. Besides, there is nothing in the story that implies that his birth was miraculous in the slightest. From the story of Krishna’s birth, it is obvious that there is virtually no resemblance to the birth of Jesus. Not to mention, there is no star in the east that proclaims his birth.

It is true that Krishna performed miracles. But, being a god in his own right, this is a given and is not relevant because miracles would only be expected from a deity. (Click here) — Also there is an apparent parallel between Kasma who wanted to kill Krishna and Herod the Great who wanted to kill Jesus according the Matthew chapter two. But this is the only similarity between the two narratives. Considering all the differences, the only parallel seems pretty trivial.

Now what about his death and resurrection? — The fact of the matter is that Krishna was not crucified. According to sacred Hindu writings (See “Mahabharata 16: 4“ ) he was accidentally shot and killed by a hunter that mistook him for a deer.

The hunter, mistaking Keshava [or Krishna], who was stretched on the earth in high Yoga, for a deer, pierced him at the heel with a shaft and quickly came to that spot for capturing his prey. Coming up, Jara beheld a man dressed in yellow robes, rapt in Yoga and endued with many arms. Regarding himself an offender, and filled with fear, he touched the feet of Keshava. The high-souled one comforted him and then ascended upwards, filling the entire welkin with splendour.

When the hunter found out what he had done he became afraid, but in that moment it says that Krisha “comforted” him. When that happened he ascended to heaven and saw the gods and deities.

So the fact is that even though he was killed, the circumstances in the Hindu writtings are completely different from the Christian tradition. — Jesus was betrayed, crucified, placed in a tomb, then was resurrected. Krishna simply ascended to heaven when he was killed. So it has to be concluded that there is no credible evidence to believe that Jesus was copied from Krisha. Even what little similarities they have are really trivial and cannot be said to have influenced one or the other.

As a side issue, there is one particular claim made many other ”Jesus-Mythers,” though not by Zeitgeist that the term “Christ” (Jesus’ title as the Messiah) is similar to the name “Krishna” because of the somewhat similar pronunciation. However Christ, or Khristos, actually means “the annointed.” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament)

On the other hand, the meaning of Krishna’s name (click here) is completely different,

The term Krishna in Sanskrit means “black” according to standard dictionaries. It is related to similar words in other Indo-European languages meaning black. The name is often translated as ‘the dark one’ or as ‘the black one.’

Anyway, the attitude of Zeitgeist is now becoming clearer: “Academic correctness be damned! We have our agenda and we are going to advance it even if it means distorting the facts.” — I truly feel sorry for anyone that takes these films seriously without doing actual research.

As a side issue, there is one particular claim made many other ”Jesus-Mythers,” though not by Zeitgeist that the term “Christ” (Jesus’ title as the Messiah) is similar to the name “Krishna” because of the somewhat similar pronunciation. However Christ, or Khristos, actually means “the annointed.” (Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament)

The Myth of Jesus: A Refutation of the Zeitgeist — Part 2

The film Zeitgeist begins with list of pagan gods such Horus, Attis, Krishna, Dionysus and Mithra. It goes through the list of details associated with Jesus Christ and then applies them to these pagan gods in order to create the impression that Christianity is only a copycat religion. However, viewers (whether believers or skeptics) should watch this film with the realization that there is an agenda behind it. — And I advise anyone reading this to do the same with what I am about to say as well.

So far, on the part of the film, claims of being academically are false, as seen in the case of the parallels between Horus and Jesus. — But it goes on to the next pagan deity, Attis, and makes similar claims about him saying,

Attis, of Phyrigia, born of the virgin Nana on December 25th, crucified, placed in a tomb and after 3 days, was resurrected.

Before going into detail, I want to emphesize that December 25th has no theological significance to Christianity. It is not mentioned in the Bible as Jesus’ birth date. The date was adopted in 350 AD by Bishop Julius I, too late a date to have any relevance to Christian origins.

The story of Attis begins when Agdistis, a hermaphroditic demon with male and female sex organs, gets castrated by gods that feared him. They disposed of his organ, and an almond tree grew where it landed. — Pausanias, the second century Greek writer, says:

There grew up from it an almond-tree with its fruit ripe, and a daughter of the river Sangarius [Nana, Attis' mother], they say, took of the fruit and laid it in her bosom, when it at once disappeared, but she was with child. A boy was born, and exposed, but was tended by a he-goat. As he grew up his beauty was more than human, and Agdistis fell in love with him. (Description of Greece 7, 17, 11)

After Attis’s birth, Nana’s father ordered the child exposed so that he would die, but fortunately he was saved by the goddess Cybele and was mothered by a she-goat. Attis grew to manhood and was so handsome in appearance that Agdistis and/or Cybele, the mother of the gods, fell in love with him.

When Attis was sent to marry the daughter of the king of Pessinos, Agdistis drove Attis insane to the point of castrating himself so that nobody else could have him. When Agdistis saw Attis’ dead body, he repented of driving him insane and made sure that his body didn’t decay. He was then reborn as an evergreen pine tree, as recounted by Strabo the historian. — In other versions, Cybele, who was jealous and refused to take Attis back, got sexually involved with women, and this drove Attis insane and he mutilated himself under a pine tree where he died. — Pausanias points out one tradition in which Attis is killed by a boar. (Description of Greece 7, 17, 10)

There is no indication that Nana, Attis’ mother, was a virgin when her son was born, though she could have been since there is no reason to believe she wasn’t. As for his death, he was either castrated, or his has gored by a wild bore. He was not crucified.

The claim that Attis was dead for three days and later resurrected seems to have its roots in theMagna Mater’s Spring Festival which lasted from the 15th of March until the 27th. — On the eighth say of the festival, a pine tree which symbolized Attis was cut down, and this was followed by three days of mourning. On the tenth day, he was burried, and then on the so-called Halaria, or the “Day of Joy” was on the eleventh day. This is cited as the resurrection day.

A.T. Fear, who contributed a chapter to the book entitled Attis and Related Cults and wrote about this very same festival, points out in the chapter entitled “Cybele and Christ“ does seem to confirm the claims that that Jesus may have been copied from Attis because of a similar claim that he was killed and resurrected after three days during a celebration that depicts his resurrection out of a tomb. (Page 39) — But there is a major problem. The ceremony that Dr. Fear describes is from a major festival of the metroac cult. But later he points out that this very cult had gone through changes which could have been “a deliberate attempt to rival Christianity” to ensure the cult’s survival in the market. (Page 44) — As a matter of fact, about the resurrection of Attis he says,

Attis too with his strong emphasis on resurrection seems to be a late-comer to the cult, the stress on the Halaria as celebrating the resurrection of Attis also appears to increase at the beginning of the Fourth century AD.: the same time as in the taurobolium towards the rite of personal redemption.

While these changes could simply be a mutation of religion over time, and it is important to remember that here we are discussing a period of centuries not merely years, they do seem to have been provoked by a need to respond to the challenge of Christianity. (Attis and Related Cults, pages 41, 42)

Dr. Fear does question whether the process of changing the Attis cult was conscious, but he never even implies that Jesus was influenced by Attis. He says that the Attis cult either mutated or that it responded to Christianity. He also dates the celebration of Attis’ “resurrection” to the fourth century AD!

To be fair, there is one possible earlier date for the apparent resurrection of Attis, but it is not much better for those that want Jesus to have been copied from Attis. — According to this other reconstruction, the three days of mourning were introduced during Emperor Claudius’ reign which was from 41 to 54 AD. Also, the apparent resurrection day was was introduced during the reign of Antoninus Pius, between 130 to 161 AD. The obvious problem with supposing that this was an inspiration for Christianity was that these aspects of the festival are post-Christian. So either way, both possible scenarios have it as too late to have affected Christianity.

So, my conclusion here is that Zeitgeist’s claims about Attis are only marginally better that those made about Horus. It cannot be said definitively that Attis was born of a virgin because it is not specified whether or not his mother was. His death in both versions of his life differ from the crucifixion of Jesus, and the three day death and resurrection of Attis are from the post-Christian era, not from before as would be expected if Christianity were influence by the Attis cult. — Academic correctness on Peter Joseph’s part (the producer of Zeitgeist) seems to be secondary to his anti-Christian agenda.

References:
The History of Christmas from holidays.net
Description of Greece 7, 17, 11, Pausanias
CATULLUS. “ATTIS” (#63)
Attis — From AbsoluteAstronomy.com
Description of Greece 7, 17, 10. Pausanias
The Great Mother from Asia Minor to Rome. From Mythology.OurGardenPath.com
Attis and Related Cults, pages 39 to 42. — Attis and Christ, by A.T. Fear

The Myth of Jesus: A Refutation of the Zeitgeist – Part 1

The film Zeitgeist begins with list of pagan gods such Horus, Attis, Krishna, Dionysus and Mithra. It goes through the list of details associated with Jesus Christ and then applies them to these pagan gods in order to create the impression that Christianity is only a copycat religion. However, viewers (whether believers or skeptics) should watch this film with the realization that there is an agenda behind it. — And I advise anyone reading this to do the same with what I am about to say as well.

As the film itself says, we want to be academically correct. So now it is our duty to check the facts to see if the makers of Zeitgeist have lived up to that expectation. If the film is right, then that means we Christians have a lot of reevaluating to do. If it is wrong, however, then it is the Jesus-Mythers that should reevaluate what they are spreading all over their webstes.

So, please bear with me as I go over the facts of this matter:

The first God that the film deals with is Horus, the God the Son of Osiris and Isis. — As I point out inthe introduction of this review, the film makes claims in an attempt to tie Horus to Jesus. — After going into some background about him, the narator of the film says,

Horus was born on December 25th of the virgin Isis-Meri. His birth was accompanied by a star in the east, which in turn, three kings followed to locate and adorn the new-born savior. At the age of 12, he was a prodigal child teacher, and at the age of 30 he was baptized by a figure known as Anup and thus began his ministry. Horus had 12 disciples he traveled about with, performing miracles such as healing the sick and walking on water. Horus was known by many gestural names such as The Truth, The Light, God’s Anointed Son, The Good Shepherd, The Lamb of God, and many others. After being betrayed by Typhon, Horus was crucified, buried for 3 days, and thus, resurrected.

These are incredible claims. But as I said, we have to be skeptical of any film that has a clear agenda. The truth is that even though it is claimed that Horus was the product of a virgin birth, there is no reference that I could find that supports what the film says. It is actually unlikely that a married couple of gods would have not procreated at any time before the birth of Horus.

In fact, the claim that Horus’ mother, Isis, was a virgin is easily disproven by very little research. — The Encyclopedia Mythica shows that his birth was definitely sexual. After his father Osiris had been murdered by Seth, his body was scatered into pieces leaving Isis to recover them to reassemble her husband’s body. She then“impregnated herself from the Osiris’ body and gave birth to Horus in the swamps of Khemnis in the Nile Delta.”

Also, there is no indication of Horus’ birth-date being on December 25th, there is no Biblical nor historical reason why this date should be relevant to Christianity because the Bible gives no such information of the birth of Jesus. — In reality, Horus was born on the second of the Epagomenal Days which actually corresponds from July 31st to August 24th.

As for Zeitgeist calling his mother Isis-Meri – an obvious word game the film makers try to pull to link her to Mary – there is no reference that I could find that wasn’t a “Jesus-Myth” website. No academic or encyclopedic sources I could find said any such thing. She is simply called Isis. However, that isn’t to say it doesn’t exist as an Egyptian term. The reference I found was that one of Ramses II’s sons bore the name “Meri-Astrot,” or “Beloved of Astrot.” — “Meri” means beloved. (History Of Syria: Including Lebanon And Palestine, page 136) — I suppose Osiris, being her husband, could have called her by that title, but there is no reference to him doing it. But even if he did, it is a title, not a name like Mary, so it would be irrelevant.

There is no reference to Horus being a “prodigal child teacher” at the age of twelve, or of being baptized at age thirty. — Zeitgeist claims that he was baptized by “Anup,” hovever this is a demonstrable error. “Anup” is simply an alternate spelling for the name of the god Anubis who, by the way, was an embelmer, not a baptizer.

As for having twelve disciples, again, I ran into a brick wall as I could find nothing to confirm this claim. — One researcher/Christian apologist I read said he was able to find a reference to Horus having sixteen followers, and another in which he had an undefined number, but twelve disciples escaped his investigative research.

The claim that he performed miracles, even if true, would be irrelevant because “miracle working” is a way too common expectation of deities. And as for having similar titles to Jesus such as “The Truth, The Light, God’s Anointed Son, The Good Shepherd, or the Lamb of God” there is no evidence that he ever had them.

“Typhon” is simply the Greek name for Seth, the murderer of Horus’ father. Zeitgeist claims that he betrayed Horus, however Seth was Horus’ enemy from birth so by definition nobody was betrayed. It’s hard to be betrayed by someone who was never your friend to begin with. — The one reference that I could find that describes his death is seeminly unrelated to the Passion of Jesus. According tothe Cippi of Horus, he was stung him to death by a scorpion. When Isis found him dead she is said to have become “distraught and frantic with grief, and was inconsolable.” – Thoth, who had helped her to revive her husband Osiris, heard her and came down to answer her. Isis was then supplied with incantations and then was able to revive her son. — No crucufixion, no three days in a tomb.

Zeitgeist also calls Horus the “Sun” god (or solar deity) in an attempt to tie him to Jesus who was the “son” of God. Overlooking the the fact that this is an irrelevant word game that only works in English, Jesus was never considered a solar deity. It doesn’t help matters for Zeitgeist and other “Jesus-Mythers” who make this claim that sun worship is a violation of Christian teaching. I’m fully aware that Zeitgeist tries to tie Jesus to “sun” worship via the zodiac, but I will cover that in a later post. — For the record, Ra was the sun god, though Horus was considered a sun god in falcon form.

To show that Jesus’ infancy is a plagiarizing, Zeitgeist goes on to cite a 3,500 year old Egyptian inscription found at Luxor that it claims tells the story of the annunciation, the immaculate conception, the birth and the adoration of Horus.

Luxor Inscription

The film then says,

The images begin with Thoth announcing to the virgin Isis that she will conceive Horus. Then Neth the holy ghost impregnating the virgin. And then the virgin birth and the adoration. This is exactly the story of Jesus’ miracle conception.

This seems to implicate Christianity and Jesus as an imitation, however besides my refutation given above of untrue idea of Isis being a virgin when Horus was born, there is yet another problem with using the Luxor inscription to support the copycat hypothesis.

Richard Carrier, a historian and skeptic of Christianity in his comments about the inscription, says that this inscription has nothing to do with Christianity,

The Luxor inscription also does not depict impregnation by a spirit, but involves very real sex (indeed, the narrative borders on soft-core porn), and the woman involved is the mythical Queen of Egypt in an archetypal sense, not Isis per se.

In short, he ends up saying that the parallels are very week, and that what few parallels that doexist need not have been copied. He also points out that “Amun, not Thoth, announces the conception. . .” — Also the inscription, as far as I can tell isn’t even about Horus’ birth which only shows how poor a job the makers of Zeitgeist have done in researching for their film.

So my conclusion here is that there is no relevant parallel between Jesus and Horus, and the ones brought up are mostly fabricated. It’s too bad that a lot of people uncrittically accept such claims without doing any independent research of their own.

References:
Encyclopedia Mythica. Isis — by Micha F. Lindemans
The Ancient Egyptian Calendar
Five Days Out of Time by John Opsopaus
History Of Syria: Including Lebanon And Palestine, page 136. By Philip Khuri Hitti
Classic Encyclopedia – Anubis.
Good question. Was Jesus Christ just a CopyCat Savior Myth? By Glenn Miller.
Osiris and Isis
Cippi of Horus. From TourEgypt.net
Ra – The Sun-God
Horus, the God of Kings. by Jimmy Dunn
Luxor Inscription: Brunner’s Gottkoenigs & the Nativity of Jesus: A Brief Communication. By Richard Carrier