The Antichristian Phenomenon

The internet movie Zeitgeist has garnered both positive and negative attention for what

it portrays; that being a broad conspiracy of sorts between religion, wars spurred by acts such as 9/11, and those who stand to profit from both. That may be a bit of an oversimplification, but that is one of the very activities I’ve heard others accuse this film of; oversimplifying and overstating complicated issues and facts in order to construct a lie.

While I’ll agree that some of the information present is a bit contrived or at least stretched, there’s plenty more which speaks volumes. Of course given the very nature of this site, I will of course only focus on the first part of Zeitgeist, the religious portion. As for its conspiracy theories, the rest of you can debate the Lusitania and 9/11 elsewhere.

The first thing worth noting is that Zeitgeist uses very careful language throughout. The story of Horus is of no exception: “Broadly speaking, the story of Horus is as follows…” where they then list very specific details about Horus that relate back to Christianity. And while they are correct that many aspects of Egyptian mythology hold some curious and beyond coincidental parallels (Osiris being reborn/incarnated via Isis as Horus during the winter solstice, celebrated with a festival lasting 12 days, later being affiliated with/as the newborn “sun”), Zeitgeist makes very literal and direct connections between aspects which are a little sketchy. That isn’t to say that there aren’t striking similarities between Egyptian mythology and others, including Christianity, but that the zealotry present in Zeitgeist tends to overstate and generalize certain facets, if not skewing fact then contradicting popular opinion. Again, careful language is key here. But this alone isn’t enough to justly proclaim that they are outright lying. To prove they’re not just full of themselves, I’ll list just a few examples of religious similarities.

For instance Isis: Sister and wife of Osiris, mother of Horus through a magic conception (literally, using magic), and a virgin in that she did not “conceive” Horus as such. Isis was originally viewed as a woman, the mother and protector of Horus the Child, but later came to be reverred as one of the most recognized and worshipped Goddesses of Europe and parts of Africa, being incorporated into and synonymous with many other Goddesses of the era (such as Serket). Even centuries after the given birth and death of Jesus, Isis was still being worshipped within the Roman Empire until physically removed in the 6th century by the Christian elite. And while it has been disputed by Christians that there is no commonality or derived origin of the Virgin Mary from Isis, the similarities are more striking than their differences.

Mithra of the Persian Empire was considered a redeemer, protecting and “saving” people’s souls, accompanying them to paradise. Direct and shameless quotes from wikipedia follow:

“While in older Zoroastrianism Mithra is seen as a creation of Ahura Mazda, in later Persian culture, Mithra evolved to be an incarnation of Ahura Mazda [1], and in his role as ‘Judge of Souls’ as the rewarder of good and annihilator of the bad. Mithra was seen as omniscient, undeceivable, infallible, eternally watchful, and never-resting.”

“The last day of the Persian month Azar is the longest night of the year, when the forces of Ahriman are assumed to be at the peak of their strength. While the next day, the first day of the month Dey known as khoram rooz or khore rooz (the day of sun) belongs to Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom. Since the days are getting longer and the nights shorter, this day marks the victory of Sun over the darkness. The occasion was celebrated in the ancient Persian Daygan Festival dedicated to Ahura Mazda, and Mithra on the first day of the month Dey.”

Their festival is closely derived from Egyptian culture, based on the Egyptian solar calendar but substituting Zoroastrian divinities. The winter solstice festival is still in part celebrated as Shab-e Yalda in Iran, Yalda meaning “the birth of sun”.

The similarities between Christianity and its holidays and events and various Pagan festivals and traditions such as Sol Invictus and Saturnalia are extremely prevalent, themselves having much in common with Brumalia (derived from bruma for “shortest day”) which ended on December 25th, which is thought to have progressively evolved from Lenaea, a festival involving the rebirth of Dionysus. And Dionysus himself originated as a Greek god as Osiris became profound and widely known during the Hellenic era. They did not copy exact details but focused on values and traits of Osiris; a phenomenon similar in other regions at that time, changing facts to match or create local gods who later were collectively known as Osiris-Dionysus. It can in turn be easily argued that Jesus’ conception was not unlike the Osiris-Dionysus deities. Of course the similarities held by all of these figures and festivals are mostly oblivious to or ignored by Christians. Apologists of the time went so far as to claim that the Devil copied the life of Jesus into the past, as opposed to vice-versa.

While Zeitgeist is just the slightest bit sensationalist it does make a lot of good points, and has a lot of truth in it. Its greatest failing is trying to make literal and unforgiving connections between various icons, religious or otherwise, related or not. This may have developed merely out of time constraints for the film or in an attempt to bolster their case and simplify facts for the audience.

For example, relating the constellation Virgo back to Mary, Myrra and Maya purely because of its symbol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Virgo.svg) is somewhat ridiculous. At worst it’s coincidental, especially considering how many virgins (Isis ring a bell?) have NOTHING to do with the letter M. At best it’s a half-truth. It would be like claiming one of the Wisemen brought gold because it’s the metal associated with Virgo; it might somehow be related but is entirely circumstantial, and does not explain why frankincense and myrrh was given as well. But they pass it off as fact. As for Bethlehem being a reference to Virgo, that makes a lot more sense given their shared meaning and holds a bit more credibility, especially considering that Paul did not spread the story of Jesus as something which physically occured on Earth.

So although Zeitgeist is quite credible in a lot of what it offers, the entire film is thrown out or ignored by most Christians because of intertwined falsities and over simplifications. For example, their explanation of the winter solstice and spring equinox is quite succinct, and varying religions and mythologies undoubtedly relate this with astronomical phenomena and myth; that is definite fact. Even if Christianity did not initially form around these events directly they clearly adopted them through other belief systems after its conception, ultimately personifying sun worship through the character of Jesus.

Whether Jesus did or did not exist isn’t really relavant to this discussion, but he likely was used as a base onto which various religious beliefs and traditions were consolidated into one, assimilating aspects of Isis, Mithras, Dionysus, Mithra, and others. This may have been done to unite the people and incorporate aspects they can all relate to or already had deeply integrated into their lives. It may have been done to force social change, or as Zeitgeist suggests, a method to control the populace and encourage/force conformity and control (ie. beginning with the Council of Nicaea). It may even have been done unwittingly and by the will of the people over time, unwilling to relinquish their previous beliefs to the one being forced upon them by the state (seen with the Theodosian decree).

In reality it is quite likely that all of the above are true. But in the end Zeitgeist is a propaganda piece, no different than the Vatican, or the Department of Homeland Security, or this very website. All of them proclaim the world as they see it.

If you’re looking for “truth”, if there is such a thing, you can’t just go to one source. Even all the good parts of the Bible combined (trust me, they are in there) don’t offer all the answers to life’s questions, nor could this website ever hope to (although we’ll offer as many as we can). Moderation truly is key. You need a little of one source with a bit of another mixed with a dash of skepticism and a healthy dose of reason to come to a rational and logical conclusion based on factual evidence.

But Zeitgeist does offer some very compelling evidence…

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Culture, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.