Quote:
Originally Posted by Patricia
Actually that is a rather old-fashioned view, which probably derives from Frazer. Sir James Frazer wrote "The Golden Bough" in which he argues that there is a common theme to all the western mythologies and he strongly imples that there is absolutely nothing new in Christianity except for the personality of Jesus. (He was careful not to say this explicitly because he preferred to avoid being harassed by Victorian fundamentalists.) Atonement, resurrection and suchlike can be found in the Mithras cult, in the Attis cult etc. Christianity, according to Frazer, was merely the most successful of the Mystery religions which proliferated in the middle east during the early Roman Empire.
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Absolutely, and that's my point really. A lot of academic views tend to follow the fashion of the day. Personally, I thought our religious studies prof was a complete loon, but I spat it all back to him on the test and then tried my best to forget that people like him exist. They do more harm than good in my view.
Now, a good debate, especially one where the parties are working with the same set of definitions (which Gideon and I clearly are not -- so there can't be much in the way of argument really), that's really interesting.
However, when the definitions differ, you might as well be speaking two entirely different languages for all of the effective communication that will result (close to none, actually).
And .... I really do need to walk the dogs, and I should be scrubbing the stupid floors (although, now that the new dishwasher will not be delivered until Saturday .... scrubbing floors is of a much lower priority).
Why couldn't I have KNOWN that Whirlpool, Maytag and Farking KitchenAid were all the same company?????