Ever notice how Christianity (and some other religious sects) closely resembles that of Greek Mythology?

There are plenty of similarities, but here are a couple big ones.

Hades = Satan/Underworld?

Zeus = God? (I swear, every depiction of God looks like that of Zeus)

Greek Mythology was around before Christianity.. and although it was polytheistic, it makes me think.

I don't see how Christians can't see that the shit they're believing in is justGreek MYTHology that has been refined and such to fit today's society (or the society of 2000 years ago).

Edit: I forgot to add that Christianity is essentially a continuation of Judaism, though lacking in a huge amount of doctrine and central beliefs.

Actually according to historians, Abraham, the father of the jews, came from the city of Urik in Sumer around 2500 - 3000 B.C.E. He then travelled westward and began cultivating the beginnings of Judaism. The Greeks didn't actually settle down in Greece until 1800 B.C.E. It's true though that the Greeks, or Hellas as they called themselves, spread their culture throughout the Mediterrenean world going as far east as the borders of India. The Jews probably adopted some of their customs, actually many, including the language and way of life. But they did maintain their religious practices.

Christianity became widespread during Roman rule. The Romans are of course considered to have inherited Greek culture, thought, and even religion. In those early days the Christians were desperate to convert as many people as they could, so naturally they incorporated many aspects of other religions, i.e. Roman, to make it easier for the converts. There's more but it's late and I want to go see Kill Bill Vol. 2. Later.

[This message has been edited by dizztrezzed (edited 04-20-2004).]

Carl Jung's notion of the collective unconscious is a good lens to look through in that there are more things -in common- with all the religions that man has come up with, than there are differences. Almost every religion has a creation story, a story about how human beings were created, how human's pissed off the god/gods, how man came to know the god/gods, a version of the 10 commandments(moral laws, a story about how the world will end and so on. The names and places change, but the core remains similar.

I think it's more that depictions and interpretations of Christianity (God with beard, sandals and lightning bolts, Hell as Hades) borrows from Greek myth than that Christianity itself borrows from it.

I think that Satan and God were around in Judaism before the prime of the Greeks.

Though there are a lot of similarities that suggest "borrowing" from other religions; Dionysus was hung up on a tree and mutilated, then sprung back to life, or some such.

Research the fallen angels. It says something like they came to earth and were living here. They were breeding, and that created things out of egyptian mythology. It is a really interesting read.

All this proves is that both religions have a positive and negative aspect and if you live a life contrary to the values of your religion that you will be punished and if you follow those values, then you will be rewarded. It's a feature of many, many, many religions.