Question for all pagans and christians

[Jane_the_Bane]

While Christianity is most definitely a syncretist religion, we need to be careful about doing our research properly when we go looking for the exact influences here. The internet is fraught with false claims in this regard, and it makes it all too easy for Christians to just point to such falsehoods to discredit *any* such notion.

Osiris, born of a virgin.

WRONG. While Egyptian mythology evolved over millennia, and thus includes many different versions of specific myths, Osiris is not virgin-born. The most common version depicts him as the child of the Earth-god Heb and the Sky-goddess Nut.
The greatest similarities between the Osiris myth and the Jesus myth (note: "myth" as "tale fraught with existential meaning", NOT necessarily "fictitious fairy tale") lies in Osiris's resurrection after being brutally murdered and dismembered, and the subsequent importance he has in relation to the eternal afterlife.

Mithras, born of a virgin

In the most common version of the myth, Mithras emerges fully formed from a rock. We could make a case for the rock being virginal, but still...

Dionysus, born of a virgin

Semele was a mortal woman impregnated by Zeus. Since that may or may not involve actual sexual intercourse (after all, Zeus made love in many different guises, not all of which necessitated the use of actual reproductive organs: one princess was impregnated by Zeus-as-rain, trickling through the ceiling), we could build a (somewhat weak) case for the state of her hymen here. However, no ancient source names her a virgin.

This leads me to an interesting question, though: how exactly *did* the ancients define virginity? Is it really all about the intact hymen (which, after all, often ruptures without the involvement of any sexual activity)? Or is it just about the sexual intercourse as such? If so, why does Mary being - ahem - "visited" by the Holy Ghost not count as a defloration? It always seemed to me that her virginal status was just supposed to signify that Jesus could not possibly have been the child of a human father - at least at first. Later sexual hangups absorbed from Gnostic and Stoic sources saw to it that sexuality became almost literally demonized, and the Church ended up insisting that Mary remained virginal throughout her life, rationalizing away Jesus's brothers and sisters and even going so far as to make the state of her hymen an article of faith. (I suppose Jesus was born via osmosis in the minds of certain church leaders.)

 

[gerbilwoman]

I personally do not believe in Christian witches.

 

[EnemyOfReason]

All religions are nothing but an algamation of various cults and reformulated mythologies. Christianity is just a Judaic crossover between the Hellenic concepts present at that time. There is nothing special about this as Christianity is no more syncretic than what came before it.
I love mixing Hindu philosophy with pre-Islamic mythology. I like ritualism and meditation and love doing so freely without religious or theistic baggage.

 

[Zoness]

I personally do not believe in Christian witches.

Okay I'm going to be nit-picky about grammar;

Do you believe you cannot be Christian and a witch?

Or do you believe that Christian witches do not exist?

 

[Zstar]

What do you think about christian wicca? What do you feel about it?

I feel Christ did many things that could be considered under the category.

Modern day I would rather hang with the Christian Wiccas than the ones who doesn't understand his teachings.

I feel if you light a candle or do good for him he appreciates it.

Just my 2 cents not studied it thoroughly.

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

All religions are nothing but an algamation of various cults and reformulated mythologies. Christianity is just a Judaic crossover between the Hellenic concepts present at that time. There is nothing special about this as Christianity is no more syncretic than what came before it.

While this is most certainly true, and eclecticism has been and always will be the universal state of culture, it bears pointing out because Christianity (along with the other Abrahamic monotheisms) puts such a decided emphasis on doctrinal purity and supposedly essential differences.

Basically, most of the Abrahamics (barring that Baha'i and other universalist approaches) embrace a stance with regard to religion that bears some similarity to the stance Westerners embraced with regard to "race":
the quest for an utterly illusory and chimerical "purity", the denigration of the "Other", the constant threat of "reverse colonization"/corruption...

From the (thankfully mythological) genocide described in the book of Joshua to contemporary Christians who only listen to "Christian" pop music and read only "Christian" romance novels, there's always been this strong emphasis.