I’m in a discussion on fb with someone who was bashing the Bible and I said it is a wise and profound book. He replied something like this: “What part? Rape? Incest? Genocide?“ and he said that the Bible “just regurgitates beliefs and tenants from other religions.” How do I respond to that? And is the Bible stories copied from other religions?
The Bible speaks against rape, incest, and genocide, though even if it were the case that it promoted those things, then that wouldn't negate the fact that it contains things that are wise and profound. In Genesis 4:7, God told Cain that sin was crouching at the door and that he must master it, which implies that he already knew what sin is and must have been given instructions in that regard. So it should be of no surprise if things that were taught to Cain were also found to be taught in other cultures as humanity spread out. Moreover, there is no requirement that the things that Jesus taught needed to be new or unique, and in fact everything he taught was rooted in the OT. In regard to the debate between the houses of Hillel and Shammai, Jesus was virtually in complete agreement with the house of Hillel, which was the grandfather of Gamaliel, who was Paul's rabbi. Likewise, it is not as if the principle of treating others the way that we want to be treated needs to be unique to Christianity. The authors of the Bible also engaged the culture by taking stories that the people were familiar with and using them to teach the truth of how things really are.
With the issue of copying, it is not enough for two things to have a few element in common in order to establish copying. For example, if a teacher were to have their class write essays that argued for or against the death penalty, then many of them would use some of the same arguments, but that would not establish that they copied from each other. Likewise, stories from two cultures have a stories even striking similarities, but those cultures never interacted with each other, then it is not a case copying. Moreover, a story that is found in multiple cultures can have a common source. Stories universally tend to become more embellished over time rather than less embellished, so a more embellished story is more likely to be copied from a less embellished story even if we have earlier manuscripts of the more embellished story.
Most of the accusations of Christianity copying from other religions that are circulating the internet do not cite their sources. For example, there are lists that show simulates between Jesus and Horus, but they don't their sources, and if you look up what an actual ancient historian had to say about Horus, such as Plutarch, then then you will see that they had nothing in common and that the list of similarities was made up full cloth.
