Go read this list by Edwin Kagin of all the gods that predated Jesus that appear to have characteristics just like Jesus. And before you write it off as bunk, go read the earliest church leaders’ writings from Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian and even modern-day C.S. Lewis. They have come up with convoluted “apologies” that these stories were invented and placed into human history from the devil to confuse people. The term given to this phenomenon is “diabolical mimicry” or “plagiarism by anticipation.”
I’ve been studying this phenomenon since college. In History 101, I wrote a paper on Zoroastrianism. It was the first I had heard of stories that predated Jesus, but seemed to use much of the same ideas and terminology that I used at church. At the time, I was confused. I had never heard of such stories.
I remember approaching my professor, Dr. Forstchen after class. I said, “Hey Dr. Forstchen, can you recommend a topic for the paper due next week.”
He scratched his chin, and took a drag on his cigarette. “Have you ever heard of Zoroaster?”
“No,” I said.
“Write it on Zoroaster. Here’s how you spell it Z-O-R …”
It is what it is. Once I stopped believing in the “devil”, diabolical mimicry could be thought of as just another ploy to sell people the invisible. It’s weird. I stopped believing in the devil in high school. My then girlfriend’s mom and I were talking one day. She was cooking and I was standing there talking god talk, and she says to me, “I don’t believe in the devil.” I was completely dumbstruck. I never heard anyone — not one person — say they didn’t believe in the devil. After poking around in literature and the library, I discovered the devil wasn’t all that explicitly described in the bible. I mean, a character exists, but it’s vague and nonsensical. At least to my little mind back then. His reign of terror is all extra-biblical. We have an idea of “him” from oral tradition and from literature. He’s a figment of the bible’s imagination.
But I digress. Back to the demonic plagiarism.
Diabolical mimicry has oozed its ugly head into other forms of Christian thought too. People really think that the “devil” buried the bones of dinosaurs to confuse Christians with evil evolution.
By the way, in case you’ve never seen the usage of “B.C.E” or “C.E.”, it’s how academics refer to B.C. and A.D. It stands for “Before the Common Era” and “Christ Everlasting.”
Honk.
The first time I heard of diabolical mimicry I was honestly speechless.
My father is a YEC and we were having a slightly heated discussion about radioisotope dating, fossils, geology, etc. which I was using to point out that the Earth truly is approx. 4.5 billions years old.
He thinks scientists make up stuff all the time in order to try to disprove god and he just kept dismissing most of what I offered. When I brought up the vast fossil record, he replied with, “Satan put all those fossils there to confuse people.”
I looked at him with my mouth open I’m sure. I stuttered around a bit and said something to the effect of how it was pointless to continue the discussion.
That’s when I knew. He really had drunk the kool-aid.
That is a great story, Steve.
One thing I don’t get is how smart guys like my dad have subscribed to National Geographic for years. Do people read these magazines and watch science shows, but when they say things like, “Evolution over millions of years”, do these people respond with “Lies. all lies. Nature is beautiful but science is a huge lie.”
It’s outright nuts. Despite all the physical evidence for evolution, whether the devil planted it there or not, there’s not a shred of physical evidence for “god”, but belief in him/her/it is more plausible than the wily devil and his crafty shenanigans to bury fossils or preemptively plagiarize the story of Christ through several other deified beings.
For real?
What’s wrong with Diabolical Mimicry? I infact challenge you atheists to disprove DM. The burden of proof is upon you to prove that Satan and his devils did not create all these distorted concepts based on the Primeval Gospel. You say “Jesus and Christianity were copied from Pagans.” Wrong. I say that the pagans copied their false religions from Jesus and the Gospels. Satan and his devils had access to knowledge in Heaven and the ability to see some events in the future, though in an incomplete way, and God is still in control, and, they also had access to the ProtoEvangel in Genesis 3 which was known to the earliest humans. Trinitarian Knowledge came first, the pagan systems were distorted from it.
Also God put an innate sense of the need for the Savior in all human societies and the only ones who had the preserved version until Jesus appeared bodilly were the Jews. Everyone else distorted it. We can see this in close parallel links between Old and New Testament practices and ideas in pagan societies.
Furthermore, if there is no God and no universal transcendent standard of right and wrong, good and evil, there is NO BASIS FOR MORALITY. Everything becomes your opinion.
Higonokami,
Your first sentence paints you into a corner.
Are you twelve?
You say that it’s feasible that divine Satanic knowledge is plausible, and then you say that the burden of proof is on me?
All you did was sum up Joseph Campbell’s entire body of work by saying, “God put an innate sense of the need for the Savior in all human societies.”
What’s wrong with DM?
How is that burden on me?
I don’t believe in the devil. I have never seen him/her/it. I only believe in what I can see. Have you seen the devil. Care to send me some footage of him? I’d love to see it.
You have been duped by a myth, and your passion, while captivating, is completely worthless.
And to address your final, pathetic excuse for a paragraph, you simply must stop repeating what you hear from the pulpit.
As a Christian, you are the maker of your own morality. If you followed the bible’s morality, you’d be in jail. You’d have no hands. If your right hand caused you to sin, you should have cut it off by now. If you followed Jesus, you wouldn’t be looking at my blog, because you would have sold your computer and all your possessions and given the money to the poor.
And if you were a follower of Christ, I could ask you for your shirt right now, and you should send me your coat as well.
You aren’t a Christian, nor a Christ follower. You are a failure if your bar is set at following Jesus.
Get your head out of your ass and stop attempting to look smart. It makes you looks like a helpless baby without a clue in the world.
At least I subscribe to morality that we can all agree on.
So what is it? I want your shirt. Drop me a line. I’ll send you my address. I have your email. I can send you that.
I’m not real wealthy, so I’ll take all your possessions too.
What do you say?
Jesus is waiting for your answer.
Amen Jeremy!