Are you aware of the Roman god Mithras?

It's just to bad that you don't know Christianity infiltrated the Roman religion - not the other way around. Have you heard of Constantine the Great??? He was the one who took Pagan themes and replaced them with Christian themes, because he realized that Christianity was on the rise...

Did you know that Christians were the first atheists?

According to the critical view, "Plutarch reports that Mithraism was introduce to the soldiers of Pompey the Great by Cilician pirates. Although it didn't flourish until later, it may well have been introduced in some form in the first century B.C.E."14,15 They charge that there were "worshippers of Mithras in Rome in Pompey's time (67 BC)."

The allegations of Mithraian influence on Christianity have been rejected by scholars in biblical and classical studies.29 According to the British scholar Norman Anderson:

"the basic difference between Christianity and the mysteries is the historic basis of the one and the mythological character of the other...the deities of the mysteries were no more than a nebulous figure of an imaginary past, while the Christ whom the apostolic (kerygma) proclaimed had lived and died only a few years before the first New Testament documents were written. Even when the Apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians the majority of some five hundred witnesses to the resurrection were still alive"(30) (1 Corn. 15:6).

Guys, assuming if mitraism is introduced some 67 BC, remember that the Jewish religion has been existing long time before that. The Septuaginst bible was already existing in about 250BC and was used by Jesus. Considering the Jewish is a lot older that mitra, we are bound to believe due to historical facts that mitra copied the Jesus facts from the floating holy manuscript after 70AD..

The evidence seems to be pointing in the direction that Roman Mithraism was not fully developed before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., therefor it seems improbable that Christianity was influenced by Mithraism.

So, there goes your mitra thing. Do an extensive research not this kind of gossiping thing.

Are you aware there is nothing certain about Mithra?

There are three gods with that name, and there is no proof they are related. There is no proof any of those ever had a story similar to that of christ and there is no proof of pretty much anything about him.

We only know there was a secret cult about him in the first century A.D. and it mostly ran among soldiers coming back from persia.

There was another secret cult running in the roman culture underground, in those days. And it was christianity. It's sometimes disputed that Mithra's cult could have obscured christianity if it had arrived 10 years sooner.

But it didn't.

It is also disputed that there where a lot a wannabe messiahs in Israel at the time of jesus. And one of those is even confronted directly by jesus himself in the bible: Simon Magus.

But that's all we know.

Spreading evocative lies about mithra does not do atheism or other religions a good service.

He had similarities with jesus, but not of the kind you mentioned.

What do you mean before Jesus? All their writings post date Jesus and they where famous for stealing from other religions and roman pagan beliefs.

He was born from a rock, fully adult. I am sure the rock was a virgin but there is no evidence for this.

(1) Our knowledge regarding Mithraism is very imperfect; some 600 brief inscriptions, mostly dedicatory, some 300 often fragmentary, exiguous, almost identical monuments, a few casual references in the Fathers or Acts of the Martyrs, and a brief polemic against Mithraism which the Armenian Eznig about 450 probably copied from Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. 428) who lived when Mithraism was almost a thing of the past — these are our only sources, unless we include the Avesta in which Mithra is indeed mentioned, but which cannot be an authority for Roman Mithraism with which Christianity is compared. Our knowledge is mostly ingenious guess-work; of the real inner working of Mithraism and the sense in which it was understood by those who professed it at the advent of Christianity, we know nothing.

(2) Some apparent similarities exist; but in a number of details it is quite probable that Mithraism was the borrower from Christianity. Tertullian about 200 could say: "hesterni sumus et omnia vestra implevimus" ("we are but of yesterday, yet your whole world is full of us"). It is not unnatural to suppose that a religion which filled the whole world, should have been copied at least in some details by another religion which was quite popular during the third century. Moreover the resemblances pointed out are superficial and external. Similarity in words and names is nothing; it is the sense that matters. During these centuries Christianity was coining its own technical terms, and naturally took names, terms, and expressions current in that day; and so did Mithraism. But under identical terms each system thought its own thoughts. Mithra is called a mediator; and so is Christ; but Mithra originally only in a cosmogonic or astronomical sense; Christ, being God and man, is by nature the Mediator between God and man. And so in similar instances. Mithraism had a Eucharist, but the idea of a sacred banquet is as old as the human race and existed at all ages and amongst all peoples. Mithra saved the world by sacrificing a bull; Christ by sacrificing Himself. It is hardly possible to conceive a more radical difference than that between Mithra taurochtonos and Christ crucified. Christ was born of a Virgin; there is nothing to prove that the same was believed of Mithra born from the rock. Christ was born in a cave; and Mithraists worshipped in a cave, but Mithra was born under a tree near a river. Much as been made of the presence of adoring shepherds; but their existence on sculptures has not been proven, and considering that man had not yet appeared, it is an anachronism to suppose their presence.

(3) Christ was an historical personage, recently born in a well-known town of Judea, and crucified under a Roman governor, whose name figured in the ordinary official lists. Mithra was an abstraction, a personification not even of the sun but of the diffused daylight; his incarnation, if such it may be called, was supposed to have happened before the creation of the human race, before all history. The small Mithraic congregations were like masonic lodges for a few and for men only and even those mostly of one class, the military; a religion that excludes the half of the human race bears no comparison to the religion of Christ. Mithraism was all comprehensive and tolerant of every other cult, the Pater Patrum himself was an adept in a number of other religions; Christianity was essential exclusive, condemning every other religion in the world, alone and unique in its majesty.

Which one?

There are several Mithras, including Iranian, Indian, Roman, Greek, and Persian versions. The basic story of Mithra (though any given version will differ) involves the god-figure Mithra's birth from a rock, after which he struggled against evil in a sun-and-stars oriented, mythological story. He eventually slew a divine bull, whose blood brought plants and animals into existence.

I'm ready to declare Mithras as my personal Lord and Savior, based on the info here that he did it all before Jesus. It's clear then that Jesus was just trying to be as cool as Mithras. I want my savior to be the cool one.

Antie Pantie- Mithras predates both Constantine and Christianity. This is easily demonstrated in historical record. There's no Christian infiltration if Christianity didn't exist yet.

The interesting thing about Mithraism is that it was a mystery religion. Nothing was written down and the members were sworn to secrecy. So how come after 2,000 years you seem to know so much about it?

I had not realised that there was so much information out there about Mithraism.

It had been my impression that other than a few hints, we did not have much available.

I would love to read about this in more detail.

Please advise what publications are available.

No