Asymmetric Religion and Philosophy

"When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything."
- GK Chesterton

My friends at Magnasquids (the movie is here) brought to my attention a conspiracy movie claiming to show that all religions, including Christianity (but not Islam, oddly), descend from the ancient zodiac. Basically, the Patriarchs used the Egyptian god Horus, himself a personification of the ancient zodiac, as inspiration for their own theology and God origin. The movie, not content with a mere academic discussion of religious origins, however, goes on to discuss how we were all fooled by Bush and Co. during and after the Twin Towers attack of 2001 (the lying "9/11 Truth" movement) and even bring up that old chestnut, the Federal Reserve Bank.

I was immediately skeptical for a couple of reasons. First, just like I wouldn't buy a car from someplace called "Honest Jack's Car Emporium" I immediately distrust any movie that claims "everything you know is a lie, UNTIL NOW." Yes, an internet movie will set us strait. Second, in order for such claims to be true, we'd have to live in a more evil world than anybody could imagine. Our president would have had to murder 3000 people to please... I don't know... his bothers from the Skull and Bones who now run the Reserve Bank who just lent money to Halliburton.

I must admit that I wasn't prepared to discus the religious aspects of the film. The movie begins by listing coincidences between the different religions: that all ancient religions have virgin-birthed gods who later acquire twelve disciples, are killed, and are resurrected (anybody you know?). Their list of gods is impressive from the aforementioned Horus to Dionysus, to Mithra and Vishnu and even a god that they made up themselves called Virishna.

The list of similarities took me aback. I thought that if they were true, it would be a solid case against religion in general and Christianity in particular.

But, it turns out that the movie is one big, fat lie. In one of my most interesting internet experiences, a site called Unexplained Mysteries has such a devastating debunking that I almost felt embarrassed for the movie makers- until I realized that these people are spreading the most disgusting lies and generating unjustified fear- very sad. The thread is very much worth your time.

Some thoughts:

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