Maher is good at staging interviews in which ordinary people appear foolish and even better in choosing people who don't need any help to appear ridiculous. Some of these interviews are very funny (I particularly liked his interview with the world's rudest rabbi).
Throughout the film, Maher contrasts himself with people who believe in God. They are crazy, he is rational; they are bigoted, he is fair minded; they are absolutely certain they are right, he (implicitly) is humble.
I understand why Maher needed to go to the lunatic fringe for his interviews. First, he is a comedian and he wanted his movie to be funny. Second, you have to find some real egotists to make Bill Maher look humble by comparison.
Many of his targets deserve the pokes he gives them, though it's hardly fair to issue a blanket condemnation of religious people based on the motley crew he chooses to represent us. Maher's debunking of Jesus also says something about his presentation of himself as a fair-minded rationalist.
Maher (Speaking to an actor who portrays Jesus at a Bible-themed amusement park): Does it ever bother you that the story of a man who was born of a virgin, was resurrected--your bio--was something that was going around the Mediterranean for at least a thousand years. We've got Krishna, who was in India a thousand years before Christ. Krishna was a carpenter, born of a virgin, baptized in a river…
(Actually, the worship of Krishna is only traced to about 400 BC, not 1000 BC. I suppose that's not such a big deal, but it is an error.
Krishna was not born to a virgin. His mother, the princess Devaki, was a married woman who had already had seven other sons. The story says that Krishna was conceived through "mental transmission" rather than regular means, so maybe that's what Maher is thinking of.
As for being a carpenter, Krishna was a cowherd. And there's no story of his being baptized in a river or anywhere else. If you'd like to check it out for yourself, you can read the Hindu epic Mahabarata online. It is the primary source for the stories of Krishna and one of the sacred texts of the Hindu faith. Sadly, Maher doesn't seem to have read any of it.
Maher (continuing): …there's the Persian god Mithra, six hundred years before Christ, born December 25, performed miracles, resurrected on the third day, was known as "the lamb", "the way, the truth, the light", "the Savior", the Messiah."
It's harder to track down the claims about Mithra. Mithraism,/a> was a mystery religion that was popular in the Roman Empire at about the same time as early Christianity. I'm suspicious of the claim that he was called "the lamb", "the way, the truth, the light", and "the Savior" (The DaVinci Code made similar claims and I've never been able to track them down. I am dead certain, though, that Mithra was not called the Messiah. That is a Hebrew word and would not have been used by the Persians for their god-man.
Finally, Mithra was not born on December 25; for one thing, the Persians didn't even use the
His followers believed that he performed miracles (though these mostly involved slaying monsters). His followers believed that he was immortal and there is no story of his death, let alone his resurrection. There's more on Mithra here.
Written in 1280 BC, the Egyptian Book of the Dead describes a god, Horus…
Horus is the son of the god Osirus…
…born to a virgin mother
…he was baptized in a river by Anup the Baptizer
…who was later beheaded
Like Jesus, Horus was tempted while alone in the desert…
Healed the sick…
The blind…
Cast out demons…
And walked on water…
He raised Asar from the dead…
"Asar" translates to "Lazarus"
Oh yeah, he also had 12 disciples.
Yes, Horus was crucified first…
And after 3 days, two women announced…
Horus, the savior of humanity…
…had been resurrected.
Horus is never referred to as the savior of humanity in Egyptian mythology.
Taking these points in order:
1) The Egyptian
Book of the Dead doesn'tsay any of these things about Horus. It is a book of spells and amulets intended to guide the soul on its journey to the next life.
2) Horus mother, the goddess Isis, was not a virgin, though she did conceive her son in an unusual way. The god Set murdered her husband, Orisis, and cut his body into pieces. Isis was able to find all the pieces, except for Osiris' penis, which had been eaten by a crocodile. She patched the pieces together, magically created a new penis, and restored the Osiris to life. The two engaged in sex and Horus was conceived. It's not exactly the same as the story of Jesus' birth.
3) I can find no reference to Anup the Baptizer anywhere in Egyptian mythology, and suspect that he is a fabrication. The only mentions a web search turns up are the book, The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Acharya S, and the movie Zeitgeist: the Movie. It's not clear where they got the story and I suspect it is a fabrication.
4) Likewise, I cannot find reference to any of the miracles Maher mentions Horus performing. The story of Horus mostly has to do with his struggles with his uncle Set to become king. Horus' mother, Isis, heals him several times in the story but Horus himself does not heal anyone.
5) There is no story about Horus resurrecting Asar (or anyone) in Egyptian mythology. In fact, there is no one names Asar in Egyptian myth. There is a story about Isis resurrecting Osiris and possibly this is what Maher is referring to.
6) I can't find anything in Egyptian mythology about Horus having 12 disciples.
7) There is a story about Horus dying and being resurrected, but it is very different from the story of Jesus. When Horus was still a little child, his evil uncle, Set sent a scorpion to kill him. His mother, Isis and his aunt, the goddess Nephthys, lamented Horus' death until the god Thoth came to earth to heal him. Thoth gave Horus a healing potion that drove the poison from his body. There is no crucifixion in the story, no announcement of resurrection, and Horus was never called the savior of the world.
Fringe theories like this normally amuse me more than irritate me. This one is a little different because Maher makes such a point of how gullible religious people are, clinging to absurd stories just because we like what they have to say.
Take a good long look in the mirror, Mr. Maher. you're trying to make your case with pseudo-history and conspiracy theories.
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