Drake Glau Posted March 9, 2011 Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 So I was working on French and my friend links me to a site that has a few odd quotes on it and I find:"My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?"This actually made me laugh at first, just because of the coincidence or the fact that I missed this so many time...But also seemed to bring up a nice question. Are the religious stories from very different religions/mythologies based off each other? I mean, is it coincidence that Thor has a hammer and Jesus has 3 nails in him? What do you guys think?I didn't go look for more but I have a feeling there are more of these examples out there that I haven't noticed (probably because I'm not religious so I don't know the stories to begin with). Anyone know some more examples or even thoughts on this possibility? Are the myths and religions unwritten combinations? Allusions of each other basically. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proletariat Posted March 9, 2011 Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 So I was working on French and my friend links me to a site that has a few odd quotes on it and I find:"My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?"This actually made me laugh at first, just because of the coincidence or the fact that I missed this so many time...But also seemed to bring up a nice question. Are the religious stories from very different religions/mythologies based off each other? I mean, is it coincidence that Thor has a hammer and Jesus has 3 nails in him? What do you guys think?I didn't go look for more but I have a feeling there are more of these examples out there that I haven't noticed (probably because I'm not religious so I don't know the stories to begin with). Anyone know some more examples or even thoughts on this possibility? Are the myths and religions unwritten combinations? Allusions of each other basically.I'm fairly certain that Norse mythology had definitive roots independent of Christianity, although Scandinavia's Christian now, so I suppose the two must have rubbed against each other at some point. I don't know if one can successfully make the argument that religions stories are "allusions" of each other though in terms of literary devices/techniques.Religious stories serve to reflect upon fundamental human emotions, and therefore many are timeless thematically. It would not surprise me at all if someone found thematic similarities spanning across a whole array of religions. But to say Mjollner did in Jesus is a bit of a stretch. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted March 9, 2011 Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 Actually the Romans engaged in this quite well. It was part of their policy of conversion during the expansion of the roman empire - they had to try and get the natives on side, so what they did was to 'blend' their own gods (and Christianity, after one emperor decided to become Christian and doom (joke, joke) Europe to Christianity forever more...) with the native gods.So people in Northern Europe who celebrated midwinter festivals were informed that celebrations could continue, but now it was the birth of Jesus and not midwinter.Another example is when the Romans invaded Britain, they colonised the Southern city of Bath where there are natural hot springs, and the local Celts had for some time been worshipping the Goddess Sulis and thanking her for providing said hot springs. So the Romans basically told the Brits that Sulis = Minerva, who was one of their roman gods. They did this with most Celtic gods actually - twinning them with roman gods. It worked remarkably well - so in that sense I suppose they are kind-of based on each other Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philovitist Posted March 9, 2011 Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 There's that whole universalist perspective -that every religion is mostly alike- but not what you seem to be implying. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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