Quote Originally Posted by Nullific
The religions they rise in fall. Why should I believe in Jesus and not Zeus?
Null, with that statement you're closer to the truth than you might think possible... First of all, just the word itself: Zeus in anciet Greek was pronounced 'dze-us' which in the Latin language became Deus, which of course is the Latin word for God. Now, before yelling back at me and saying this is just language, there's much more to language than just sounds. An entire set of ideas and perceptions is associated with a word, even moreso with a word of such simbolic significance. Many of the traits ancients Greeks used to ascribe to Zeus got transmitted down throught to time, and became associated (probably subconciously) to Deus, or God and by Christian extension, Jesus.

Another important point to remember is the New testament was originally written in Greek, and that is another way all the lore and information concerning Zeus got transmitted to God.

Oh, and ever thought why representations of God always show him as an old man with full white hair and beard, sitting in heaven on his cloud and ruling the sky? That's exactly how the Greeks represented Zeus, only instead of smiting people, he hurled thunderbolts at them. Even Noah is an exact copy of the Greek myth of Pygmalion.

Oh, I almost forgot, you mentioned the virgin birth.... That is another tradition which has been passed on to Christianity from other tales and legends. This was an ancient technique used to denote someone's importance. Romulus and Remus were born of virgins, so was Hercules and Mithra and possibly Gilgamesh. Orpheus, Osiris and Horus died and were resurrected.

Christian philosophy is essentially an anthology of many of the ancient mediterranean philosophies, mythologies and religions.