Sixteen

Quoted Text and References - from: THE WORLD’S SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS or Christianity Before Christ CONTAINING New, Startling and Extraordinary Revelations In Religious History, Which Disclose The Oriental Origin Of All The Doctrines, Principles, Precepts, And Miracles Of The CHRISTIAN NEW TESTAMENT And Furnishing A Key For Unlocking Many Of It’s Sacred Mysteries, Besides comprising the History Of 16 HEATHEN CRUCIFIED GODS BY KERSEY GRAVES Copyright, 1875
PREFACE Inversely to the remoteness of time has been man’s ascent toward the temple of knowledge. Truth has made its ingress into the human mind in the ratio by which man has attained the capacity to receive and appreciate it. Hence, as we tread back the meandering pathway of human history, every step in the receding process brings us to a lower plane of intelligence and a state of mind more thoroughly encrusted with ignorance and superstition. It is, therefore, no source of surprise to learn, when we take a survey of the world two or three thousand years in the past, that every religious writer of that era committed errors on every subject which employed his pen, involving a scientific principle. Hence, the bible, or sacred book, to which he was a contributor, is now found to bear the marks of human imperfection. For the temple of knowledge was but partially reared, and its chambers but dimly lighted up. The intellectual brain was in a dark, feeble and dormant condition. Hence, the moral and religious feelings were drifted about without a pilot on the turbulent waves of superstition, and finally stranded on the shoals of bigotry. The Christian bible, like other bibles, having been written in an age when science was but budding into life, and philosophy had attained but a feeble growth, should be expected to teach many things incompatible with the principles of modern science. Page 3 ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY FRIENDS and brethren— teachers of the Christian faith: Will you believe us when we tell you the divine claims of your religion are gone— all swept away by the “ logic of History,” and nullified by the demonstrations of science? The recently opened fountains of historic law, many of whose potent facts will be found interspersed through the pages of this work, sweep away the last inch of ground on which can be predicated the least show for either the divine origin of the Christian religion, or the divinity of Jesus Christ. For these facts demonstrate beyond all cavil and criticism, and with a logical force which can leave not the vestige of a doubt upon any unbiased mind, that all its doctrines are an outgrowth from older heathen systems. Page 18 *22 ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.* In conclusion, please note the following points:— 1. The religious conceptions of the Old Testament are as easily traced to heathen sources as those of the New Testament. But we are compelled to exclude such an exposition from this work. 2. The comparative exhibition of the doctrines and teachings of twenty bibles which proves them to be in their leading features essentially alike (originally designed for this volume), is found to be, when completed, of sufficient magnitude to constitute a volume of itself. ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY. 23 3. Here I desire to impress upon the minds of my clerical brethren the important fact, that the gospel histories of Christ were written by men who had formerly been Jews (see Acts xxi. 20), and probably possessing the strong proclivity to imitate and borrow which their bible shows was characteristic of that nation; and being written many years after Christ’s death, according to that standard Christian author, Dr. Lardner, it was impossible, under such circumstances, for them to separate (if they had desired to) the real facts and events of his life from the innumerable fictions and fables then afloat everywhere relative to the heathen Gods who had pre-enacted a similar history. Two reasons are thus furnished for their constructing a history of Christ almost identical with that of other Gods, as shown in chapters XXX., XXXI. and XXXII. of this work. 4. The singular and senseless defense of your now tottering system we have known to be attempted by members of your order, by the self-complacent soliloquy “ Christianity, whether divine or human, is good enough for me.” But such a subterfuge betrays both a weak mind and a weak cause. The disciples of all the oriental systems cherished a similar feeling and a similar sentiment. And the deluded followers of Brigham Young exclaimed in like manner, “ I want nothing better than Mormonism.” “ Snakes, lizards and frogs are good enough for me,” a South Sea Islander once exclaimed to a missionary, when a reform diet was proposed. Such logic, if universally adopted, would keep the world eternally in barbarism. No progress can be made where such sentiments prevail. The truth is, no system of religion, whatever its ostensible marks of perfection, can long remain “good enough” for aspiring and progressive minds, unless occasionally improved, like other institutions. And then it should be borne in mind, that our controversy does not appertain so much to the character as to the origin of the Christian religion. Our many incontrovertible proofs, that it is of human and heathen origin, proves at the same time that it is an imperfect system, and as such, needing occasional improvement, like other institutions. *24 ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.* And its assumed perfection and divine origin which have always guarded it from improvement, amplify accounts for its present corrupt, immoral, declining and dying condition. And it will ere long die with paralysis, unless its assumption of divine perfection is soon exchanged for the principles of improvement and reconstruction. This policy alone can save it. 5. We will here notice another feeble, futile and foolish expedient we have known resorted to by persons of your order to save your sinking cause when the evidence is presented with such cogency as to admit of no disproof, that all the important doctrines of Christianity were taught by older heathen systems before the era of Christ. The plea is that those systems were mere types, or ante-types, of the Christian religion. But this plea is of itself a borrowed subterfuge of heathenism, and is moreover devoid of evidence. The ancient Egyptians, also the Greeks, claimed that Brahminism was a type, or ante-type of their religious systems. And Mahomedans now claim that both Judaism and Christianity were designed by God as foreshadowing types of religion of the Koran. And the disciples of more than a thousand systems of religion which have flourished in past ages, could have made such logic equally available in showing, in each case, that every system preceding theirs was designed by infinite wisdom as simply a typical or ante-typical forerunner of theirs. How ridiculous and senseless, therefore, is the argument thus shown to be when critically examined in the light of history! So much so as scarcely to merit a serious notice. 6. Here permit us to say that we believe Christianity to be not only of human origin, but of natural origin also; that is, a natural outgrowth, like other systems, of the religious elements of the human mind— a hypothesis which accounts most beautifully for the numerous human imperfections now visible in nearly every line of its teachings. Those imperfections correspond exactly to the imperfect minds which produced it. ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY. 25 7. And we believe that the principle teacher of Christianity, “ the man Christ Jesus,” possessed a very exalted and superior mind for that age in the moral and religious departments, and in the intellectual to some extent also. [Omitted text.] 8. In conclusion, permit us to say that the numerous and overwhelming facts of this work render it utterly impossible that the exalted claims you put forth for your religion and its assumed author (that of a divine character) can be true. And posterity will so decide, whether you do or not. Cherishing for you naught but feelings of kindness and brotherly love, and desiring to promote the truth, we will answer any questions, or discuss any proposition embraced in this work you may desire. Your Brother, KERSEY GRAVES. CHAPTER V. VIRGIN MOTHERS AND VIRGIN-BORN GODS. 53 THE report in authentic history of a case of a virtuous woman giving birth to a child with the usual form, and possessing the usual characteristics of a human being, and who should testifiy she had no male partner in the conception, might in an age of miracles and ignorance of natural law; be believed with implicit credulity. But in an age of intelligence, when the keys of science have unlocked the sacred shrines and hallowed vaults of sacerdotal mysteries, and modern researches of history have laid bare the fact that most ancient religious countries abound in reports of this character, a profound and general skepticism must be the result, and a total rejection of their truth by all men of science and historic intelligence. Many are the cases noted in history of young maidens claiming a paternity for their male offspring by a God. In Greece it became so common that the reigning king issued an edict, decreeing the death of all young women who should offer such an insult to deity as to lay to him the charge of begetting their children. The virgin Alcmene furnishes a case of a young woman claiming God as the father of her offspring, when she brought forth the divine Redeemer Alcides, 1280 years B. C. And Ceres the virgin mother of Osiris, claimed that he was begotten by the “ father of all Gods.” Mr. Kendrick tells us the likeness of this virgin mother, with the divine child in her arms, may now be seen represented in sculpture on some of the ancient, ruined temples of that ruined empire. And Mr. Higgins makes the broad declaration that “ the worship of this virgin mother, with her God-begotten child, prevailed everywhere.” [Omitted text.] VIRGIN MOTHERS AND VIRGIN-BORN GODS. 55 If history and tradition, then, are to be credited, God had many “ well beloved sons,” born of pious and holy virgins, besides Jesus Christ. And some of them are represented as being “ his only begotten,” and others his “ first begotten,” sons. And all of these cases appear to be equally as well authenticated as the story of Jesus Christ. All stand upon a level, the same kind and the same amount of evidence being offered in each case. Here we will note it as a curious circumstance, that several of the above-named saviors are represented as being black, Jesus Christ included with this number. 56 VIRGIN MOTHERS AND VIRGIN-BORN GODS. There is as much evidence that the Christian Savior was a black man, or at least a dark man, as there is of his being the son of the Virgin Mary, or that he once lived and moved upon the earth. And that evidence is the testimony of his disciples, who had nearly as good an opportunity of knowing what his complexion was as the evangelists, who omit to say anything about it. In the pictures and portraits of Christ by the early Christians, he is uniformly represented as being black. And to make this the more certain, the red tinge is given to the lips; and the only text in the Christian bible quoted by orthodox Christians, as describing his complexion, represents it as being black. Solomon’s declaration, “ I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem ” (Sol. i. 5), is often cited as referring to Christ. According to the bible itself, then, Jesus Christ was a black man. Let us suppose that at some future time, he makes his second advent to the earth, as some Christians anticipate he will do, and that he comes in the character of a sable Messiah, how would he be received by our negro-hating Christians, of sensitive olfactory nerves? Would they worship a negro God? Let us imagine he enters one of our fashionable churches, with his “ rough and ready,” linsey-woolsey, seamless garment on, made of wild sea-grass, thus presenting a very forbidding appearance, and what would be the result? Would the sexton show him to a seat? Would he not rather point to the door, and exclaim, “ Get out of here; no place here for niggers? ” What a ludicrous series of ideas is thus suggested by the thought that Jesus Christ was a darkey.” And the tradition of divine Saviors being born of undefiled and undeflowered virgins has an astronomical chapter we must not omit to notice. The virgin, with her God-begotten child, was pictured imaginarily in the heavens from time immemorial. They are represented on the Hindoo zodiac, at least three thousand years old, and on the ancient Egyptian planispheres. And if you will examine “ Burritt’s Geography of the Heavens,” you will find the infant God-son (the sun) is represented as being born into a new year on the 25th of December (the very date assigned for Christ’s birth), and may be seen rising over the eastern horizon, out of Mary, Maria, or Mare (the Latin for sea), with the infant God in her arms, being heralded and preceded by a bright star, which rises immediately preceding the virgin and her child, thus suggesting the text, “ We have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.” (Matt. ii. 8.) Such facts led the learned Alphonso to exclaim, “ The adventures of Jesus Christ are all depicted among the stars.” And such facts fasten the conviction on our mind that the stories of Gods cohabiting with young maids or virgins, and begetting other Gods, is of astrological origin— the story of Jesus Christ included. A critical research shows that astronomy and religion were interblended, interwoven, and confounded together at a very early period of time, so indissolubly, that it now becomes impossible to separate them. THE WORLD’S Sixteen Crucified Saviors, Christianity Before Christ Paperback: Revised: 324 pages. ISBN: 093281395X (Lowest cost book; Yahoo Shopping.) Read the Book. Martian Visitor ( Home ) Metaphysics: Which is PRIMARY? Index of Footnotes to: Doane, Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions, 7th ed., with Footnotes, and other sources. The Pagan origins of Easter: Chapter XI, Page 88. “ from the accounts I have read, these other saviours to whom I have just referred also rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven about the same time of the year? As a matter of fact, I learn that your very word ‘ Easter’ receives its name from a celebration in honour of the Saxon goddess Eostre.”

Quoted Text and References - from:

THE WORLD’S
SIXTEEN CRUCIFIED SAVIORS
or
Christianity Before Christ
CONTAINING
New, Startling and Extraordinary Revelations In
Religious History, Which Disclose The Oriental
Origin Of All The Doctrines, Principles,
Precepts, And Miracles Of The
CHRISTIAN NEW TESTAMENT
And Furnishing A Key For Unlocking Many Of
It’s Sacred Mysteries, Besides comprising the
History Of 16 HEATHEN CRUCIFIED GODS
BY
KERSEY GRAVES Copyright, 1875

PREFACE
Inversely to the remoteness of time has been man’s ascent toward the temple of knowledge. Truth has made its ingress into the human mind in the ratio by which man has attained the capacity to receive and appreciate it. Hence, as we tread back the meandering pathway of human history, every step in the receding process brings us to a lower plane of intelligence and a state of mind more thoroughly encrusted with ignorance and superstition. It is, therefore, no source of surprise to learn, when we take a survey of the world two or three thousand years in the past, that every religious writer of that era committed errors on every subject which employed his pen, involving a scientific principle. Hence, the bible, or sacred book, to which he was a contributor, is now found to bear the marks of human imperfection. For the temple of knowledge was but partially reared, and its chambers but dimly lighted up. The intellectual brain was in a dark, feeble and dormant condition. Hence, the moral and religious feelings were drifted about without a pilot on the turbulent waves of superstition, and finally stranded on the shoals of bigotry. The Christian bible, like other bibles, having been written in an age when science was but budding into life, and philosophy had attained but a feeble growth, should be expected to teach many things incompatible with the principles of modern science.
Page 3

ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY FRIENDS and brethren— teachers of the Christian faith:
Will you believe us when we tell you the divine claims of your religion are gone— all swept away by the “ logic of History,” and nullified by the demonstrations of science?
The recently opened fountains of historic law, many of whose potent facts will be found interspersed through the pages of this work, sweep away the last inch of ground on which can be predicated the least show for either the divine origin of the Christian religion, or the divinity of Jesus Christ.
For these facts demonstrate beyond all cavil and criticism, and with a logical force which can leave not the vestige of a doubt upon any unbiased mind, that all its doctrines are an outgrowth from older heathen systems. Page 18

22 ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.

In conclusion, please note the following points:—
1. The religious conceptions of the Old Testament are as easily traced to heathen sources as those of the New Testament. But we are compelled to exclude such an exposition from this work.
2. The comparative exhibition of the doctrines and teachings of twenty bibles which proves them to be in their leading features essentially alike (originally designed for this volume), is found to be, when completed, of sufficient magnitude to constitute a volume of itself.

ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY. 23

3. Here I desire to impress upon the minds of my clerical brethren the important fact, that the gospel histories of Christ were written by men who had formerly been Jews (see Acts xxi. 20), and probably possessing the strong proclivity to imitate and borrow which their bible shows was characteristic of that nation; and being written many years after Christ’s death, according to that standard Christian author, Dr. Lardner, it was impossible, under such circumstances, for them to separate (if they had desired to) the real facts and events of his life from the innumerable fictions and fables then afloat everywhere relative to the heathen Gods who had pre-enacted a similar history. Two reasons are thus furnished for their constructing a history of Christ almost identical with that of other Gods, as shown in chapters XXX., XXXI. and XXXII. of this work.
4. The singular and senseless defense of your now tottering system we have known to be attempted by members of your order, by the self-complacent soliloquy “ Christianity, whether divine or human, is good enough for me.” But such a subterfuge betrays both a weak mind and a weak cause. The disciples of all the oriental systems cherished a similar feeling and a similar sentiment. And the deluded followers of Brigham Young exclaimed in like manner, “ I want nothing better than Mormonism.” “ Snakes, lizards and frogs are good enough for me,” a South Sea Islander once exclaimed to a missionary, when a reform diet was proposed. Such logic, if universally adopted, would keep the world eternally in barbarism. No progress can be made where such sentiments prevail. The truth is, no system of religion, whatever its ostensible marks of perfection, can long remain “good enough” for aspiring and progressive minds, unless occasionally improved, like other institutions. And then it should be borne in mind, that our controversy does not appertain so much to the character as to the origin of the Christian religion. Our many incontrovertible proofs, that it is of human and heathen origin, proves at the same time that it is an imperfect system, and as such, needing occasional improvement, like other institutions.

24 ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY.

And its assumed perfection and divine origin which have always guarded it from improvement, amplify accounts for its present corrupt, immoral, declining and dying condition. And it will ere long die with paralysis, unless its assumption of divine perfection is soon exchanged for the principles of improvement and reconstruction. This policy alone can save it.
5. We will here notice another feeble, futile and foolish expedient we have known resorted to by persons of your order to save your sinking cause when the evidence is presented with such cogency as to admit of no disproof, that all the important doctrines of Christianity were taught by older heathen systems before the era of Christ. The plea is that those systems were mere types, or ante-types, of the Christian religion. But this plea is of itself a borrowed subterfuge of heathenism, and is moreover devoid of evidence. The ancient Egyptians, also the Greeks, claimed that Brahminism was a type, or ante-type of their religious systems. And Mahomedans now claim that both Judaism and Christianity were designed by God as foreshadowing types of religion of the Koran. And the disciples of more than a thousand systems of religion which have flourished in past ages, could have made such logic equally available in showing, in each case, that every system preceding theirs was designed by infinite wisdom as simply a typical or ante-typical forerunner of theirs. How ridiculous and senseless, therefore, is the argument thus shown to be when critically examined in the light of history! So much so as scarcely to merit a serious notice.
6. Here permit us to say that we believe Christianity to be not only of human origin, but of natural origin also; that is, a natural outgrowth, like other systems, of the religious elements of the human mind— a hypothesis which accounts most beautifully for the numerous human imperfections now visible in nearly every line of its teachings. Those imperfections correspond exactly to the imperfect minds which produced it.

ADDRESS TO THE CLERGY. 25

7. And we believe that the principle teacher of Christianity, “ the man Christ Jesus,” possessed a very exalted and superior mind for that age in the moral and religious departments, and in the intellectual to some extent also.   [Omitted text.]
8. In conclusion, permit us to say that the numerous and overwhelming facts of this work render it utterly impossible that the exalted claims you put forth for your religion and its assumed author (that of a divine character) can be true. And posterity will so decide, whether you do or not.
Cherishing for you naught but feelings of kindness and brotherly love, and desiring to promote the truth, we will answer any questions, or discuss any proposition embraced in this work you may desire.
Your Brother, KERSEY GRAVES.

CHAPTER V. VIRGIN MOTHERS AND VIRGIN-BORN GODS. 53
THE report in authentic history of a case of
a virtuous woman giving birth to a child with the usual form,   and possessing the usual characteristics of a human being, and who should testifiy she had no male partner in the conception, might in an age of miracles and ignorance of natural law; be believed with implicit credulity. But in an age of intelligence, when the keys of science have unlocked the sacred shrines and hallowed vaults of sacerdotal mysteries, and modern researches of history have laid bare the fact that most ancient religious countries abound in reports of this character, a profound and general skepticism must be the result, and a total rejection of their truth by all men of science and historic intelligence.
Many are the cases noted in history of young maidens claiming a paternity for their male offspring by a God.
In Greece it became so common that the reigning king issued an edict, decreeing the death of all young women who should offer such an insult to deity as to lay to him the charge of begetting their children. The virgin Alcmene furnishes a case of a young woman claiming God as the father of her offspring, when she brought forth the divine Redeemer Alcides, 1280 years B. C. And Ceres the virgin mother of Osiris, claimed that he was begotten by the “ father of all Gods.” Mr. Kendrick tells us the likeness of this virgin mother, with the divine child in her arms, may now be seen represented in sculpture on some of the ancient, ruined temples of that ruined empire. And Mr. Higgins makes the broad declaration that “ the worship of this virgin mother, with her God-begotten child, prevailed everywhere.”   [Omitted text.]

VIRGIN MOTHERS AND VIRGIN-BORN GODS. 55

If history and tradition, then, are to be credited, God had many “ well beloved sons,” born of pious and holy virgins, besides Jesus Christ. And some of them are represented as being “ his only begotten,” and others his “ first begotten,” sons. And all of these cases appear to be equally as well authenticated as the story of Jesus Christ. All stand upon a level, the same kind and the same amount of evidence being offered in each case.
Here we will note it as a curious circumstance, that several of the above-named saviors are represented as being black, Jesus Christ included with this number.

56 VIRGIN MOTHERS AND VIRGIN-BORN GODS.

There is as much evidence that the Christian Savior was a black man, or at least a dark man, as there is of his being the son of the Virgin Mary, or that he once lived and moved upon the earth. And that evidence is the testimony of his disciples, who had nearly as good an opportunity of knowing what his complexion was as the evangelists, who omit to say anything about it. In the pictures and portraits of Christ by the early Christians, he is uniformly represented as being black. And to make this the more certain, the red tinge is given to the lips; and the only text in the Christian bible quoted by orthodox Christians, as describing his complexion, represents it as being black. Solomon’s declaration, “ I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem ” (Sol. i. 5), is often cited as referring to Christ. According to the bible itself, then, Jesus Christ was a black man.
Let us suppose that at some future time, he makes his second advent to the earth, as some Christians anticipate he will do, and that he comes in the character of a sable Messiah, how would he be received by our negro-hating Christians, of sensitive olfactory nerves? Would they worship a negro God? Let us imagine he enters one of our fashionable churches, with his “ rough and ready,” linsey-woolsey, seamless garment on, made of wild sea-grass, thus presenting a very forbidding appearance, and what would be the result? Would the sexton show him to a seat? Would he not rather point to the door, and exclaim, “ Get out of here; no place here for niggers? ” What a ludicrous series of ideas is thus suggested by the thought that Jesus Christ was a  darkey.”
And the tradition of divine Saviors being born of undefiled and undeflowered virgins has an astronomical chapter we must not omit to  notice. The  virgin, with her God-begotten child, was  pictured imaginarily in the heavens from time immemorial. They  are represented on the Hindoo zodiac, at least three thousand years old, and on the ancient Egyptian planispheres. And  if you will examine “ Burritt’s Geography of the Heavens,” you will find the infant God-son (the sun) is  represented as being born  into a new year on the 25th of December (the  very date assigned for Christ’s birth), and may be  seen rising over the eastern horizon, out  of Mary, Maria, or Mare (the  Latin for  sea), with the infant God in her arms, being heralded and preceded by a bright star, which rises immediately preceding the virgin and her child, thus suggesting the text, “ We  have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.” (Matt. ii. 8.)   Such  facts led the learned Alphonso to  exclaim, “ The  adventures of Jesus Christ are all depicted among the stars.”
And such facts fasten the conviction on our mind that the stories of Gods cohabiting with young maids or virgins, and begetting other Gods, is of astrological origin— the  story of Jesus Christ included. A  critical research shows that astronomy and religion were interblended, interwoven, and confounded together at a very early period of  time, so indissolubly, that it now becomes impossible to separate them.

THE WORLD’S
Sixteen Crucified Saviors,
Christianity Before Christ
Paperback: Revised: 324 pages.
ISBN: 093281395X
(Lowest cost book; Yahoo Shopping.)
Read the Book.

Martian Visitor ( Home )

Metaphysics: Which is PRIMARY?

Index of Footnotes to: Doane, Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions, 7th ed., with Footnotes, and other sources.

The Pagan origins of Easter:
Chapter XI, Page 88.
“ from the accounts I have read, these other saviours to whom I have just referred also rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven about the same time of the year?
As a matter of fact, I learn that your very word ‘ Easter’ receives its name from a celebration in honour of the Saxon goddess Eostre.”