I just finished a 32 page essay called “Pagan Roots of the Christ Myth” which points out that many “christs” from ancient times have had virgin births, were crucified in some fashion and resurrected. And many claim 12.25 as their birth day. Very interesting parallels from many continents.
J.R.R. Tolkien talked for many years to C.S. Lewis about myth. What stuck in Lewis’ mind, especially as he found himself being pursuaded towards Christianity, was Tolkien’s belief that all myth was “truth breathed through silver” and all myths pointed to Jesus.
In Tolkien’s mind, it was like the world was trying to tell man what the truth was, and man kept putting into stories that he could understand. The myth became reality in Jesus, and that is why we can see so much of him throughout the myths of the world.
Yeah, I think that whole angle is pure bunk actually. Here's the thing. All of these pagan gods were born in remote antiquity in a halcyon era far away from historical times. They did not live in the historical period where eyewitnesses could write down what they did and said, like Christ did. And this is not only Christ's followers--He is pretty well attested in the extant secular and Jewish literature of the time period as well.
Plus some of these supposed "borrowings" from paganism are either completely twisted to fit the paradigm or are so generic as to not be all that surprising. Resurrection, for instance.
Also, don't discount the effect Christianity had on the *pagan* religions. People make the assumption that because it's pagan it predated Christianity. Not so. Paganism in different places shifted and changed and gobbled up ideas from other religions including Christianity. So, for instance, the festival of Sol Invictus was held to be on December 25th. But this cult was instituted by the Emperor Elagabalus in the early 3rd century, well after Christianity was already a known presence in Rome. And it was claimed by some within the Roman Church that the date of Dec. 25th had been verified in the census records at Rome. It's quite possible, though we may never be sure, that the Sun-worshippers stole the date from Christians and not the other way around.
Unfortunately, there's been a lot of bad theorizing out there by people who read to debunk instead of read to understand.