Pagan myths, dying god, jesus christ

The other day i was reading about religions from around the world and was fascinated at the way many of these religions have stories about a god that comes down from heaven and dies for the people and in some way redeems them. I believe this is part of the universal consciousness of god telling the people what he would do one day to redeem humanity back to him. i believe he spread these stories throughout humanity to prepare them for the belief in his son Jesus Christ.