Similarities between the religions of the world.

We all know that the major religions (Greek, Egyptian, Norse, even Christianity) all have similarities between the deities and mythological figures associated with them. My question is, what are those similarities? Like, what is the Greek analogue to Odin, stuff like that. It is obvious, and it traces back to the Sumerians. I think our religions originated from visits from aliens. Just my personal belief. Hope I have not offended anyone!

IMHO you shouldn't worry about offending anyone when asking questions like this, as finding the answers can only lead to good things!

I don't know what the similarities are off the top of my head, but I know there's a lot of them and I wouldn't mind a re-cap!

Originally posted by Davian
We all know
It is obvious

Well then if we already all know then why do you not start this thread off with some of your own known examples? Give the facts you have based your opinions on. You can relate lots of gods/idols to many other gods/idols even in the same religions/beliefs. Sirius, Hermes, Anubis, Janitor Lethacus, Venus, Odin all have similarities and that is not even a fraction of the gods/idols you could list as similar.

There are probably several reasons for similarities:
We are all (relatively) human.
Certain ideas are logical to systematic thinkers.
Certain ideas are comforting.
We are gregarious and share ideas.
Perhaps God left a yearning within us so we would seek Him/Her/It.

Well from what I gather Horus, Prometheus, Balder and Jesus are essentially the same person (Not sure about Balder I'm sure there's another Norse deity better suited). Eve and Pandora (As far as Norse and Egyptian go-not sure). Basically I'm sure of some of the more obvious ones, but trying to fill in the blanks.

reply to post by Davian


How do you find Jesus to be essentially the same as those other gods? As a Christian I have no problem testing Jesus' 'validity', he has never failed me yet.

reply to post by Davian


This thread should be of help: The Mythicist Position

When I was in the military, a group of my friends and I sat around discussing this. We had 15 people of 13 different religions and one atheist. Our group actually sat down and drew out every deity we could find references to.

It turned out that every god or goddess fell into five to seven categories depending on your point of view on how things work. Our breakdown came to gods of war or conflict, gods of peace and prosperity, gods of nature and life, gods of death, and the All Father or Supreme Deity. We were rather surprised at the correlation between each and every deity. As a christian, I see it as a breakdown of God himself. Each culture has seen a part of God, and has chosen to worship that part, the problem I see is they don't wish to go to God as a whole, the just want the little pieces.

You have to go all the way back to the beginning of religions. Check them all, they all have matches. This to me is proof of dissimulation, not proof of aliens. I often hear people say that there is no way people could have crossed the ocean long ago, then I point out that Phoenician's had maps of the coasts of the entire world, had maps of currents that went around every continent, and the way they accomplished this is to use cactus on their ship to store water. So, all these gods, all these faiths, all the beliefs, they were spread from one central area and the stories all got changed.

People, so often, wish to attribute what they see to "supernatural" or "supernal" or "alien" influences. They rarely seem to realize that humans are more clever than any other creature out there. Our creativeness is only surpassed by our curiosity. Just because we think that so many things are recent discoveries, "there is nothing new under the sun" Ecclesiastes 1:9.

reply to post by Davian


I've never looked too much into Asian or African mythologies, but I've read alot of native american, Norse, and Greek/Roman mythology and I'll admit there are some similarities. Horus and Odin both having one eye. Zeus' lighting bolts and Thor's Mjolnir. Persephone and Eve both eating forbidden fruit. There are a lot of similarities but keep in mind the other things like how the Norse thought they lived on a giant tree. Maybe it was just a symbol for something else or even their own idea but still, a tree? I think that if you're going to connect dots throughout history you should take into account everything that follows after as well. We know now that the sun isn't pulled by a chariot across the sky. We don't have to give blood sacrifices to "appease our gods." I think that they are for the most part ideas that were created by people to explain life. However, yeah I think that the book of Enoch totally talks about him going to space. If you ever have the time to read it, look for the "river of fire," sounds alot like re-entering the atmosphere.
Peace!

reply to post by Davian


My dear friend, what you have asked is far too much than we can answer. Seriously, where can one begin? We have similarities between deities, figures, astrology, personification of emotion, nature, and celestial bodies... similarities in stories, wisdom, hidden esoteric/gnostic/occult teachings... similarities in moral principle, prophecies, the afterlife...

I mean really, the list goes on and on depending on which aspect of which domain of which religions you are comparing. People dedicate entire careers connecting even just two dots!!

For starters, I can offer a mere iota's worth off the top of my head.

• The Golden Rule and Karma transcends nearly every religion and philosophy.
• Jesus compared to Mithra
• Christian Trinity God compared to Hindu's Trinity God
• Great Flood Deluge of Noah and Gilgamesh
• Roman mythology mirrors Greek mythology
• Miraculous Births
• Tales of ancient, advanced civilizations destroyed and lost to time.

reply to post by Davian


I think so many are similar because the pagan priest always joined with the conquering forces of their day. Example, the priests at Babylon joined the Medes/Persians when conquered. Then joined the Greeks, then the Romans etc.

There are all sorts of bizzare lingusitic correspondences West to East. For example, the words "Aesir" (group of Norse deities), "Ahura" (Zorastrian God), the "Ashura" (a Hindu/Buddhist group of dieties) sound suspiciously similar, no? There is the Vedic Dyaus Pita, a sky god with a name that sounds very similar to the Roman "Jupiter," the Greek "Zeus Pater," and of course "Deus Pater" or "God the Father" in Latin. You have the Zoroastroan Haoma ritual, the Vedic Soma ritual, and the esoteric Buddhist Goma ritual, all involving fire and other similar elements. You can play word games like this until the cows come home and there is probably much mututal correspondence to be found, suggesting ancient echoes of perhaps even earlier primodial concepts.

Another thing is that different myth systems have different "layers" of dieties corresponding to different historical epochs: the Sumerian "ancient ones" are an older "generation" of Gods largely displaced by a newer pantheon; you have the Greek "Titans," older than the Olympian Gods, and their even older, more shadowy predecessors. I think that at different stages of social complexity (hunting-gathing/early farming/large city-state creation, etc.), different myths and mythic figures are needed.

The oldest and most ancient layer of every religion seems rooted in the condition of "primal awe" when faced with the ineffable: We see this in the fear and trembling of Adam being confronted by God after original sin or that of Moses during his run-in with the burning bush. We can see it in the Shinto concept of mononoaware, a complex and subtle word pointing to a state of awe and containg the nuance of "sensitivity of ephemera." At the root of every religion seems to be a sense of awe in the face of something larger than oneself. I think this is where the true unity of religion lies, and an appreciation of awe (religious or more generalized) is probabaly engraved in us neurologically rather than being merely a product of culture.