The Cult of Mithras How much of a real difference is there from a cult and a religion? Could it be the money, or maybe the amount of people who are in it? It might be possible the leader is what defines the the line between the two. The cult of Mithras, which comes from present-day Iran, and the religion of Christianity, from Israel, used to be large rivals, but maybe back then Mithraism was the religion while Christianity was the cult. While the two may have been rivals, they both seemed to share quite a few similarities among their differences. In their similarities, Mithraism and Christianity hold a considerable amount of resemblances. In the textbook The World of Myth, the author, David A Leeming, states from author Barbara Walker, that …show more content…
While the cult was able to stay alive until the Fourth century CE, a little while after Christianity started, the book does not seem to state when the cult started. As addressed by Leeming, both of the religions state the birthday of their so-called savior, Mithras and Jesus, to be on the 25th of December. Mithras was even stated to be able to perform miracles, many of them being the same that Jesus could do, like healing the sick and making a blind person able to see. There is even a Last Supper that both of the religions share, each with twelve followers being with their leader. Mithraism even had seven sacraments, which were written to be “the models for the Christians’ seven sacraments” (Leeming 185-186). Mithras was even mentioned to have risen into heaven on Easter day, the same day Jesus came back from the dead. As the snake could be considered an enemy for man in the Garden of Eden, the Indo-Iranian Infinity Goddess Aditi’s son, Aryaman, was considered to be the enemy of Mithras, the Great Serpent of Darkness. There are even notes made that the concept of Salvation from Christianity came from Mithraism in which the virtuous would be saved from the end of the world, and
Christianity and Sikhism are two completely different religions with their own set of beliefs, though when looked at closer, share many similarities. Catholics and Sikhs only believe in one god, have creators who at birth were told they would do great things, had events at the age of 30 that put the ideas of their religions in motion, and both had followings who eventually took over and made the religions what they are today. Even though these religions have a large gap in time between them of when they were founded, they both share a common founding and similar beliefs.
Islam is presented in the Epic of Sundiata in a way that encourages listeners to embrace Islam over their indigenous belief systems. The epic accomplishes this by incorporating elements and practices of the indigenous beliefs into Islamic tradition; and by adapting certain Islamic mythology — such as the Jinn — to the existing West African culture. It also asserts the superior power and strength of those who derive their power from Allah and the Jinn, to those whose power is based in ancestral worship and fetishes. Through conflict, adaptation, and tolerance, the Epic of Sundiata presents an accessible version of Islam to the people of the Mali Empire; and promotes the acceptance of this new faith over the indigenous beliefs of the area.
Christianity is one of the most popular religions of the early 21st century. Through the course of Christianity's first millennia it was able to rise from its original twelve followers to become the state religion of Rome and the mighty empire which it held. However, unbeknownst to many, the concepts that exist in Christianity and Judaism (the religion from which Christianity spawned) were initially conceived by the nearly dead religion of Zoroaster. Christianity is closely modeled after the Zoroastrain's beliefs in the afterlife, redemption, judgment, duality of deities, apocalypse and messiahs. Whether Christianity adopted or coincidentally shared the beliefs of the Zoroastrians is up for debate. Regardless, the similarities are staggering.
The similarities that I see in both are the fact that there is a huge sense of almost the Jews being intimidated and afraid of Christians and Muslims. In the 1263 Barcelona disputation Rabbi Nahmanides even said “The great priests and noblemen also sent me word that
Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion alongside Judaism and Christianity. It is currently the second largest religion in the world today. Its beliefs come from the Qur'an which literally means "the recitation" which is believed to be a literal transcription of the word of God. Its main prophet is named Muhammad who began Islam by speaking with the angel Gabriel in a cave during his meditation and then acting as an instrument of God to help write the Qur’an. Muhammad then spread Islam to the scattered tribes of Arabia by becoming the leader of Yathrib and using his wonderful leadership abilities to then grow his influence over virtually all of Arabia. Muhammad is known by Muslims to be the seal of the profits because no profits after Muhammad should be considered legitimate. Muhammad also left behind the Hadith or “tradition” which is a collection of writings compiled of reports of Muhammad’s actions as leader of Yathrib. These reports are used as a more specific code of ethics in day to day life and from these reports the 5 Pillars of Islam are derived (Smith 160). Although Islam shares many similarities to Judaism and Christianity it is often viewed in the US with hate derived from preconceived notions following the attack on September 11th 2001. This paper seeks to provide an overview of Islam’s history as well as its two major sects and 5 main pillars to remove preconceived notions and provide a glance into the minds of the Islamic people.
There are different cults all across the world. All different cults have distinctly different beliefs and devotions. For instance, there are some cults that are formed to follow a particular real life figure, and some cults that are formed to follow (or worship) a spiritual being,that might be part of a certain organized religion.
According to dictionaries a cult is 1) a system of religious worship or ritual. 2) A religion or sect considered extremist of false. 3) Obsessive devotion to a person or principle. It is believed that every cult ties into some kind of religion, and religions all have a common basis of “a leap of faith”. Whether this so-called leap of faith is going to heaven or being reincarnated, or moving on to some other planet, depends on the beliefs of the cult itself.
Through studies such as comparative mythology, researchers and philosophers have discover hundreds of parallels between the myths that make up every culture, including their creation myths. As most are deeply rooted in religion, comparisons based on geographic area, themes, and similar story lines emerge as religions form and migrate. Campbell recognized these similarities an...
Of these cults, all of them are ritually descended from the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity,
According to Merriam-Webster, religion is based on “an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods” (“Religion”). In every part of the world there is a struggle between individual religions that are trying to institutionalize their “system of beliefs” on each other, and within those individual religions there is also a struggle of sects that claims that their teaching should be the basis for that religion, not the teachings that is presented by other believers of the same religion. These religious sect later go on to create religious organizations. The first thing these religious organizations try to propagate to their followers is that anyone that are not a follower of their doctrines is corrupt and needs a divine deliverance from themselves. This deliverance cannot be given to the individual in another religious organization, it has to come from them. One of the biggest organization that has openly declared themselves as the divine judgers of men from God is th...
Christianity and Islam are two religions that grew from the same central idea of one divine being; they also originate from Jerusalem. However, the two religions bear great disparity but they also hold a few similarities. Both Islam and Christianity believe in Abraham as the forefather of both religions; they believe Him to be the founder of the two religions. The two religions have a holy book; Islam uses the Quran while Christians use the bible. Even though the two books do not bear the same teachings they are considered sacred in both religions. However, Christianity and Islam share a great deal of differences starting from the holy books, their beliefs, and the information contained in the respective holy book (Kavanaugh, 5).
Identical to Muslims, Christians also believe that their God is the creator and sustainer of the universe. The Bible begins with the creation of the Earth by God in seven days. Another similarity between these two religions is their belief in life after death.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The commonalities of Christianity and Islam center around the idea of believing in one God. The God of Christianity and Islam is separate from the world and creation. With numerous similarities a few that can be discussed pertaining to lifestyle include: both worship in community, believe in life after death, and put God as first priority. More so, we must not get the idea confused that Christianity and Islam worship the
Similarities and Differences between Christianity, Judaism and Islam. There are many similarities and differences between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. There are also many differences that separate the three major religions of the world. This paper will delve into all three of these.
The stories are similar in many ways, but they are also very different. This can be related to the relationship between the two religions themselves.