Religious Belief = Mental Illness: A More Venomous Response

[Brettongarcia]

273. Local Greco-Roman and many other "rebirth" myths existed in the area, long before Paul

Cf. the myth of Persephone. Well before Paul.

Even specifically Eostre myths, scholars now suggest, predate Christianity. The myth was Proto Indo-European before it was German, therefore predating Christianity. Some tie her to Astarte/Ishtar, etc. Astarte. Who as a "fertility" god would have been associated with Easter, the reappearance of vegetative life. (Peresphone and others cited by Bullfinch say, as origin of resurrection myths; well before Christianity).

Any of these and many other rebirth myths could well have influenced religion on the British Islands; which were after all colonized by Rome. And the Celts.

Way, way before Paul.

Interestingly, this tie seems further confirmed by the fact that to this day, somehow, the day of the resurrection of Christ ,is somehow still conflated in popular Christian or Easter celebrations, with images of animal fertility; like the Easter Rabbit.

So finally? "Christ" and his resurrection are really, historically ... the Easter Bunny, critics might say, in a sense. The origins were a number of ancient celebrations of the regeneration of life in Spring, in primitive societies; this origin was later culturally colonized by Paul Christianity. Yet the origins are to some extent still evident today in details of the contemporary Easter celebration.

I. e.: the easter bunny. As well as collecting eggs, etc.