Religion and myth. Where is the line?

[Ghoti]

However, there are other dead religions that had historical basis. For example, Zoroastrianism. We know a great deal about him and his historical background. His theology was very mythical, however, and based on direct gnosis, not historical truth.

Zoroastrianism isn’t dead. Zoroastrians may be small in number, but still exist today.

 

[cpayne]

Can you provide me a list of such historians? Even the Jesus seminars take the existence of Christ for granted. There is just too much evidence for it.

We still desire the list.

One of the obvious dividing lines between some religious beliefs and myth, as has been pointed out, is (1) eyewitness accounts (parts of Acts, for example) or (2) accounts by contemporaries of eyewitnesses (the Gospel of Luke, for example, and again parts of Acts). Compare this to accounts of, for example, Thor. No one claims to be an eyewitness or a contemporary of an eyewitness.

 

[Chancellare]

“What makes a religion a mythological one (Norse,Greek, etc.) or a bona fide one (Christianity, Islam)?”

Public opinion.

Then your religion is co-terminus with GW Bush?

 

[Chancellare]

Hmm, depends on how old you are and where you live.

dailycamera.com/news/2007/dec/13/empty-churches-full-mosques-in-europe/

I think there is a consensus that in 40 years time, the European churches will all be either museums or Mosques.

Not if there is no such thing as re-Christianization. As we speak(blog, as the case may be), many Catholic priests from Asia are being quietly sent to Europe to re-Christianize them, in the same tradition as during 1500’s Western conquest of the East. Only this time it’s the other way around.