Wes Huff Debunks Popular Myths About JESUS (On Flagrant!)

Summary

Wes Huff debunks the myth that the story of Jesus is a recycled narrative from ancient pagan religions on the Flagrant Podcast. Addressing claims from popular documentaries and online content, Huff clarifies misconceptions about supposed parallels between Jesus and deities like Horus, Krishna, and Mithra. Through historical scrutiny, he argues that many of these connections are fabricated or misunderstood, often stemming from modern pop-culture interpretations rather than credible historical evidence.

Highlights

• Wes Huff addresses claims that Christianity borrowed from pagan myths. 🔄
• The Zeitgeist movie popularized misconceptions about Jesus and pagan parallels. 🎬
• No historical evidence supports a Jesus-like figure before him, contrary to myths. 🔍
• Christianity's origins and traditions often misattributed to pagan influences. ✝️
• Claims about Mithra being similar to Jesus are incorrect, says Huff. 🧾
• Daily Dose of Wisdom emphasizes fact-checking against misinformation. 🔎

Key Takeaways

• Many claims of Christianity being a copycat religion are myths. 🎭
• Wes Huff debunks misconceptions about Jesus parallels with pagan gods. 📜
• Assertions originating from documentaries like Zeitgeist are often unfounded. 🎥
• Huff emphasizes the importance of historical evidence over modern mythicism. 📚
• There are claims about Jesus being similar to other deities, but these are inaccurate. ❌
• Christmas and Easter traditions associated with paganism are largely incorrect. 🎄🐣

Overview

In the video featured on Flagrant Podcast, Wes Huff tackles the ever-persistent myth that the story of Jesus was lifted from pagan myths such as those surrounding the Egyptian god Ra or other deities like Mithra and Krishna. He stresses that these beliefs primarily gain life from internet sources and popular documentaries like 'Zeitgeist', which perpetuate these claims without substantial evidence. Wes addresses these allegations head-on, putting historical truth over sensationalized myths.

Huff, accompanied by Michael Jones from Inspiring Philosophy, dives deep into the supposed connections between Christianity and ancient pagan religions. With a focus on historical accuracy, they dismantle the alleged parallels that are commonly cited, such as virgin births and December 25th connections. They both advocate for a more nuanced understanding that goes beyond surface-level similarities, highlighting the flaws in these comparisons and stressing the importance of relying on credible sources rather than internet conjecture.

The discussion reinforces why it's crucial to approach such topics with a discerning eye, especially in today's age where misinformation can easily spread through social media. Huff's insights prove invaluable in understanding the historical context and origins of Christianity compared to what is often claimed. The episode serves as a reminder of why thorough research and fact-checking are necessary to avoid falling for misleading narratives, ensuring that our understanding of history is based on evidence and facts.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to the Debate on Christian Myths The Introduction to the Debate on Christian Myths touches upon the claim that the story of Jesus may have been influenced by earlier myths from other religions, such as Egyptian mythology involving gods like Ra. This section explores the controversial idea that many aspects of Christianity, including the narrative of a dying and rising savior, the celebration of December 25th, and the concept of a virgin birth, may have been borrowed from pre-existing pagan traditions. The chapter reflects on how these assertions are frequently discussed online.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Addressing Misconceptions In this chapter titled 'Addressing Misconceptions,' the focus is on the discussion of Christianity being perceived as a copycat religion. Wes Huff addresses and debunks these misconceptions that are often propagated by documentaries like Religulous and series such as the Zeitgeist series. The chapter includes fact-checking claims made in those sources. Towards the end, there's a deeper discussion with Michael Jones from Inspiring Philosophy to further explore these ideas.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Assimilation of Pagan Practices The chapter explores the assimilation of pagan practices into Christianity, focusing on how Christian leaders included pagan rituals to make it easier for pagans to adopt Christianity. This controversial approach is questioned, with discussions on the extent of its truth. The narrative also features an analogy involving a train, symbolizing the unstoppable force of this cultural integration.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Myths about Christmas and Easter The chapter discusses myths about the assimilation of pagan traditions into Christian festivals like Christmas and Easter. It mentions the strategic utilization of old temple sites for new Christian worship, pointing out that this was not about incorporating pagan practices but rather about familiarizing worship locations. Additionally, it touches on the myth of 'eggs in Easter', explaining its roots in medieval Europe where eggs symbolized new life and the arrival of spring.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Krishna and Other Religious Figures This section discusses the origins of Santa Claus, highlighting the influence of St. Nicholas, a 4th century bishop, and German Santa Claus traditions. It suggests that the modern version of Santa Claus was influenced by Dutch settlers in New York, hinting at the amalgamation of different cultural traditions to form the contemporary Santa figure.
• 03:30 - 04:00: Mithra and December 25th Myth The chapter discusses the myth of Mithra and the association with the December 25th date, focusing on Christmas celebrations. Julius Aricanis, a second-century figure, is introduced as someone interested in determining the age of the world and the birth date of Jesus by examining various historical data.
• 04:30 - 05:00: Critique of 'Zeitgeist' and Similar Narratives The chapter critiques the narrative presented in 'Zeitgeist' and similar interpretations about the date of Jesus' birth. It discusses how some attempt to determine the exact conception and birth dates based on historical and religious texts. A particular focus is placed on the claim that Mary's pregnancy is traced back nine months from December 25th, leading to different celebrations by various Christian denominations on different dates, such as January 6th for some.

Wes Huff Debunks Popular Myths About JESUS (On Flagrant!) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Even the Jesus story was taken from other myths in other religions. I think like the the Egyptian god Rah or something like that. Like what what do you say about this? Is it is it just like a common occurrence? Like how do you is it [ __ ] Yes. Really? The idea that Christianity borrowed from or copied from pre-existing pagan religions in terms of the the story of the dying and rising savior, in terms of December 25th, the virgin birth, etc. is a claim that you hear all the time. You hear people on the internet constantly
• 00:30 - 01:00 talking about how Christianity is a copycat religion. And this video, Wes Huff on the flagrant podcast, addresses some of those claims and debunks some of these misconceptions that people have that people got from documentaries like Religulous, from series on YouTube like the Zeitgeist series. All this is going to get brought up in this video. Wes Huff is going to fact check it. And then on the back end of the video, myself and Michael Jones from Inspiring Philosophy are going to kind of do a deeper dive into this. So, let's get into this. I thought he was succumbing to the will of
• 01:00 - 01:30 the people. No, I thought it was a train. There was there was a runaway train. There's nothing he could do about it. He's like, the only way that we can keep vampire together is we start following that. And then there's all this conversation of them like including pagan rituals into this new version of Christianity, which I'd love you to speak on. Uh so that the pagans would more easily adopt it. Yeah. But you're telling me this is just like completely false. So there are like there there there are kernels of that that's true in the sense that like uh Christians would do things like build churches over the
• 01:30 - 02:00 sites of old temples in that they said like you're you're coming here anyways to worship now worship the true God in the same location that you're regularly aware of going to anyways. But the like uh the assimilation of pagan practices, that's a myth. How do we get the eggs in Easter? Um, that's a middle-aged thing because eggs were associated with both new life and uh, spring in Europe. It's
• 02:00 - 02:30 a European thing. Christmas. How do we get Santa? Uh, Santa is like a combination of St. Nicholas, who is a 4th century bishop, and uh, Santa Claus in Germany. I think it's a New York thing. I think eventually the Dutch in New York. Uh, that's fire. Well, they You're going to take credit for that one? Yeah. I mean, yeah, he should. He should. Yeah. Him and him. And And so it like all comes together. Um, so this doesn't exist prior. What? The
• 02:30 - 03:00 celebration of Christmas. Oh, no. Christmas goes really old. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a guy named Julius Aricanis in the second century who's preoccupied with figuring out how old everything is and you know how he gives us the date for the creation of the world and then he like adds up. So part of what he's doing is he's a Christian and he's like when was Jesus born? So, he looks at a bunch of different things and he he he
• 03:00 - 03:30 reckons that he's figured out when Jesus was uh like when the the when Mary got pregnant and then he counts 9 months and gets to December 25th. And so that's is it 24th or 25th? Why did I blind? I was right the first ran with it. Why? When do the when do the true Christians celebrate it? January 6th. Damn
• 03:30 - 04:00 it. What's going on? What is that? So, the Orthodox do it on December January 6, but it's the same date. We just use different calendars. That's why. Oh, you guys stuck with the old calendar. We went to the new calendar. It's the exact same date. We just our calendars changed. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. What about Halloween? Uh, Halloween is all Hallow's Eve and the like pagan stuff appears to have been entirely invented by commercialization. So, you're saying there's no pagan
• 04:00 - 04:30 influence on Christianity? I'm not saying that. I'm just saying like the accusations of Christmas is pagan, Easter is pagan, like that's nonsense. What about the accusations that like even the Jesus story was taken from other myths in other religions? I think like the the Egyptian god Rah or something like that. Like what what do you say about this? Is it is it just like a common occurrence? Like how do you is it [ __ ] Yes. Really? Well, [ __ ] that [ __ ] It's Jesus mythicism and no historian like even the people who
• 04:30 - 05:00 doubt that Jesus exists don't use that argument because usually historians are aware of the primary sources. And if you look at the stories of like Horus, Ra, Mithris, Addis, they if you look at the details and then try to find the parallels, they're just not there. It was made up by largely and popularized by the Zeitgeist. Oh, you know the movie Zeit like a YouTube thing. Yeah, it's made up from thin air. So if you look at the actual stories of like Horus Raw, the accusations of
• 05:00 - 05:30 virgin births and 12 disciples and you won't find them in those things you won't really. And isn't there connectivity to some Indian uh I think the story of baby Krishna I think there's some connectivity in that he I think he was tried the the king tried to kill him like couldn't do it. So it's not that there aren't parallels that you can make. It's that like if you look at the actual core of the details. So there's a fallacy called the Texas sharpshooter fallacy where it's this
• 05:30 - 06:00 idea the Texan is shooting in the side of a barn and he then finds the closest cluster of shots and he paints a target around it making himself look like a great shot. Right? So if you want to find parallels, you can find them and then you make the accusation afterwards. Yeah. So that makes sense. I saw this on like a VHS when I was like 8 years old. The details are no it's a story of baby Krishna but this I mean the details are a little iffy but I remember growing up in such a Christian country that I was like oh they took this from the Bible cuz but I didn't know Hinduism was older
• 06:00 - 06:30 and the story of Krishna was older. So that would that just came to me that wasn't like I'm trying to find the thing and that always just stuck with me that cuz I remember thinking like oh they stole this from Christianity which is very funny. So so there's also like issues of correlation and causation. So if you do find parallels and you want to assert that Christ Christians invented it, you have to find the causitive links rather than just the correlations. Yeah. Because the correlations could actually exist. But things correlate all the time. And the idea of an incarnation
• 06:30 - 07:00 within Christianity is very different than the idea that you would find in something like Hinduism or even like miraculous births in the ancient world. Does it ever bother you that the story of a man who was born of a virgin was resurrected? Your bio was something that was going around the Mediterranean for at least a thousand years. We've got Krishna who was in India thousand years before Christ. Krishna was a carpenter born of a virgin baptized in a river.
• 07:00 - 07:30 Are you saying that was written in history? That was written down in history is what you're saying. Absolutely. All right. Before we get to Mithra, let's talk about Krishna. Utter nonsense. Krishna was not born of a virgin. He's not a carpenter. Uh this is this is just nonsense. Uh this is just this just comes from Jesus mythicism nonsense going back to people like Achara S even earlier like Gerald Massie which we'll get to in a little bit here. But yeah, I I'm just so sick of hearing this crap but I mean I know this was came out like 13 years ago
• 07:30 - 08:00 but there is no evidence of Jesus-like stories existing before Jesus. It's it's just a modern myth. It's it's part of the atheist mythology is what I say. Very interesting. You hear it so often and even here it's presented with so much confidence that you're just thinking to yourself, there's no way that you're just directly lying and just saying that these connection points exist when they don't. I think so many people watch this documentary. I
• 08:00 - 08:30 remember watching this documentary when I, you know, 13 years ago and I remember thinking, "No way. That's so crazy." You know that really I remember I remember having the same reaction watching Zeitgeist. I don't know if you ever watched Zeitgeist. Mhm. That was another one was like, "Oh, this is so crazy, man." Like, you know, everything I believe is a sham. And then you scratch beneath the surface and it's like you're just literally lying. You're you're not even you're not even uh you know, there's no subtlety to this. It's just it's just falsehood. Have you ever
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• 09:30 - 10:00 doseofwisdom. Don't leave your digital front door wide open. Most of the biographical information on Krishna actually post dates the writing of the New Testament. So, you're getting from you know very late sources uh and some even like I mean I think Benjamin Walker argued that maybe the Christian sources influence stories about Krishna. So if there is a connection, which I'm not even convinced there is, it could be going the other way around because again a lot of our sources on Krishna like bio biographical information on him postates
• 10:00 - 10:30 Christianity. Yeah. And one other thought is that if if it were true that that there were connection points to between Jesus and some pre-existing uh myths or historic figures. All that that would really do for me is sort of support the JRR Tolking idea or the CS Lewis idea that there's that there is this, you know, Christ inside of the human imagination that we have planted
• 10:30 - 11:00 inside of us a desire for, you know, a dying and rising savior or a hero, you know, the hero with a thousand faces, Joseph Campbell idea. To me, I look at that and I'm like, I could see God if he knew that he was going to come and be the solution and live out this story. Maybe he put it in the stars, you know, like Zekeist talks about that. Maybe he put the story in the stars. Maybe he put the story into our hearts in some in some capacity. So, it wouldn't even do that much if it were true. But I just find it shocking when it's like born of a virgin December 25th. Wait, what are you talking about? It's not true. Yeah.
• 11:00 - 11:30 Yeah. All right, let's take a look at Mithra now. Yep. There's the Persian god Mithra 600 years before Christ. Born December 25th, performed miracles, resurrected on the third day, known as the lamb, the way, the truth, the light, the savior, messiah. All right, stop there. No, none of that is true about Mithro. He wasn't born of a virgin. He was born out of a rock. He was didn't resurrect. I believe in the mythre mythology, he killed like a cosmic bull. Like that's what he's about. He wasn't born on December 25th. This is a common
• 11:30 - 12:00 myth. And you'll find it even in Encyclopedia Bratannica. They'll they'll put this out here that Mithra was had a birthday on December 25th. utter nonsense. Uh Roger Beck, who's a methric scholar, says we've got no evidence for that. The only text that ever mentions a deity other than Jesus being born on December 25th, is a text that postdates Constantine. It's called the calendar of Phyocalis. And it says on December 25th, 30 games were ordered for the birthday of the unconquered one, which is probably referring to the Roman sun god
• 12:00 - 12:30 soul. Doesn't mention Mithra anywhere in there. So that's a problem. And also it seems the pagan use of December 25th postates the Christian use because Christians were celebrating Christmas on December 25th probably going back to the 3 century. Uh and you don't have you know pagans using that date until much later. Uh so interesting problem there. Uh you know we we have evidence of sun worship happening in earlier sources like we in the fast eye inscriptions uh
• 12:30 - 13:00 other inscriptions as well but it's never on December 25th. It's like August, November, October, early December, but never December 25th. We've got no evidence of a pagan holiday on December 25th prior to 354 AD. Christians were using that date before then. So, it seems as though when Christianity got power, pagans just moved a holiday there. And now everyone's got in the opposite direction. They think Christmas came from paganism. Really, Christmas was probably on that date and pagans tried to like compete. Uh, so no, that no
• 13:00 - 13:30 evidence Mithra was born on December 25th. All I know is that I can I don't go by that here say that. I go by the word of God. I know that's what I believe. Well, I believe it because okay, it's not that it's not the difference between truth and what you believe. Foot in the Bible tells us that all things are possible with God. Okay. Study the religions of the Mediterranean region for a thousand years before. Many of the gods were born on December 25th. It's not a new one. Oh, so pause there. There again, no evidence any god was ever born on December 25th other than
• 13:30 - 14:00 Jesus. I mean, again, that's the date the Christians picked. We don't know if it's right, but they didn't pick it because of pagan reasons. They picked it because they were doing their own early calculations, and that's the date they came to. In Star Wars Episode 1, Phantom Menace, Anakin is born to a virgin. And people see that and they say, "Wait a second, where have we heard that before? It's not original." Story wasn't original. How so? Okay, I don't think we need to play the whole section here. All this is just
• 14:00 - 14:30 false. The Egyptian book of the dead does not describe Horus in a way that mirrors Jesus. This goes back to Gerald Massie from the 19th century who was laughed at by Egyptologists. Uh again, it's just utter nonsense. No one named Anup the Baptizer existed. Crucifixion didn't exist in 1280 BC. Horus didn't die and resurrect. It's just pure and utter nonsense. Do you think that is there any chance that they didn't know that at the time of making this movie? In other words, is this like
• 14:30 - 15:00 I just don't get it. But you know what? It was effective. Like I said, at the time this was this was a rock in a lot of Christians shoe. And even you can see in the in the documentary here, these people that he's talking to at the Holy Land are kind of, you know, getting shaken up by this, which I think for one just shows the need for apologetics or the need for more depth in our understanding about these things. But, um, I don't know. Do you do you think that the people who made this
• 15:00 - 15:30 documentary were were and if you don't want to go on the record, that's fine, but I just I'm just it's something that I find to be interesting. Like were you guys trying your best to put together a caa a case and just got it so terribly wrong or were you like I think we can kind of get away with this. I don't know. It's just weird. No, I I I just think they were ignorant. I just think they didn't know. I mean there was a lot of misinformation going around. I mean but I mean it was 2010. I mean like I knew this was nonsense in the '9s. In fact, that's one of the reasons as I told this
• 15:30 - 16:00 is one of the reasons I uh really was when I was in my like agnostic deist phase came back to Christianity because I was seeing these type of objections. I'm like these are stupid. I know what Egyptian mythology says. This isn't in there. Uh let me see what the Christians say and see if they got better arguments for their position. But I mean like yeah it's rather unfortunate because this was I don't think Mar actually did a lot of good research for this unfortunately. That's why I love the work that you do on your channel and everyone should definitely go check out Inspiring Philosophy because you in a lot of different ways will kind of do like what
• 16:00 - 16:30 we're doing in this video, play it, pause it, fact check it. And I think that that is so important because a lot of people are just, you know, swiping through their phone and all a sudden they're getting some crazy Tik Tok that has a professionally produced video with a really nice AI voice and really cool music and it's saying something that's utterly false but convincing. And I I think that in some ways this religionist documentary was like the early version of that same type of like mythicism uh propaganda. It's very odd because a lot
• 16:30 - 17:00 of people have been asking why don't you have a website? We now do. It's daily doseofwisdom.com. Why don't you have a podcast? We do. You can find it on Spotify. And why finally is your documentary not free? Well, it is, folks. Even though it took me two years to make, the documentary is now free. Find out more in the link in the description below. [Music]