Mithra

Site Admin Joined: 21 Sep 2006 Posts: 285

Mithra

http://www.atheist-community.org/mithra.htm

First appears as an Aryan sun-god in Sanskrit and Persian literature circa
1400 BCE. The cult was introduced into the Roman empire in the 1st century
BCE.

Mithra was:

born of a virgin in a stable on the winter solstice--frequently December 25
in the Julian calendar (the emperor Aurelian declared December 25 to be the
official birthday of Mithra, circa 270 CE)--attended by shepherds who
brought gifts;

worshiped on Sundays;

shown with a nimbus, or halo, around his head;

said to take a last supper with his followers when he returned to his
father;

believed not to have died, but to have ascended to heaven, whence it was
believed he would return at the end of time to raise the dead in a physical
resurrection for a final judgement, sending the good to heaven and the
wicked to hell, after the world had been destroyed by fire;

to grant his followers immortal life following baptism.

Followers of Mithra:

followed a leader called a 'papa' (pope), who ruled from the Vatican hill in
Rome;

celebrated the atoning death of a savior who has resurrected on a Sunday;

celebrated sacramenta (a consecrated meal of bread and wine), termed a
Myazda (corresponding exactly to the Catholic Missa (mass), using chanting,
bells, candles, incense, and holy water, in remembrance of the last supper
of Mithra).

The emperor Constantine was a follower of Mithra until he declared December
25 the official birthday of Jesus in 313 CE and adopted the cult of
Christianity as the state religion.