Mushrooms Responsible for Religion?

[Powder_Reality]

I have a theory that I would like to discuss with the members of this forum. My theory is that psilocybin mushrooms are responsible for the creation of religion. Imagine the following circumstance: The year is 500000 BC, you're a very early stage of man, and are wandering around one day trying to find food. You stumble upon some soft objects growing out of the grounds. They have a long and skinny body, with a cap on the top. You take a bite of it, and it doesn't taste to bad; adequate enough for food. You procede to ingest a few mroe of these new-found objects, and continue on your way. About an hour later, you are overwhelmed with a feeling you have never felt before. You can't describe it, you just have a very weird feeling about yourself. You feel scared, happy, nervous, and can't keep your mind still. Everything you look at appears to be brighter, some objects appear to be waving and breathing, even inanimate objects. You have no idea what is happening, and spend the next 6 hours in this weird world. When the entire experience is over, you cannot explain what just happened, but are sure that nothing on this land could make you feel that way. It has to be something more powerful than this place, more powerful than you and everybody around you. Hence the first notion of an all-powerful being is thought up by man. What's you're opinion on this? Possible?

[rxbandit]

I strongly suggest you read Terrence Mckennas "Food of The Gods" if you havent since the theme of the book is pretty much that theory in depth.

[Powder_Reality]

I'm going to have to pick that one up. I didn't realize that there was already an in-depth study done on the subject.

[rxbandit]

understandable, i actually suspected the same thing before i ever heard of this book as well and was very excited when i found out this whole book explained in detail using anthropology citations and neuro chem among other subjects to dissect and explain this.

real good read

[bewilderment]

This is an old article from september of 2005 that I found rather interesting:

"Missing Link a Tripping Chimp?

Drugs have played a significant role in everyday life stretching a long way back into human history. They’re often associated with various rites of passage, from religious ceremonies to coming of age initiations, to youth rebelling against the status quo (while perhaps listening to Status Quo). Signs of our love for noxious but pleasant substances are evident from when we have our first cup o’ Joe in the morning to “last drinks” in the evening.

Some commentators believe that the taking of drugs allows one to have a greater perspective on life, to be able to see the bigger picture. And in the words of indestructible rock legend and drug connoisseur Ozzy Osbourne: “I don't even know who Ozzy is. I wake up a new person every day.” A common theme among recreational drug users is that the gap between subjective and objective realities diminishes, giving rise to what is sometimes termed a heightened sense of self-awareness. This has been cited frequently in regard to some of the psychoactive and psychedelic ingredients found in some tree and shrub roots in the heart of Africa, where coincidently, millions of years ago, hominids took the first step away from the forest onto the savannahs of Africa.

The reasons why our human ancestors split from our chimp/bonobo forest dwelling chums are sketchy, but perhaps their eating patterns may provide some indication. About five to seven million years ago (the transition between the Miocene and Pliocene epochs) when the lineage of humans and chimpanzees split from their common ancestor, edible root plants similar to rutabagas and turnips may have been one of the reasons. According to research published in the Journal of Human Evolution, by anthropologists Greg Laden of the University of Minnesota and Richard Wrangham of Harvard University, the presence of fleshy underground storage organs like roots and tubers must have sustained our ancestors who left the rain forest to colonize the savannah. "You can think of roots as a kind of 'conveyor belt'... they were somewhat available in the forest, but abundant on the savannah," said Laden. "Once roots were 'discovered,' chimp-like creatures would not only be able to survive on the savannah, but may well have been compelled to extend their range into more and more open habitats."

So, roots may have been what sustained our ancestor’s outward explorations, but what made these ambitious chimps make the move in the first place? When our ape ancestors moved – for reasons unknown – onto the open, relatively treeless savannah, they left behind the rain forest and its abundance of fruit and leaves, the mainstays of modern chimpanzee diets. It seems odd that any animal other than one that was self-aware and self-conscious would make such a move without an obvious and natural advantage. We know that chimps stayed behind in the forests and survived quite happily until the present day without having to make the initial move that our ancestors did. So what was the catalyst for the move?

Interestingly, some of the roots of particular shrubs in Africa contain psychoactive alkaloids (an alkaloid is a nitrogenous organic molecule that has a pharmacological effect on humans and animals) that religious cults and psychiatrists use. Only our human ancestors would have been able to eat these roots, as the jaws of their chimp companions were not strong enough. Laden and Wrangham say that the evidence lies in the fossil record, specifically teeth and jaws. The teeth and jaws of savannah dwelling apes evolved into large massive jaws, jaw muscles and molars, ideal for grinding roots instead of shearing leaves. The size of the teeth and jaws reflect the apes' secondary food source (roots) instead of primary foods like meats and fruits, which do not require such massive chewing abilities. So, is it possible that human intelligence evolved as a result of some psychoactive ingredient contained in an African root seven million years ago?

Let’s examine the plausibility of such a hypothesis. One of the main culprits that could be considered is the root of the Tabernanthe iboga shrub, found in the equatorial regions of Africa. Despite climate changes that led to a drier African climate and the decline of tropical forests during the Pliocene epoch, it is well documented that there was a thin band of equatorial tropical forests and savannahs in existence. This makes the existence of the Iboga shrub, or those related to the dogbane variety, perfectly plausible around the time of the split between chimp and hominid. The geographical location of these tropical regions and the areas where such trees and shrubs grow is also consistent with the location of early humans five to seven million years ago.

The hallucinogenic drug Ibogaine, derived from the shrub’s roots, is the main psychoactive ingredient of the Tabernanthe iboga, and is still used in the Bwiti ancestor cult, the Mbieri curing cult, and other nativistic religious movements in tropical sub-Saharan West Africa. Ibogaine has also attracted the attention of Western medicine, and is used for a variety of treatments including, ironically, various drug addictions. Ibogaine’s chemical structure is truly astounding as far as psychoactive ingredients are concerned. The composition of Ibogaine has been described by Alexander Shulgin (the rogue chemist who popularized ecstasy) and Ann Shulgin, in their book Tihkal, as: “some pretty far-out chemistry.” Shulgin says that the chemistry of Ibogaine is “awesome”, and is a rich source of tryptamines that produce the psychedelic experience in humans.

“Most of these are kosher tryptamines in that they carry the tryptamine structural skeleton. And, in turn, a great number of the tryptamine alkaloids are found in the remarkable family Apocynaceae, which is the ultimate treasure-trove of alkaloids, probably the richest single source of pharmacologically active compounds in the entire plant kingdom,” explains Shulgin.

In his book Hallucinogens and Culture, Peter Furst claims that: “even in our waking hours our minds are constantly flipping back and forth between discrete, or alternate (but nonetheless complementary), inward and outward directed states, and that this phenomenon bears directly on the use and effects of psychedelics.” It is important to remember that our own brain is an organic chemical cocktail that controls behavior, motor mechanics and awareness. Drugs work by altering the chemical states of our brains and give us a new way of perceiving and, therefore, experiencing physical environments.

Is it possible that our early ancestors experienced this when eating the root of the Iboga shrub? Furst observes that psychoactive drugs have the potential to: “lock a non-ordinary or inward directed state of consciousness temporarily into place, presumably by blocking out certain areas or chemicals involved in ‘ordinary’ modes of awareness.” An altered state of awareness may have been what happened to early hominids, which allowed them to experience certain “realizations” about their environment. Shifting geographical location in search of different food sources, tool making abilities, and later painting and language, may have been instigated by the ingestion of psychoactive roots. And let’s face it, you’d have to be high on something to leave the safety of a food laden tropical paradise, a relative Eden, only to venture out among much larger, faster predators with big pointy teeth on the African savannahs.

Tool making is perhaps another attribute that could be ascribed to a mind-expanding experience. It is presumed today that chimps did have tool-making abilities, and by every indication this is true, but perhaps the chimps mimicked these skills after watching their fast-evolving, root eating hominid cousins. And we shouldn’t underestimate the brainpower needed even to make a basic stone tool, as even the crudest form of tool-making required our ancestors to make a massive cognitive leap. Researchers at the Yerkes Primate Center in Atlanta, for example, showed that an intelligent chimp called Kanzi could not be shown how to make an effective stone tool successfully, despite evidence showing that the earliest Oldowan tool-makers understood this principle.

There are bound to be more discoveries that will further reveal the events surrounding the chimp/hominid split, and, therefore, we can only really speculate on the origins of human consciousness and intelligence. But our widespread use and affiliation with all things drug-like must have originated somewhere along the line, and why couldn’t the origin also be the seat of human consciousness? Furst states that: “There are obviously wide implications, both biological, evolutionary and philosophical, in the discovery that precisely in the chemistry of our consciousness we are kin to the plant kingdom.”

It’s said that there is a grain of truth in all mythologies. Could the truth in human evolution be that the Iboga is the original tree of knowledge?"

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/missing_link.shtml

Another interesting theory about the roots of religion is the bicameral mind theory which I think you'd probably be very interested in. It speculates that in early human beings, a sort of schizophrenic state was the norm. The brain's left hemisphere hadn't evolved to become specialized in language (as it has now) and so people had no sense of "introspection" hence when they would make a decision to do something, then they may hear it as sort of a command from another person inside their head. They didn't realize it was just a thought of their own.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Interesting read
	Excellent article.

[RealGanjaMan]

Very possible indeed

How else could people come up with all the crazy ideas of christianity?



-RGM

Reputation Comments on this post:

Rep for additions to the multimedia archive, much appreciated.

[Nagognog2]

R. Gordon Wasson beat you to the punch here. In his tome - SOMA - he postulates that the Amanita Muscaria was responsible for many religious tenents, including the Rig Veda. By default he also suggests that many, if not most, theological systems stemmed from the use of naturally occurring psychoactive substances.

He began his research in the late 1950's. SOMA is a fascinating read.

[Sky Walker]

Originally Posted by RealGanjaMan

Very possible indeed

How else could people come up with all the crazy ideas of christianity?



-RGM

I'm not so sure that Christians did come up with any crazy ideas, they simply stole them and made a mishmash religion out of all the other preexisting faiths but with a twist, a super secret hidden agenda. To take the power from the divine females, the bearers and creators of life, to eradicate the worship of Mother Nature and in doing so instill the powers of life and creation in the undeserving Man.

When looking at it from a very basic level it's kinda like an all male government taking it upon themselves to fence off nature, a garden or forest that had been tended and looked after by females, Mother Nature, a wonder so spectacular and beautiful that it was actively worshiped and honored, stolen by males and made inaccessible, unless, of course, payment was produced, only then is entry granted.

On topic;
Yea I totally agree, the first ideas of religion, of higher divine powers could only have come from the use of psychedelics, I say only but I really just mean extremely probable or highly likely.

[stoneinfocus]

the problem is mish-mashing the christian religion with the agenda of capiatlism and power, being more and more inhumanly and unindividually, seeking some kind of faschism like community experience and high.

I think the chrstian genesis is born out of hallucingen-use. I´ve had nearly exactly the same feelings with experiencing total dark, and wholeness and a tiny little sporn of light, not even noticable because of lacking materials but then again it was there, creating the universe, which was me, my mind and the thought about it, which again contained all time and elements within.

[rxbandit]

heres an interesting article on how christianity was corrupted by constantine taken from the shroom wizards book.


"The Mark Of The Beast - 666"
Revelation 13:17-18 (King James Version)

17 - And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 - Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

*********************

The above two verses are taken out of the Book of Revelations which is the last book of the New Testament. There is a lot of controversy about this so called "mark of the beast" and what it actually represents, but first I think it is very important to understand actually where today's New Testament got it's roots from.

A lot of people would like to to believe that today's "Christianity" began with the birth and death of Jesus Christ, but that is not entirely correct. Today's Christianity didn't actually begin until the year 325AD, almost 300 years after Jesus died. I'm not saying that Jesus wasn't worshipped in churches back then, because he was, but almost every church had a different definition as to who Jesus actually was. During the first quarter of the fourth century, the Roman Empire was rapidly expanding as the huge and powerful Roman armies conquered more and more lands. The Roman emperor at that time, Emperor Constantine, noticed that as his armies conquered these lands, the empire also gained the religions of the lands and people who inhabited them.

Back in those days, just like in today's time, various religions fought with each other. Emperor Constantine noticed that the people within the Roman Empire were fighting amongst each other because of this collection of various religious beliefs within the empire, so he came up with what he considered a brilliant idea. He decided to design, or define, a new Christian religion just for the Roman Empire. On or about June 19, 325 (AD) he called together a meeting in the city of Nicea (in Turkey) of 318 bishops from surrounding countries. The purpose of this meeting was to have a "meeting of minds" with the task of creating a new Roman Christian religion (now called the Roman Catholic Church).

The result of this meeting was the "Nicean Creed" upon which the Catholic Church adheres to today. The creed set forth the Roman Catholic Churches beliefs and also contained the "anathema" (condemnation) for those who rejected these truths, and for the first time, such anathemas carried with them civil repercussions. Only two of the attending 318 bishops, Theonas of Marmarica and Secundus of Ptolemias, refused to sign the new creed. Emperor Constantine banished both of them from the empire, while the other bishops went on to celebrate their unity in a great feast at the imperial palace.
Emperor Constantine took the opportunity to inaugurate the first systematic government persecution of dissident Christians. He issued an edict against "heretics," calling them "haters and enemies of truth and life, in league with destruction." Even though he had begun his reign with an edict of religious toleration, he now forbade the heretics (Christians) to assemble in any public or private place, including private homes, and ordered that they be deprived of "every gathering point for their superstitious meetings," including "all houses of prayer." These were to be given to the orthodox Church. The Christian teachers were forced to flee, and many of their students were forced into the orthodox fold. Emperor Constantine also ordered a search for their books, which were to be confiscated and destroyed. Anyone caught hiding the works of Christians carried a penalty of death. The decisions of the Council of Nicea were endorsed by civil law and backed by military power. Even today the Old Testament is still the Old Testament - but the New Testament has been altered by the Roman Empire's "Nicean Creed".

Now let us go back to the Book of Revelations and review what this chapter is about.

Chapter 13: Verse 17 - And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
When Emperor Constantine was on his way back to the Roman Empire from Nicea he had a vision. At noon he saw, or at least claimed he saw, a flaming insignia imposed over the sun and attached to it were the words "in hoc signo vinces" which translated into English means "In this sign thou shalt conquer." This insignia is what is called "CHE-ROH" (pronounced ki-row - as in Cairo Egypt). That night Constantine said that Jesus appeared to him in a dream and told him to make a replica of the sign (CHI-ROH) he had seen in the sky which would be a sure defense in battle.

"CHI-ROH"

Emperor Constantine adopted this "CHI-ROH" sign as his insignia and to most historians it is now known as the "Monogram of Constantine". Today we see many Roman coins from Emperor Constantine's reign bearing the "CHI-ROH" insignia. Compared to today's standards, Emperor Constantine was very barbaric, especially because of the thousands of people he ordered be put to death because of their Christian beliefs. Could he be considered the "beast" of the book of Revelations? Could this "CHI-ROH" symbol be the "mark of the beast?". Just the fact that he ordered it to be placed on all coins would have made it impossible to buy or sell without this mark (he also had this insignia sewn onto his army soldier's uniforms).

The above verse's from the Book of Revelations also state that you might not buy or sell without the mark, or the name, of the beast. On the front side of these Roman coins appears the face and name of Constantine. So now these coins carry both the name and the mark of the beast (if my assumption is correct). So, at the time, you could not buy or sell without these coins.

"ROMAN COINS"

Now we get down to the number "666" that in the bible is referred to as "The number of the beast". I first want to mention that the word "antichrist" is mentioned only four times in the bible, and every time it mentions that "anyone" who rejects the word of Christ is an antichrist. It never refers to just one single person being "The Antichrist". I've heard it said that the number 666 is the sign of the antichrist, but I have no idea where that saying originated. In my own mind I do however believe that if there ever was just one "antichrist" it would have been Emperor Constantine. His barbaric rule changed the old feeling of "Love Thy Neighbor" into "Kill Thy Neighbor". Since the initiation of the "Nicean Creed", millions of people have been murdered worldwide under the name of the Roman Catholic Church (including the Dark Ages, the Inquisition, the Conquistadors - who slaughtered the Aztecs, Mayans and Incans - the Salem witch burnings, etc.).
In this portion of my ramblings I am probably going to shock or piss-off some people - but that is definitely not my intention. Knowledge is knowledge - pure and simple. I think I should begin with the worshipped Messiah we have come to know as Jesus Christ. The name "Jesus" is an English translation of the Greek name "Iesous". In Greek spelling, an "s" (known as Sigma) at the end of a name meant that it was masculine (a man's name) form. No women's names in Greek end with a Sigma (or an "s"). The meaning of Iesous in Greek is "the son of Zeus, or the son of the most high god known to the Greeks as Zeus". Zeus was the main Greek god and head of the many Greek gods.
While the mulit-lingual disciples of Jesus may have personally called the Messiah by his Aramaic name Yeshua, I doubt if they had any reservation in referring to him as "Iesous" when talking about him and his teachings to the Greeks, Hellenic Jews, Romans or others living in the Roman Empire who spoke Greek, which was the recognized language of commerce and literature. The name for the Messiah, "Iesous", was already firmly established at that time as the Greek rendering (equivalent) of his name. Out of the twelve deciples, eleven of them were from Galilee, also known as Galilee of the Gentiles (Matthew 4:15), and the Messiah was also a Galilean (Matthew 21:11). We are told in the Gospels that the Messiah (Jesus) spoke with a Greek woman and cast out a demon from her daughter (Mark 7:26), and that he healed the son of a Roman centurion (Matthew 8:8). How did they address him would be my first question, since history tells us that Greek was the official language of the Roman Empire, and had been established as such centuries before the Messiah was on earth. In the scriptures we are told of the Greeks who traveled to Jerusalem for the feasts, who wanted to speak to the Messiah, and had asked the deciples if it were possible (John 12:20).

We are also told in the scriptures that Matthew was a tax collector, so he would have to be versed in the language of commerce, which was Greek, and we know that Luke was a Greek physician. We can safely assume that Paul addressed the Roman centurion in the Greek language (Acts 21:37). This should also raise the question as to what language the Messiah conversed with Pilate in. Archaeologists have also found Greek inscriptions on early synagogues in Israel, and it should be noted that there were scrolls and fragments written in Greek that were found at Qumran. You can find these listed in the Dead Sea Scrolls inventory.

The Greek name Iesous got translated into the Latin name Iesus, and then into Old English as Jesus. Initially the 'J' was at the time still pronounced like the German 'J', which was pronounced with more of a 'Y' sound. This is the way it is still spoken in Germany today. Over time, the 'J' sound eventually began to harden into sounding more like the French 'J' which is where the modern English 'J' originated from. The end result is the current English pronunciation of Jesus.
I have discussed how the name 'Jesus" was derived from the Greek word Iesous. What I find very interesting is the fact that "Ies" in Hebrew means man, while "Sous" means horse or beast. So when you speak that name (Iesous or Jesus) you are referring to the Messiah as a "man-beast" (in the Hebrew language).

"The Book of John - Chapter 19"

19 - And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was, "JESUS OF NAZARETH - THE KING OF THE JEWS".

20 - Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin

HEBREW = Yeshua

GREEK = Iesous

Latin = Iesus
English = Jesus

This shows us, taken right out of the bible, that the Greek, Hebrew and Latin languages were spoken in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus' crusification.

As an added note I guess need to explain to you where the name "Christ" originated from. This name also comes from a Greek word. Greeks called all of their gods "Christos" (Christ) from Adonis to Zeus, and that it merely meant "anointed. So when you say "Jesus Christ" you are only saying "Jesus, the anointed one".
In ancient philosophy everything had a dualistic meaning. Every number had an alphabetical equivalent and every letter in the Greek alphabet had a numerical equivalent. When we work with the number 666 we are actually working with three different numbers (as they are written in the bible). The numbers are "Six hundred, threescore (sixty) and six".

Lets begin with the number "Six Hundred". In the Greek alphabet, the alphabetical letter equivalent to the number 600 is CHI (pronounced chee). The alphabetical letter equivalent to the number 60 is XI (pronounced Zie). The alphabetical letter equivalent to the number 6 is "Sigma" (pronounced Cig-ma). (see chart below).

The chart above shows you the three Greek alphabet letters that have the numeric equivalent to the numbers 600, 60 and 6. In the English language the word formed by these three Greek letters would be pronounced as "che-zi-sigma". But - The Greek pronunciation for this word is Che-Zeus" which is very, very close to the word "Jesus" that we use in today's English. By the way, in Greek, the definition of this three letter word means "God is Zeus".
Now let us look back at the 13th chapter in the Book of Revelations again;

17 - And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

18 - Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Even though it talks about the name, mark and number of the beast - it doesn't actually mention that this is the antichrist as a lot of people are led to believe or wish to believe. To me, an antichrist (which is only mentioned in the bible 4 times) would be anyone who doesn't believe in Christ, so there are literally millions of "antichrists" on this planet (and not just one). In the 18th verse above it even states that 666 is "the number of a man" (not men). Does the so called beast mean it is positively a bad thing? It doesn't really say. Even here in America we can't actually buy or sell anything with money that doesn't say "In God We Trust" on it, because it's imprinted on all of our paper money as well as our coins. In my viewpoint, almost 2,000 years after Emperor Constantine, we are still bound to the "mark of the beast" if we wish to buy or sell anything. We can barter or trade - but we can't buy or sell without it.

In summery; If I am correct in my assumption that Jesus (the son of Zeus?) is considered "God incarnated" on earth in human form, and our God is really just a takeoff of the Greek god Zeus, then the number "666" spoken of in the Book of Revelations could be in reference to God (or Jesus) himself.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Very interesting. EXCELLENT info.

[bewilderment]

Originally Posted by co-incidence

I think the chrstian genesis is born out of hallucingen-use.

Very possible, but also remember that Christianity borrowed HEAVILY from earlier pagan religions. In fact, most of the supernatural elements of the bible spring from much more primitive belief systems. There is a great article about it on religious tolerance.org entitled: Parallels between the Christian Gospels and Pagan Mythology. Here's a small excerpt:

Similarities between Pagan and Christian practices

The early Christians and Pagans shared many rituals and practices. Authors Freke & Gandy appear to assume that all of the copying was done by Christians from Pagan sources. 3 However, some might have gone in the opposite direction. During the 3rd century CE, Mithraism and Christianity were the main competitors for the religious affiliation the citizens of Romans. Some Christian practices might have actually been picked up by the Mithraites, rather than vice-versa.

• Many early Christians celebrated Jesus' birthday on JAN-6. Armenian Christians still do. In Alexandria, in what is now Egypt, the birthday of their god-man, Aion, was also celebrated on JAN-6.
  bullet Christians and most Pagans eventually celebrated the birthday of their god-man on DEC-25.
  
• According to an ancient Christian tradition, Christ died on MAR-23 and resurrected on MAR-25. These dates agree precisely with the death and resurrection of Attis.
  
• Baptism was a principal ritual; it washed away a person's sins. In some rituals, Baptism was performed by sprinkling holy water on the believer; in others, the person was totally immersed.
  
• The most important sacrament was a ritual meal of bread and wine which symbolize the god-man's body and blood. His followers were accused of engaging in cannibalism.
  
• Early Christians initiated converts in March and April by baptism. Mithraism initiated their new members at this time as well.
  
• Early Christians were naked when they were baptized. After immersion, they then put on white clothing and a crown. They carried a candle and walked in a procession to a basilica. Followers of Mithra were also baptized naked, put on white clothing and a crown, and walked in a procession to the temple. However, they carried torches.
  
• At Pentecost, the followers of Jesus were recorded as speaking in tongues. At Trophonius and Delos, the Pagan priestesses also spoke in tongues: They appeared to speak in such a way that each person present heard her words in the observer's own language.
  
• An inscription to Mithras reads: "He who will not eat of my body and drink of my blood, so that he will be made on with me and I with him, the same shall not know salvation." 1 In John 6:53-54, Jesus is said to have repeated this theme: "...Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." (KJV)
  
• The Bible records that Jesus was crucified between two thieves. One went to heaven and the other to hell. In the Mithras mysteries, a common image showed Mithras flanked by two torchbearers, one on either side. One held a torch pointed upwards, the other downwards. This symbolized ascent to heaven or descent to hell.
  
• In Attis, a bull was slaughtered while on a perforated platform. The animal's blood flowed down over an initiate who stood in a pit under the platform. The believer was then considered to have been "born again." Poor people could only afford a sheep, and so were literally washed in the blood of the lamb. This practice was interpreted symbolically by Christians.
  
• There were many additional points of similarity between Mithraism and Christianity. 2 St. Augustine even declared that the priests of Mithraism worshiped the same God as he did:
  
• Followers of both religions celebrated a ritual meal involving bread. It was called a missa in Latin or mass in English.
  
• Both the Catholic church and Mithraism had a total of seven sacraments.
  
• Epiphany, JAN-6, was originally the festival in which the followers of Mithra celebrated the visit of the Magi to their newborn god-man. The Christian Church took it over in the 9th century.

The rest of the article is found here: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa1.htm

Also recall that much of the bible was actually written a very, very long time after the supposed death of Christ.


Edit: ha, I just noticed your post rxbandit directly after I pressed the 'submit button'. Very nice info!