Cracking the Da Vinci Code: A Discourse

[Arnobius]

True, but we must also be aware that the converse is also true. Those supporting a particular view (and I include Christians in this) are likewise just as susceptible to either fallaciously accepting material that supports their position, or rejecting material that disagrees with it. Shoddy scholarship, intellectual laziness, and wishful thinking aren't exactly rare amongst Christians either.

Yes this is true as well. My post was just looking into the phenomenon of "The DaVinci Code", but yes Christians have their own "urban legends" as well, whether sectarian or spiritual vs secular. So long as faith is not defined as blind following or tradition equated with myth or mere custom, I would agree.

One thing that bothers me is that sometimes it seems as though some try to attack Christian beliefs by a chronological argument, saying that it is too old to be credible or too new (compared to other institutions) to be original, so appeals to the teachings of the church or the Bible are rejected, not for a good reason, but because of when the defense was written and Christian beliefs become either "out of date" or "plagiarized from earlier sources."

[Technomancer]

I agree that the question of age should be irrelevant. However, the issue of whether Christianity (and Judaism) borrowed from other traditions should be taken seriously. We must be prepared to understand that other cultures/religions/mythologies did exert a significant influence on the development of Judaism and Christianity.

[Arnobius]

I agree that the question of age should be irrelevant. However, the issue of whether Christianity (and Judaism) borrowed from other traditions should be taken seriously. We must be prepared to understand that other cultures/religions/mythologies did exert a significant influence on the development of Judaism and Christianity.

Yes, I understand what you're saying. Certainly Greek philosophy has had a role in expressing Christian thought to the world, for example. My concern was with those claims that every essential element of Christianity and Judaism was plagiarized from other religions or that foreign beliefs were brought into Christianity that were not what the apostles intended. The earliest Christians and the Jews had a strong aversion to the idea of idolatry, which is something that needs to be remembered when trying to assess influence of the influence of surrounding culture. The pagan Romans for example thought the Christians to be very impious for not taking part in their rituals.