This is an atrociously bad AI-generated song. For starters, it´s 15 minutes long. It sounds like a boring sermon on the theodicy problem set to muzak. Or is it supposed to be music? Oh, and it´s about Commander Ashtar. Dude, I AM Ashtar and I hereby disavow this AI slop! But sure, the AI did get my beautiful looks right, at least. LOL.
Is Avi Loeb "compromised"? It seems he finally decided to debunk a pro-UFO research paper...one that he isn´t behind himself! It just happens to be the Swedish Nordita papers about so-called transients, which (at least at first glance) looks like the best evidence for UFOs ever published.
"The Angry Astronaut" (the content-creator behind the video linked above) is right that it´s somewhat absurd that Loeb - who makes many "far out" statements - all of a sudden turns skeptic and gives short shrift to Villarroel´s research. My guess is that it isn´t a conspiracy, but simply (un)professional jealousy. Academic politics is a thing even on the fringes, it seems...
So I asked ChatGPT about its "personal" take on the Graeco-Roman mystery cults and how close they were to Christianity...
What mystery cult was closest in your estimation to Christianity, either early Christianity or Christianity in its (medieval) Catholic or Orthodox forms?
If by “mystery cult” you mean the Greco-Roman initiatory religions such as the Eleusinian Mysteries, Dionysian/Bacchic mysteries, Isis cult, Mithraism, and related currents, then my answer would be:
the cult of Isis and Sarapis was probably the closest overall to Christianity in social form, devotional tone, and religious atmosphere—while Mithraism is the one most often compared to Christianity in older scholarship, and Dionysian/Orphic religion may be closest on certain themes of death, rebirth, and salvation.
So I’d distinguish three different senses of “closest”:
My own overall judgment is that Isis is the best answer if we mean “which mystery religion would have felt most familiar, in broad religious style, to a Christian—especially a late antique or medieval Catholic/Orthodox Christian.”
The cult of Isis was not just a secret initiation cult in the narrow sense. It was a broad devotional religion with:
That is already much closer to Christianity than the older civic cults of the polis.
A Christian from late antiquity would have recognized in Isis religion things like:
In some forms, Isis was presented as a near-universal motherly savior figure. That does not make her “basically Mary” or “basically Christ,” but it does mean the religious psychology can feel surprisingly close to later Catholic and Orthodox sensibilities.
Mithraism is the religion that gets compared to Christianity most often in popular discussions. There are reasons for that:
But I think it is less close to Christianity overall than people sometimes imagine.
Mithraism was:
Christianity, by contrast, was from very early on:
So Mithraism is very interesting as a rival mystery religion, but it feels less like Catholicism or Orthodoxy as a whole religious civilization.
If we move away from “institutional resemblance” and ask instead about religious themes, then Orphic–Dionysian religion becomes very important.
There you find things much closer to later Christian existential concerns:
This does not mean “Dionysus = Christ.” That’s too crude. But if you ask:
“Which mystery current has the strongest family resemblance to Christian ideas of dying and rising, salvation, divine life shared with humans, and blessed destiny after death?”
then Orphic/Dionysian religion belongs near the top of the list.
For the first few centuries, I would probably say the closest comparison is a blend:
But if forced to pick one, I would still probably say Isis in terms of the social-religious feel.
Here I would say Isis even more strongly.
Why? Because medieval Catholicism and Orthodoxy are not just “belief in salvation.” They are also:
The cult of Isis, more than Mithraism, had a broad, public, emotionally devotional, liturgical atmosphere that feels closer to that world.
To be clear, it still lacked things central to Christianity:
But in religious style, it is the nearest analogue.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were immensely important, and in some ways very profound. They promised a blessed fate after death and centered on a powerful myth of loss and return. But they were also:
Eleusis is a very strong candidate if you ask:
“Which mystery cult most deeply addressed death and the hope of a blessed afterlife?”
But it is less close to Christianity as a whole civilization and devotional system.
There are real similarities, but they need to be handled carefully. Common features in the wider mystery-religion world include:
Christianity shares some of that religious environment. It emerged in a Mediterranean world where people were already familiar with the idea that religion could mean:
So Christianity did not arise in a vacuum. But it also differs sharply from the mystery cults.
Even the closest mystery cults differ from Christianity in some major ways.
Christianity is centered on:
Mystery cults generally revolve more around mythic sacred drama than historical revelation.
Christianity early on makes very strong claims about:
Mystery cults could be universalizing, but they were usually not universal in quite that exclusive and total way.
The Christian claim that God became man, suffered, died, rose, and incorporated believers into his body is not really paralleled straightforwardly by any mystery cult.
If you asked me for a ranked answer, I’d put it like this:
1. Isis / Sarapis religion
Because it most resembles Christianity in:
2. Mithraism
3. Orphic–Dionysian religion
4. Eleusis
If I had to choose one mystery religion as closest to Christianity—especially Christianity in its later Catholic or Orthodox form—I would choose the cult of Isis, while adding that Mithraism and Dionysian/Orphic religion each resemble Christianity more closely on certain specific dimensions.
OK, this was interesting. But does it conclusively prove that the MJ-12 documents were real? I´m not so sure. After all, the markings on the documents may have been forged by some intelligence agency, which then deliberately leaked them to ufologists as advanced disinfo. That would explain why the author of the documents knew about classified CIA markings.
That being said, *if* the US government and/or military really did investigate crashed alien craft, they would deny it, so I suppose it´s compatible with that scenario, too...
Do we even want to know the truth?
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| Credit: Alain6963 |
Mariamman is the Hindu goddess of smallpox. She was worshipped to cure smallpox or avert smallpox outbreaks. Why? Because she was believed to cause them!
Did worship of Mariamman stop smallpox? No. Modern science stopped smallpox by simply eradicating the smallpox virus. I´m sure materialist atheists might draw certain conclusions from this.
But let´s assume the spirit-world is real. Maybe Mariamman is "real" in some sense. What does *that* tell us? Say about the character of the spirit-world...
So it´s official now. And the biggest news item on the evening news in Sweden (many Swedes love soccer and nobody here likes Trump).
Trump himself admitted at a cringey presser that he *did* ask FIFA to cancel a red card against a certain US soccer player. Which FIFA also did. Like a crazy dictator in Turkmenistan, The Trump is meddling in...everything. Except...I don´t know...defending the Western alliance or something.
Is this the Rubicon? After a fashion.
Självklart är detta också en bluff. Är allt inom sociologin och psykologin baserat på rena falsarier?
Gemini´s take on Pashupatas and Kapalikas worshipping Shiva somewhere in the rain forest...
LOL. Trump actually interfered in the ongoing soccer world championship, demanding that FIFA should review a red card against a US soccer player. Cuz of course he did. This is the same Trump who got a "peace prize" from FIFA last year, as compensation for not getting a certain other prize in the same category...
At this point, I just laugh at this. Yes, I know. It´s not really funny. But there you go.
What´s up with the peace negotiations between the Iranian non-regime regime and the Trump administration non-administration? Does anyone know? More importantly, does anyone even care?
It´s interesting to note that the United States has become the world´s largest exporter of oil due to the Hormuz crisis. Very interesting indeed. Maybe that´s why finding a solution to the situation isn´t the first priority of this administration...
The era of "great" power brigandage has begun. Perhaps we should all care about *that*, at least!
