|
Now, don't fall for Pikachu's little wheeze that he is around to inform, not to persuade. That's baloney. You don't "inform" unless your goal is to get people to consider; you don't want people to consider unless you think they are missing something; and if you think they are missing something, that means you think they are wrong. So despite his claims of neutrality, Pikachu is pushing one view over another; that it is "not life-changing" to him only tells us why it is not relevant to him personally. It is clear that if he is right, what he says will be life-changing to those who do care -- so don't buy into his professions of neutrality and desire to "inform" without persuading. It's a sham.
Quick refutation of Pikachu's mess
If you're a regular reader you already know that the bulk of Pikachu's material is refuted in our series here, including his gunk on Osiris. You'll see that not all "savior figures" predated Jesus in their relevant forms, and that they are vastly different from Jesus, so much so that to create a "club" out of them is to destroy any real meaning to the term. You'll also find the details that lie behind our general treatment here. But links to specific articles will also be provided as we go along.
For convenience, and because this is a parody, I have kept Pikachu's format of being able to read like
a book, cover to cover. The  and
buttons facilitate that; but I found that not all of the pages are linked this way by Pikachu, so be sure and click the entry headings under the tabs as well.
|
Pikachu's
Prime Directive: Do as little homework as possible |
Just
 surface,
no depth scholarship. Pikachu's blatherskeit is maybe "hard to swallow" if you haven't familiarized yourself with the relevant scholarship; but if you have done more than the surface reading he's done (just take a look at the depth and range of sources in my series linked above), then Pikachu's professed "prime directive" of Just
facts, no opinion becomes as funny as watching my dog watch TV.
It's not so much that Pikachu might have facts wrong (though he does in some cases), as much as that when he uses the material directly
from the pens
of the ancients themselves, he just plain doesn't have a clue what he's reading. You'll
also see that Pikachu does not use, as he claims, mainstream
modern scholarship. In fact the bulk of his scholarship is either on the fringe, or else, if mainstream, just doesn't support his view.
What
you won't read from Pikachu is real scholarship. Just surface. No
depth. |
| |
 ...you
wanna skip all the details and go right to a summary?
Help yourself. But I don't know why you read this page if you don't want details.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 The
simple way
When Pikachu says that Jesus wasn't the "first" to prvide salvation, do miracles, etc. he's already missing the point. The reason why is different for each subject, but here's a general response.
When you deal only in vague categories such as walking, talking, eating, but still having magic God powers; miraculously conceived in a mortal woman; helping people, and so on, you're basically saying nothing. The same game can and has been played (as satire) with such figures as Napoleon and Lincoln.
Yes, Jesus
was not "a xerox copy" as Pikachu admits . But nor was he
new in the same way the first Honda Accord was a new car
and the first Mountain Dew was a new soda pop. In fact, the analogy would be better like this: Jesus was new in the same way that the first car was a new mode of transporation. He was new in the same way that the first soda pop was a new drink. These were not "new" versions of old ideas but new solutions to old problems or desires. That if anything is the best way to speak of Jesus with reference to the likes of Dionysus and Osiris.
Note that in response to enormous differences, Pikachu has no real answer. Professional scholars (even those who are NOT believers) bring up differences
between Jesus and the earlier Pagan godmen precisely because they are the straw that breaks the Pokemon's back. Mithras was born of a rock, not a virgin, so Jesus can't be Mithras is perfectly sound as a reason why Mithras' birth can't have influenced the story of Jesus in the "virgin birth" department (to say nothing of that the Mithras story is only attested well after Jesus). Attis' faithful hung his likeness on a pine tree, not on a cross, so Jesus can't be Attis is sound but needs more depth -- Attis' figure was only hung on the tree as a practical matter of dragging a symbol around; in the story of Attis, he died under a tree, not affixed to it, and his death had no soteriological implications. To say Osiris died and was reborn and brings salvation -- but he lives in the afterworld, no (sic) on earth, so he wasn't really " resurrected" like Jesus is 100% legitimate as an explanation -- Osiris was not resurrected in the Jewish sense that the word "resurrection" means; it's more than just "he wasn't on earth" that's at issue (see link above).
|
|
| |
| Catch this: We'll see later that when real scholars of religion, even non-believing ones, say the same about Osiris (as on the right), Pikachu just laughs it off with a "Come on, anyone can see Osiris was resurrected." Just so you know the level of duh we're going to be dealing with here: |
|
|
|
|
|
| For
the sake of clarity, here's
what each navigation tab above represents in terms of responses to Pikachu |
 |
Getting
Nauseated
has responses to his "Getting Started" material. Not all was relevant so we skipped some. Key issue is correction of Pikachu's thesis statement that over and over the ancients made new religions
out of old parts. That's not quite accurate. It's more like, over and over the ancients mashed together old parts and made a mess. There was nothing "new" in what they did at all.
 |
|
Origin Delusions
Response to Pikachu's
"Pagan Origins" material in which he argues that Christian ideas,
sacraments and myths were not new or unique. As with his soda and car analogy, he misses the point: What was not unique or new was the problems Christianity addressed, the motifs and practical constraints it worked with. Big difference.
|
|
Copy Cats
Pikachu samples a few of the Pagan dying, resurrected
godmen, their myths, rituals, and theologies. Except for Pythagoras, we've done them all before, so this will not have much new stuff from us; but here's a kicker: Pikachu obviously dragged some of his stuff from the Acharya S/Kersey Graves crowd without credit.
|
|
Harrumph! Response to the "Trimuph" section in which Pikachu delivers his conspiracy theory of how Christianity came out on top. Needless to say, it's just the usual excuse: Convenient lack of evidence and a conspiracy so good it covered itself up.
|
|
Acharya S
A look at the "Scholarship" section, in which Pikachu claims that some fringe writers represent mainstream scholarship on Christianity's Pagan origins, while abusing the works of others who do not agree with his theories.
|
|
Boring!
Pikachu's convenient thoery of how Christianity "borrowed" from pagans. And of how the Shoshone "borrowed" the idea of dirt from the Aztecs
|
|
Rear
End A look at some final meandering "thoughts"
|
There is also stuff he has on |
|
Good
books
which we will comment on here and there (but only once as needed) |
|
|
Feedback
which we won't comment on |
|
|
Finally,
if you've committed yourself to a mouth frothing ignorance, well,
you're starting with an axiom that makes our response here impossible, so
you won't miss much going away. Your loss.
Have fun,
J. P. Holding
Florida
USA
|
|
|
