.T
"Most scholars have not been historians, but theologians determined to make the documents justify their own theological positions. Not including me of course. So there."
Morton Smith

Pikachu already did a page on this, so why is he doing it again? The obvious answer: He needs to drum it in harder because otherwise, you won't be stunned by the quality brilliance of his arguments. Really. (Good time to tell you, though: If you want to see the "scholarship: dying and rising gods" page, you need to click the words under the tab above; it was left out of his back and forth tab procedure for some reason.)

We've aleady seen that Pikachu doesn't "get" the answer that Christian rituals and beliefs were arrived at indepenently of pagan systems because he is looking down the wrong hole. He looks at the word "salvation" without knowing that it was a word that meant rescue from any difficult situation. He looks at "sacred meals" with no recognition of the social function of meals in the ancient world. Thus "came up with it independently" is not the "in a vacuum" answer he thinks it is. It is pointing out that commonalities are far more likely the result of something broader than either religion -- and that "borrowing" between religions (any of them) is a too-simple answer.

The wrong answer
But that said, Pikachu still needs some new correction. His declaration that [f]aith is not reasoned is false. Oh, true, it represents what some have; but properly defined, faith is loyalty and trust based on evidence. And that means that for intelligent believers, no matter how hard he tries, Pikachu won't be able to play that card. Our decision that the "pagan copycat" thesis is bunk -- and that of scholars -- is based on with reasoned analysis of the historical facts. NOT "faith". Not "bias". Facts. We deal in that as we go here, but there's no reason to give Pikachu more room for his temper tantrums; if you want to see his "answers" debunked, go here where he spit them out the first time. This argument isn't a wolf, but his arguments sure are dogs.