{"id":1625,"date":"2017-10-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/christianity-is-a-myth-2\/"},"modified":"2022-06-17T14:01:25","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T18:01:25","slug":"christianity-is-a-myth","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/christianity-is-a-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"Christianity is a Myth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The basic meaning of \u201cmyth\u201d is a traditional story about gods or heroes: Athena sprang from the brow of Zeus; Hercules slew the hydra. Most religions\u2014along with most political and social groups\u2014have their myths, but religions are not themselves myths.<\/p>\n<p>Christianity is far too complex an intellectual and social system to be a myth. It may include myths, as with certain saints\u2019 lives, but it is not a myth itself. Myths characteristically occur in some other dimension and lack historical basis. Christianity, on the other hand, is based on the life of a historical figure\u2014Jesus\u2014in a certain place and time.<\/p>\n<p>A secondary meaning of \u201cmyth\u201d is a fake, fraud or fiction. Again, Christianity is too complex, ancient and minutely examined to be fake. It has, however, been argued that its basic premises are false, and such arguments must be seriously examined in the light of the evidence.<\/p>\n<p><em data-redactor-tag=\"em\">This post is an excerpt from the book<\/em>\u00a0Exposing Myths About Christianity\u00a0<em data-redactor-tag=\"em\">by Jeffrey Burton Russell (IVP Books, 2012). It is used with permission. You can purchase this resource in its entirety<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ivpress.com\/exposing-myths-about-christianity\">here<\/a><em data-redactor-tag=\"em\">.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The basic meaning of \u201cmyth\u201d is a traditional story about gods or heroes: Athena sprang from &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/christianity-is-a-myth\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Christianity is a Myth<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2461,"template":"","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"channels":[],"topics":[9,13],"languages":[],"class_list":["post-1625","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-article","topics-apologetics","topics-bible"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.0 (Yoast SEO v24.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christianity is a Myth - Apologetics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.namb.net\/apologetics\/resource\/christianity-is-a-myth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christianity is a Myth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The basic meaning of \u201cmyth\u201d is a traditional story about gods or heroes: Athena sprang from &hellip; 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