Mr. Mehta, I know that you call yourself “Friendly Atheist” not “Friendly Skeptic,” but please, couldn’t you be more, well, skeptical?

I’ll do my best

In this case, I didn’t get a chance to verify everything myself, but thankfully, people are pointing out problems with it.

Atheists of all people ought to be skeptical of a list of deities born on December 25th listing deities that date back to before the current Roman calendar.

You’re right. I hadn’t thought about how nonsensical it would be for Horus, Tammuz, or Buddha to be born on any day related to a Roman calendar. Good catch.

Did anyone notice, BTW, that Dionysus and Bacchus are listed as separate personages, despite being names for the same god?

That blog entry is an epic fail, and would make me think that critics of Christianity are just making up their objections.

Indeed. This is the sort of stuff that for a while made me think that atheists were just throwing up bad faith arguments to justify their unbelief, and as I think I’ve said before on this blog, it was an obstacle to deconversion.

Mr. Mehta, I know that you call yourself “Friendly Atheist” not “Friendly Skeptic,” but please, couldn’t you be more, well, skeptical?

Jesus wasn’t the only deity to be born on what we now call December 25th.

I’d be careful of that site to which you linked. Looking at some of the claims about Horus raises red flags:

–born of the virgin Isis-Merion

Isis was Horus’ mother, but no virgin. Horus was conceived from the union of Osiris and Isis.

–his earthly father was named “Seb” (“Joseph”).

Errm, wasn’t Horus’ father Osiris? And what does “Seb” have to do with Joseph. anyway?

–called “the KRST,” or “Anointed One.”

Quoting from a review of Tom Harpur’s book The Pagan Christ:

KRST is the word for “burial” (“coffin” is written “KRSW”), but there is no evidence whatsoever to link this with the Greek title “Christos” or Hebrew “Mashiah”.

As for Mithras, I recognize a few problems as well:

–born of a virgin on December 25 in a cave, and his birth was attended by shepherds bearing gifts.

He was born from a rock, and the iconography has him attended by two torchbearers, but not shepherds.

–had 12 companions or disciples.

I’ve seen this claim in Freke and Gandy’s Jesus Mysteries. It’s justified on the thin grounds that scenes of Mithras are surrounded by the 12 symbols of the Zodiac.

–the “great bull of the Sun,” Mithra sacrificed himself for world peace.
– buried in a tomb and after three days rose again.
–resurrection was celebrated every year.

These are flat out wrong, too. There’s no evidence from the mythology of Mithras that he even died, let alone was resurrected.

This looks like urban legend material.