Christ in Egypt: Horus, Sun of God
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:27 am
Horus, Sun of God
The opening section of the chapter Horus, Sun of God presents key ideas in astrotheology. It is essential to examine these ideas carefully in order to understand the overall thesis of Christ in Egypt.
It is well known that a central critique of paganism on the part of Christianity was the rejection of nature worship. So Murdock observes that Deuteronomy, one of the most influential Biblical documents, warns in verse 4.19 against worship of the sun, moon and stars, clearly indicating that such worship was widespread at the time. This Biblical injunction (which is actually highly fraudulent in its origins) is why Christians don’t like the claim that their doctrines are allegories for nature worship and find it impossible to discuss this topic without getting highly emotional.
Instead, the Abrahamic faiths contend that God is beyond the universe, and that the pantheist identification of God and nature, as advocated by leading modern scientists such as Einstein, Davies and Hawking, is heretical and wrong. The Abrahamic religions propound a transcendental metaphysics, with God as a mysterious personal entity who intervenes on our planet through supernatural miracles. Surprisingly, these ‘miracles’ never leave any verifiable trace. Of course, there is no evidence for this weird belief in miracles, for all its popularity, and it stands in flat opposition to science. In fact, miracles are purely imaginary and do not really occur. This is why atheists hold religion in contempt for promoting error.
So how did the ancient Egyptians view these questions? Murdock says they “developed a sophisticated system of worship and governance” over thousands of years that incorporated their perceptions of nature. She opens this chapter with a comment from ancient Greek writer Diodorus that the Egyptians regarded the sun and moon as gods and called the sun Osiris and the moon Isis. Egyptian “religious devotion revolved around celestial bodies and natural forces.” (p28)
The founder of archaeoastronomy, Sir Norman Lockyer (who as I have noted before founded and edited the journal Nature and discovered helium) is quoted as observing that natural cycles, especially of the sun and stars, determined ancient festivals. Murdock says this astronomical observation led to the astrotheology of the ancients, “as found abundantly in the Egyptian religion.” (p29)
It is worth reflecting on the relation of this material to logic and evidence. Moderns often see this language as implying some animist spirit in natural entities, imagining that the sun is alive, as an embarrassing primitive delusion. But such anthropomorphism reflects error in modern interpretation, assuming a simplistic psychology that insists any real divinity must have conscious intentions. It is worth considering the nature of the sun to explore if this ascription of intentionality to the sun is essential to Egyptian religion.
Why would people revere the sun? The fact is that the sun is the source of life. It contains 99.8% of the mass in the solar system, and our earth is the tiniest piece of cosmic flotsam by comparison. Jupiter is more than 300 times the mass of the earth, while the sun weighs as much as about 350,000 earths. Furthermore, if the solar system out to the orbit of Neptune was the size of a coin, the next star would be 100 yards away. The sun is very isolated in the galaxy. Our star is far and away the big palooka in our cosmic neighborhood. But this does not mean the sun has conscious intentions.
From the ancient geocentric perspective, the sun was observed to cause the seasons, which provide the cycle of life. So, as Lockyer observes, the solstices, where the movement of the rising point of the sun changes direction, were celebrated as major biannual festivals in Egypt. This chapter looks at how this observation of the sun influenced Egyptian ideas about Horus, and how these ideas became a precedent and model for Christian myths about Jesus as a symbol of the sun.
The opening section of the chapter Horus, Sun of God presents key ideas in astrotheology. It is essential to examine these ideas carefully in order to understand the overall thesis of Christ in Egypt.
It is well known that a central critique of paganism on the part of Christianity was the rejection of nature worship. So Murdock observes that Deuteronomy, one of the most influential Biblical documents, warns in verse 4.19 against worship of the sun, moon and stars, clearly indicating that such worship was widespread at the time. This Biblical injunction (which is actually highly fraudulent in its origins) is why Christians don’t like the claim that their doctrines are allegories for nature worship and find it impossible to discuss this topic without getting highly emotional.
Instead, the Abrahamic faiths contend that God is beyond the universe, and that the pantheist identification of God and nature, as advocated by leading modern scientists such as Einstein, Davies and Hawking, is heretical and wrong. The Abrahamic religions propound a transcendental metaphysics, with God as a mysterious personal entity who intervenes on our planet through supernatural miracles. Surprisingly, these ‘miracles’ never leave any verifiable trace. Of course, there is no evidence for this weird belief in miracles, for all its popularity, and it stands in flat opposition to science. In fact, miracles are purely imaginary and do not really occur. This is why atheists hold religion in contempt for promoting error.
So how did the ancient Egyptians view these questions? Murdock says they “developed a sophisticated system of worship and governance” over thousands of years that incorporated their perceptions of nature. She opens this chapter with a comment from ancient Greek writer Diodorus that the Egyptians regarded the sun and moon as gods and called the sun Osiris and the moon Isis. Egyptian “religious devotion revolved around celestial bodies and natural forces.” (p28)
The founder of archaeoastronomy, Sir Norman Lockyer (who as I have noted before founded and edited the journal Nature and discovered helium) is quoted as observing that natural cycles, especially of the sun and stars, determined ancient festivals. Murdock says this astronomical observation led to the astrotheology of the ancients, “as found abundantly in the Egyptian religion.” (p29)
It is worth reflecting on the relation of this material to logic and evidence. Moderns often see this language as implying some animist spirit in natural entities, imagining that the sun is alive, as an embarrassing primitive delusion. But such anthropomorphism reflects error in modern interpretation, assuming a simplistic psychology that insists any real divinity must have conscious intentions. It is worth considering the nature of the sun to explore if this ascription of intentionality to the sun is essential to Egyptian religion.
Why would people revere the sun? The fact is that the sun is the source of life. It contains 99.8% of the mass in the solar system, and our earth is the tiniest piece of cosmic flotsam by comparison. Jupiter is more than 300 times the mass of the earth, while the sun weighs as much as about 350,000 earths. Furthermore, if the solar system out to the orbit of Neptune was the size of a coin, the next star would be 100 yards away. The sun is very isolated in the galaxy. Our star is far and away the big palooka in our cosmic neighborhood. But this does not mean the sun has conscious intentions.
From the ancient geocentric perspective, the sun was observed to cause the seasons, which provide the cycle of life. So, as Lockyer observes, the solstices, where the movement of the rising point of the sun changes direction, were celebrated as major biannual festivals in Egypt. This chapter looks at how this observation of the sun influenced Egyptian ideas about Horus, and how these ideas became a precedent and model for Christian myths about Jesus as a symbol of the sun.