Yellow Turban Tribune

Wander through Facebook long enough and you’re going to come across memes claiming that the story of Jesus is simply a rip off of the story of Horus – which is the Greek name for an Egyptian god called Heru the Younger. The similarities appear astounding as the memes claim that all the central themes of Jesus’ life were the same as this Ancient Egyptian deity. The problem is that the viewer is likely unfamiliar with the Egyptian religion and so simply accepts the claims made about Heru without question.

The vast majority of the things alleged in these memes are absolutely made up in the modern day about Heru the Younger in order to make it seem like Jesus was ripped off of him. Many Christian sites have halfassed debunked the claims, but rather than it being debunked by the followers of the deity the memes are intended to spread doubt about, I am an adherent of the Ancient Egyptian religion – primarily with reverence for Ma’at. It is not my religion being directly attacked – but rather it is my religion that is being lied about. In this case, it is extremely insulting to me personally as I was raised Roman Catholic, forced into having a Confirmation ceremony, and I left Christianity behind me on a journey for spiritual truth that led me to Hermetism and then it’s inspiration, Ancient Egypt. These memes are telling me that I am such a fool that I left one religion, which created tension within my family, only to adopt another religion that is secretly the exact same religion.

The lies began with a man named Gerald Massey – an English poet and charlatan from the Victorian era who is so obscure that finding any recollection of his life, rather than books of his poems, in a linkable format seems to necessitate using Wikipedia. He didn’t know what he was talking about and when a Christian theologian contacted prominent Egyptologists for verification the half that bothered responding dismissed Massey’s claims with one referring to them as “fringe nonsense.”

But, that wasn’t the end of it – it has carried on in books here and there through the decades and it has been seized upon by antitheists. While atheism encompasses all of those who don’t believe in God, and positive atheism covers all those who feel certain there is no God, antitheists are a movement of people who feel that religion is such a detriment to society that it must be fought at every turn. Probably the most well known example would be those deemed the New Atheists: Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, etc. Of course, Bill Maher, the comedian whose entire career has become just exemplifying Baby Boomers’ inflated egos and engaging in tone deaf promotion of neoliberalism, had repeated this falsehood in his movie Religulous. It was also prominent in the original Zeitgeist film that millions blindly took to heart.

Massey was a spiritualist who was trying to claim that modern religion had roots in earlier times – and I would not be surprised to find that he was profiting from it like how anti-vaccination activists sell alternative herbal supplements with dubious claims – but wasn’t trying to debunk anything. The antitheists are – and they ironically are doing so in the name of science and logic and reason. This becomes highly problematic because this Jesus-Horus connection phenomenon is a great case study example of them having blind faith, and not blind faith in something unknowable or difficult to know such as the nature of a God, but in something that can be easily factchecked. All humans have confirmation bias and when we think something is true, we grab onto things that seem to verify our beliefs while dismissing those that challenge them – and positive atheism is a belief: a belief that there is no God or supernatural forces at work. Believing that something doesn’t exist strays from the natural starting point of “I don’t know,” or agnosticism. Telling someone to believe you that there is no God is no different in burden of proof in asking them to believe you that there is one.

However, while I am not going to spend the hundreds or thousands of hours to prove that every single claim is false – because it is much more intensive to prove something doesn’t exist than that it does; I will spend more time than others before me in showing how these claims are nonsense. Hopefully, in the future, an Egyptologist actually takes the time to thoroughly debunk this as well.

Throughout this I will be using the proper Egyptian names of the gods and goddesses in Latin letters, not the Greek names – other than the first time. Quite frankly, I find it extremely disrespectful to the neteru (gods) to use the names ascribed by conquerors, especially when there was such importance on their names being pronounced exactly in the tradition.

Born on December 25th

This is more or less the only likely true claim made about Heru the Younger. He was born on what would translate to December 25 on the Gregorian Calendar. There isn’t much available on where on the calendar the actual festivals are held – you may see some things about some specific festivals without mentioning when they were actually practiced. I had once found a listing on http://www.aelives.com – which is now defunct – which did give a date of birth for Heru the Younger that matched with December 25. I have no way of verifying that it was accurate. It also gave various dates for a handful of other gods and goddesses that weren’t December 25 – there is nothing particularly spectacular about this date.

But, perhaps more at issue is that it almost certainly is not the actual date of birth of Jesus – rather the date was assigned in the third century based on some shoddy calculations. In fact, he was originally believed to have been born in the Spring due to the tax collection which is why his parents were headed to Jerusalem. Some modern scholars suggest September 11 or September 15 or other autumn dates based on astronomy. But the date of December 25 was set by Romans who would have little reason to want to tie him to Heru the Younger. It just isn’t a match of any significance if a match at all.

Born of a Virgin

This is a fun claim because it is so wildly incorrect that the actual story is humorous in comparison. So let me say it crudely: Set invited a bunch of his siblings to a party where he had a box and promised whomever fit most perfectly inside that they would get a great gift. When Wasir (Osiris) took his turn, he fit perfectly and Set (Seth) sealed it up, whisked him away, killed him, chopped his body apart, and spread the parts across Egypt. His sister-wife, Aset (Isis), went about collecting the pieces of her husband and slowly pieced him back together. She found all the pieces except his cock which was eaten by a fish. So, in some versions she fashioned a golden phallus and in others she put her own thumb in its place. Then she fucked his corpse and conceived Heru the Younger, named after his uncle Heru the Elder. There is no mistake that this was no virgin birth. One text relays:

I am Isis, who conceived a child by her husband, and she became heavy with Horus, the divine [child]. I gave birth to Horus, the son of Osiris, in a nest of papyrus plants. 1 I rejoiced exceedingly over this, because 169 I saw [in him one] who would make answer for his father. I hid him, and I concealed him through fear of that [fiend (?)]. 2 I went away to the city of Am, [where] the people gave thanks [for me] through [their] fear of my making trouble [for them]. I passed the day in seeking to provide food for the child, [and] on returning to take Horus into my arms I found him, Horus, the beautiful one 170 of gold, the boy, the child, without [life]. He had bedewed the ground with the water of his eye, and with foam from his lips. His body was motionless, his heart was powerless to move, and the sinews (or, muscles) of his members were [helpless].

THE LEGEND OF THE DEATH OF HORUS THROUGH THE STING OF A SCORPION AND OF HIS RESURRECTION THROUGH THOTH, AND OTHER MAGICAL TEXTS

She didn’t conceive the child as a virgin – but rather she speaks the words that she had conceived the child by her husband. He did not come to save the world, but to avenge his father who was killed by Set. Now, let us look at a telling of the story of his birth itself – from original sources rather than my painting of it. It isn’t the full story from the murder, but it does talk in detail about the act.

15. She flew round and round over this earth uttering wailing cries of grief, and she did not alight on the ground until she had found him. She made light [to come forth] from her feathers, she made air to come into being by means of her two wings, and she cried out the death cries for her brother. 16. She made to rise up the helpless members of him whose heart was at rest, she drew from him his essence, and she made therefrom an heir. She suckled the child in solitariness and none knew where his. place was, and he grew in strength. His hand is mighty (or, victorious) within the house 17 of Keb, and the Company of the Gods rejoice greatly at the coming of Horus, the son of Osiris, whose heart is firmly stablished, the triumphant one, the son of Isis, the flesh and bone of Osiris. The Tchatcha 1 of Truth, and the Company of the Gods, and Neb-er-tcher 2 himself, and the Lords of Truth, gather together to him, and assemble therein. 318. Verily those who defeat iniquity rejoice 4 in the House of Keb to bestow the divine rank and dignity upon him to whom it belongeth, and the sovereignty upon him whose it is by right.

She drew from him his essence – this was sex with a corpse through magical means, not a virgin conception. Another subset of this, covered in a more recent academic journal, speaks of the pregnancy and birth, where once again it talks about her being impregnated by Wasir’s seed, and about how much it pleased her to be impregnated by his seed, and so on. Once again, it doesn’t point to a virgin birth.

LiveScience verifies the reassembly part of the story, in an article about six miraculous births before the story of Jesus. It is a miraculous birth, but not a virgin birth.

Horus, ancient Egypt’s falcon-headed patron god of kings, was conceived after the murder of his father Osiris. As the story goes, Seth killed his brother Osiris and scattered the dismembered pieces of his body. Osiris’ wife Isis picked up the pieces of her husband — all but his penis, which was thrown into the Nile and eaten by a fish, according to some accounts. After fashioning a golden phallus, Isis reassembled and resurrected Osiris to conceive her son Horus.

Other Miscellany Surrounding his Birth

What you will note is absent here is the mention of any star in the story. He wasn’t greeted by Three Wise Men but rather announced himself before a gathering of gods (there seems to be no baby Heru, he just simply was born an adult boasting that he has surpassed all other gods and declaring himself by the name Avenger). He was not taken to Egypt to hide from Typhon (who is also from Greek Mythology, not Egyptian Mythology), but was only hidden during the pregnancy from his uncle Set – with the urging of Ra. He was never a child in a temple. These are simply things from Jesus’ story which were attached to Heru by very modern writers who don’t cite where they get this from.

Baptism

What you will also find missing is any story of Heru being baptized by anyone. The concept of baptism wasn’t in Ancient Egypt – there was no mention of any entity named Anup the Baptist. The closest I could find was another academic article from 1950 speaking of a ritual the author likened to baptism, and only found where there were depictions of pharaohs being purified in this manner – chiefly by Heru and Djehuty (Thoth) – never a god themselves. There is no water involved, but simply a purification with divine energy – in this sense a reiki attunement could be seen to be more closely related to the ceremony than a baptism. In any case, it appears to be much more propaganda for a pharaoh to claim divine right to rule than a legitimate ceremony that is performed.

Much the same was found by Jon Sorenson.

Twelve Disciples

There is no reference to Heru having any disciples -after all, he was Avenger, not a teacher. There are a few mentions of him having followers – but those followers would be average people who just worshiped him just like every Christian is theoretically a follower of Christ. At no point are they named or even given a number. Heru represented two basic ideas: one he was Avenger, avenging his father’s murder by Set, and two he represented government or order by the living pharaoh being Heru and the recently deceased pharaoh being Wasir. What would he be teaching? Djehuty was the god of magic and knowledge – Ma’at was the representation of what was right and moral – they would have disciples long before Heru would. In fact, had there been any disciples of Heru they would be named – in a story about his poisoning by scorpions Aset names all seven of the seven scorpions aside her.

I came forth [from the dwelling] at the time of evening, and there came forth the Seven Scorpions 51 which were to accompany me and to strike(?) for me with [their] stings. Two scorpions, Tefen and Befen, were behind me, two scorpions, Mestet and Mestetef, were by my side, and three scorpions, Petet, Thetet, and Maatet (or, Martet), were for preparing the road for me.

THE LEGEND OF THE DEATH OF HORUS THROUGH THE STING OF A SCORPION AND OF HIS RESURRECTION THROUGH THOTH, AND OTHER MAGICAL TEXTS

Pretty much, these scorpions are never heard from again, but they get names. Heru had no disciples.

Crucifixion and Ressurection

Heru does die at one point – and he is later ressurected. But, he isn’t crucified. In fact, crucifixion dates to ~300-400 BCE when it was invented by the Persians – by that time stories of Heru had been around for millennia. In fact, Heru was poisoned by scorpions – which is very similar to the way that Jesus died in that they both stopped living, the similarities end there.

The story is told in a tale I’ve cited twice so far, but let’s link you back to the first page of it. The story isn’t told very well – it speaks of Serq the Scorpion Goddess from the beginning with a spell against poisonous desert creatures, then a spell to be cast on a cat, and somewhere in all this talk about cutting out tongues it is gleaned that Heru was poisoned by a scorpion after a story about being hospitable to strangers and Aset is insistent that he be brought back.

“O Isis, O Isis, come thou to thy 72 Horus, O thou woman of the wise mouth! Come to thy son”–thus cried the gods who dwelt in her quarter of the town–“for he is as one 73 whom a scorpion hath stung, and like one whom the scorpion Uhat, which the animal Antesh drove away, hath wounded.”

74. [Then] Isis ran out like one who had a knife [stuck] in her body, and she opened her arms wide, [saying] “Behold me, behold me, my son 75 Horus, have no fear, have no fear, O son my glory! No evil thing of any kind whatsoever shall happen unto thee, [for] there is in thee the essence (or, fluid) which made the things which exist. 76. Thou art the son from the country of Mesqet, 1 [thou hast] come forth from the celestial waters Nu, and thou shalt not die by the heat of the poison. 77. Thou wast the Great Bennu, 2 who art born (or, produced) or; the top of the balsam-trees 1 which are in the House of the Aged One in Anu (Heliopolis). Thou 78 art the brother of the Abtu Fish, 2 who orderest what is to be, and art the nursling of the Cat 3 who dwelleth in 79 the House of Neith. The goddess Reret, 4 the goddess Hat, and the god Bes protect thy members. Thy head shall not fall to the Tchat fiend 80 that attacketh thee. Thy members shall not receive the fire of that which is thy poison. Thou shalt not go backwards on the land, and thou shalt not be brought low 81 on the water. No reptile which biteth (or, stingeth) shall gain the mastery over thee, and no lion shall subdue thee or have dominion over thee. Thou art the son of the sublime god 82 who proceeded from Keb. Thou art Horus, and the poison shall not gain the mastery over thy members. Thou art the son of the sublime god who proceeded from Keb, and thus likewise shall it be with those who are under the knife. And the four 83 august goddesses shall protect thy members.”

This did not last three days and Heru was never moved to a tomb – but while the Sun stopped in the sky, it was the same day that his salvation came, in the form of Djehuty.

And Isis sent forth her voice into heaven, and made supplication to the Boat of Millions of Years, and the 207 Disk stopped 1 in its journeying, and moved not from the place whereon it rested. Then came forth Thoth, who is equipped 208 with his spells (or, words of power), and possesseth the great word of command of maa-kheru, 2 [and said:] “What [aileth thee], what [aileth thee], O Isis, thou goddess who hast magical spells, 209 whose mouth hath understanding? Assuredly no evil thing hath befallen [thy] son Horus, [for] the Boat of Ra hath him under its protection. 210. I have come this day in the Divine Boat of the Disk from the place where it was yesterday, 211–now darkness came and the light was destroyed–in order to heal Horus for his mother 212 Isis and every person who is under the knife likewise.”

It isn’t even clear that Heru actually died, because Djehuty doesn’t speak of raising him from the dead or anything like that, but merely healing him. Basically he got medical attention.

“I am Thoth, 3 the firstborn son, the son of Ra, and Tem and the Company of the gods have commanded me to heal Horus for his mother Isis, and to heal him that is under the knife likewise. O Horus, O Horus, thy KA protecteth thee, and thy Image worketh protection for thee. The poison is as the daughter of its [own] flame; [it is] destroyed [because] it smote the strong son. 246. Your temples are in good condition for you, [for] Horus liveth for his mother, and he who is under the knife likewise.”

So, Heru was stung by a scorpion, his mother called for Djehuty who healed him, all in the same day. This is not at all the same story as Jesus who supposedly was crucified, died, was buried, and rose again on his own three days later as he foretold. It was titled by someone as his death and resurrection, but it isn’t even clear if he ever died. Moreover, this does not seem at all to be a story that is about a central theme, but rather it serves as a story to frame these various spells to help “he who is under the knife likewise” – i.e. mortal human patients who have been poisoned – to have successful treatments.

That is a central theme I have found in Egyptian religion – gods and goddesses serving as anthropomorphic concepts which are used for magic. All of them are, as pointed out by E.A Wallis Budge, part of Ra. They are aspects, manifestations, phases, etc of Ra. There are more than one examples like this where texts refer to various gods and goddesses as being Ra – Ra who art so and so.

Homage to thee, O thou glorious Being, thou who art dowered [with all sovereignty]. O Tem-Heru-Khuti (Tem-Harmakhis), when thou risest in the horizon of heaven a cry of joy goeth forth to thee from all people. O thou beautiful Being, thou dost renew thyself in thy season in the form of the Disk, within thy mother Hathor. Therefore in every place every heart swelleth with joy at thy rising for ever. The regions of the South and the North come to thee with homage, and send forth acclamations at thy rising on the horizon of heaven, and thou illuminest the Two Lands with rays of turquoise-[coloured] light. O Ra, who art Heru-Khuti, the divine man-child, the heir of eternity, self-begotten and self-born, king of the earth, prince of the Tuat (the Other World), governor of Aukert, thou didst come from the Water-god, thou didst spring from the Sky-god Nu, who doth cherish thee and order thy members. O thou god of life, thou lord of love, all men live when thou shinest; thou art crowned king of the gods. The goddess Nut embraceth thee, and the goddess Mut enfoldeth thee at all seasons. Those who are in thy following sing unto thee with joy, and they bow down their foreheads to the earth when they meet thee, the lord of heaven, the lord of the earth, the King of Truth, the lord of eternity, the prince of everlastingness, thou sovereign of all the gods, thou god of life, thou creator of eternity, thou maker of heaven wherin thou art firmly stablished.

The Company of the Gods rejoice at thy rising, the earth is glad when it beholdeth thy rays; the people who have been long dead come forth with cries of joy to behold thy beauties every day. Thou goest forth each day over heaven and earth, and thou art made strong each day be thy mother Nut. Thou passest over the heights of heaven, thy heart swelleth with joy; and the Lake of Testes (the Great Oasis) is content thereat. The Serpent-fiend hath fallen, his arms are hewn off, the Knife hath severed his joints. Ra liveth by Maat (Law), the beautiful! The Sektet Boat advanceth and cometh into port. The South and the North, and the West and East, turn to praise thee. O thou First, Great God (PAUTA), who didst come into being of thine own accord, Isis and Nephthys salute thee, they sing unto thee songs of joy at thy rising in the boat, they stretch out their hands unto thee. The Souls of the East follow thee, and the Souls of the West praise thee. Thou art the Ruler of all the gods. Thou in thy shrine hast joy, for the Serpent-fiend Nak hath been judged by the fire, and thy heart shall rejoice for ever. Thy mother Nut is esteemed by thy father Nu.

Papyrus of Ani

Why did Egyptian priests pray for the Sun (Ra) to rise again when the Sun set – to overcome Apep (Apophis)? As above, so below – when Ra overcomes the evil inside him, we also hope to overcome the evil inside us. This is the essence of Egyptian religion.

Heru Ressurecting Others

Heru isn’t the magical one. Djehuty is the god of magic who performs actual magical rituals, who restored Heru’s eye and Set’s groin, who healed Heru. Heru does not raise people from the grave. There is no El-Azur-us, which would have been the combined deities of El, Azur and us. There was no Azur as Bill Maher claimed. In fact, there was no Z sound in the entire Egyptian language. Let me share a table from How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs by Mark Collier and Bill Manley.

But who is really familiar with Ancient Egyptian names? Bill Maher or Zeitgeist can just take a name like Lazarus, which is a Latinized form of the Hebrew Eleazar like Jesus is a Latinized form of Yeshua or the modern Joshua, and make it seem Egyptian to someone who doesn’t know better. Suddenly it seems like the story of Lazarus was stripped from Ancient Egypt rather than their poorly constructed farce being based in the Bible and being backdated to Egypt.

Titulations

So what was Heru called? His mother, Aset, called him Falcon. He called himself Avenger. Britannica gives several others such as Horus in the Horizon, Horus of the Horizon, Horus the Child, Horus, the Son of Isis (Aset), even when it confuses him with his uncle. There are places where he is referred to as the divine child. He was referred to as “a god son of a god” right before “heir son of a heir,” but when gods beget gods that is not very amazing – he wasn’t a man for such a thing to be but mundane. None of the titles given to Jesus were applied to Horus – though his right eye is at times referred to as the morning star. He had nothing special to do with mankind – why would he be Son of Man? He wasn’t sacrificed like Judas sacrificed Jesus (per the Gospel of Judas), so why would he be called the Lamb of God? But, once again, a lack of knowledge about Ancient Egyptian religion makes people open to believe such nonsense.

His Mother

His mother was Aset – whom the Greeks called Isis. Theoretically, Christians could have taken from Heru his mother’s name for the mother of Jesus, but his mother wasn’t Meri. They could have changed Aset or Isis slightly to make the name fit, but they didn’t – they used a common Jewish name – or at least a Latinized form of it. It was Maryam in Hebrew and Mariam in Greek. One of the simplest things to factcheck about Heru was what his mother’s name was and it was no form of Mary.

Miracles

Heru is said to have done many miraculous things – after all his right eye was the Sun or Morning Star and his left eye was the Moon. That was damaged by Set and restored by Djehuty supposedly creating the Moon’s phases. He claimed in his announcement to the gods that he existed to have flown to the horizon and surpassed the gods of the sky. However, he never walked on water and for a falcon god who could fly it would seem very odd for him to ever demonstrate walking on water. Prince Siddhartha (Buddha) encountered a man who could walk across water in the years before Jesus, which I got this story from A Buddhist Bible, and kinda mocked him for it because he said he spent decades learning how to and Siddhartha crossed the same river in 5 minutes with a boat – but there is no story in Egypt about walking on water – especially since water meant the Nile alone to the point that Egyptians invading Lebanon referred to rain as the Nile falling from the sky. There wasn’t a lot of it around.

In fact, the neteru of Egypt rarely interacted with people in the stories – they pretty much just interacted with one another. Sure, Aset looked for shelter in homes and led to a scorpion stinging the son of a woman who refused to allow her in, somehow igniting the home on fire, but that was rare. Most of the story had no people in it at all. The gods are anthropomorphized concepts, not actual beings that walked the Earth.

Temptation in the Desert

In Religulous, Bill Maher claims Heru was tempted in the desert. It’s an odd idea given that Set, Heru’s nemesis, was the personification of the desert. So who tempted him and with what? No elaboration is given, though it would just be more made up stuff if so. Heru was there to avenge his father and kill Set – and reclaim his kingdoms – so if he were offered the kingdoms he very likely would have accepted.

One site making blind claims does elaborate.

Horus resisted temptation when taken to the desert of Amenta up in a high mountain by his rival uncle Seth, who tried to persuade him into dividing the throne of Egypt between them

Now there is no desert of Amenta. There is a place in Egyptian religion called Amenti – the place where the Sun sets, and an afterlife world – but it wasn’t a desert.

Looking through the basic stories of Set, there is no mention of temptation, though there is plenty about his interactions with Heru (and this link also covers the box story from Heru’s birth). It even discusses an attempt to rape Heru – which can be recounted in detail here (in essence Heru rapes Set). In the basic stories of Heru, there is also no mention of this temptation. So where is this supposed temptation?

Well, despite the framing of it as a division of Egypt, which could fit in, it never happened. Hell, that site included several false statements including that Heru was the only child of Wasir – Anpu (Anubis) was the child of Wasir and Nebet-Het (Nephthys) after she disguised herself as Aset to have sex with him – and it even pointed out that the two were siblings. Sources pushing this Jesus-Heru narrative are not reliable in the least.

Actual Possible Influences Prior to Christ

Just because the Heru-Jesus connection is nonsense does not mean that there is no correlation at all between the Egyptian religion and Christianity. In fact, there was ample opportunity for the Egyptian religion to influence Christianity by influencing Judaism. The Book of Exodus tells a story of the Jews being enslaved in Egypt – and the veracity of that is not completely historically clear. Josephus, a Jewish historian in the Roman Empire during the 1st century CE did conclude that the Jews were the Hyksos – a Semitic people who conquered Egypt and were eventually expelled. While they ruled over Egypt, their king took on the name Apep – after the Egyptian god of evil – and they worshipped Set. Josephus said they were expelled and then founded Jerusalem. The article linked claims that the Jews were still enslaved despite Josephus being right. That is not the prevailing view of archaeologists. But let us look at another possible interpretation of Exodus, especially since Moses is said to be trained in the Egyptian mystery schools.

Let us say that the Jews were the Hyksos and were cast out of Egypt. While materially, they weren’t slaves, spiritually they could be said to be slaves to materialism. On the Kaballistic Tree of Life, this would represent Malkuth – and Egypt was their Malkuth. Moses leads them out, splitting the emotional waters of Mercy and Justice – which just happen to be the next two sephiroth on the tree – and they wander the airy desert, getting lost in Da’at, before finally coming around to the promised land of Israel – or Keter – a oneness with God. We already know that stories like Jericho are fictional – Jericho fell centuries before the Jews would have been there and the story was a common one in the area – but it isn’t as silly if it is a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment that Moses was leading them on. The promised land was Keter – not the Malkuth of Israeli land.

The Hyksos were influenced by Egypt and were innately familiar with the religion even if they had a wildly different take on it. Ideas from Egypt would have built at least a foundation for a new religion. A 2007 paper argues that the Ark of the Covenant was of Egyptian design based upon the sacred barque of Ra.

Actual Influences After Christ

The interaction didn’t stop there – and there are even connections to Heru himself and Jesus that came through the Coptic Church after Jesus would have died. However, these are iconographic connections, not narrative connections. Heru didn’t influence the mythology around Jesus, but did affect how he was painted.

Sadly, I cannot find a paper I found previously which dealt specifically with Heru-Baby Jesus iconography. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t able to find another that covers how Aset and the Virgin Mary were similarly depicted.

Conclusion

The story of Jesus is not based off of the story of Heru – what antitheists keep repeating ad nauseum to try to prove Christianity false is based on an irrationalist need – it is blind faith in a creed that there is no God and that it needs to be defamed. Of course, anyone with a background in dialectical materialism would be well aware that religion does not make people good nor does it make people bad – but the prevailing religion is shaped by ruling classes in society to reflect their values – parts are emphasized, fabricated, or ignored to match their values. People use religion to justify themselves, whether for good or ill. It is the values of individuals that shape their religious expression, not the other way around. A rationalist is not afraid of saying “I don’t know.” It is an irrationalist who must have an answer for everything at all times and antitheism is built upon irrationalism – even if it masks itself in pageantry of rationalism. Modern fascists have taken to a false veneer of rationalism too – causing people to lose grounding in an objective truth by telling them that they must question everything and everyone – except a string of YouTube videos that proclaim their preferred “truth.” By watching the propaganda and being brainwashed they are “free thinkers” who are “doing their own research.”

There are Christians who blindly follow ridiculousness and there are Jews and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and even Hermetists like me. Antitheists are atheists who follow just as blindly. There are also people of all persuasions who are unafraid to say “I’m not sure.” Maybe my faith in the pantheon of Ancient Egypt is misplaced – but that doesn’t mean I don’t believe; it only means that I have my senses about me. The question is not whether I am right, but what I do with my belief. If I don’t force my beliefs upon others, then there is no harm. Unlike most atheists, antitheists insist on forcing their beliefs upon others.