I have said nothing anti-Catholic, BOL.
So Nick, I do not agree with you that he has been debunked and I do not agree with you that they are credible scholars. You simply have one person who says Hislop was wrong (without proving it) and two others agreeing with him. That's not debunking and that's not credible scholastics.
That’s just it.
NOTHING is
“credible” enough for you when it comes to
debunking Hislop’s lies and fairy tales.
Instead of
addressing the
LIES themselves – you try to
discredit the
scholar who is writing about them. Try addressing the
POINTS below:
Ralph Woodrow
1.) While seeking to condemn the paganism of Roman Catholicism, Hislop produced his own myths. By so doing, he theorized that
Nimrod, Adonis, Apollo, Attes, Baal-zebub, Bacchus, Cupid, Dagon, Hercules, Januis, Linus, Lucifer, Mars, Merodach, Mithra, Moloch, Narcissus, Oannes, Odin, Orion, Osiris, Pluto, Saturn, Teitan, Typhon, Vulcan, Wodan, and Zoroaster WERE ALL ONE AND THE SAME. By mixing myths,
Hislop supposed that Semiramis was the wife of Nimrod and was the SAME as Aphrodite, Artemis, Astarte, Aurora, Bellona, Ceres, Diana, Easter, Irene, Iris, Juno, Mylitta, Proserpine, Rhea, Venus, and
Vesta.
2.) Hislop says, for example, that the
“round” wafer used in the Roman Catholic mass came from
Egyptian paganism. For this he cites a statement in Wilkinson’s
Ancient Egyptians (vol. 5, 353, 365) about the use of thin round cakes on their altars. When I checked Wilkinson’s work, however, he also said
the Egyptians used OVAL AND TRIANGULAR CAKES; folded cakes; cakes shaped like leaves, animals, and a crocodile’s head; and so on. Hislop failed to even mention this.
3.) While condemning round communion wafers as images of the sun-god Baal, Hislop fails to mention that THE VERY MANNA GIVEN BY THE LORD WAS ROUND. “Upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small
round thing….And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat” (Exod. 16:14–15, KJV, emphasis added). Round is not necessarily pagan.
4.) Hislop taught that Tammuz (whom he says was Nimrod) was born on December 25, and this is the origin of the date on which Christmas is observed. Yet his supposed proof for this is taken out of context.
Having taught that Isis and her infant son Horus were the Egyptian version of Semiramis and her son Tammuz, he cites a reference that the son of Isis was born “about the time of the winter solstice.” When we actually look up the reference he gives for this (Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, vol. 4, 405),
the son of Isis who was born “about the time of the winter solstice” was not Horus, her older son, but Harpocrates. The reference also explains this was a premature birth, causing him to be lame, and that the Egyptians celebrated the feast of his mother’s delivery in spring. Taken in context, this has nothing to do with a December celebration or with Christmas as it is known today.
5.) In another appeal to Wilkinson,
Hislop says that a Lent of 40 days was observed in Egypt. But when we look up the reference, Wilkinson says
Egyptian fasts “lasted from seven to forty-two days, and sometimes even a longer period: during which time they abstained entirely from animal food, from herbs and vegetables, and above all from the indulgence of the passions” (Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, vol. 1, 278). With as much credibility, we could say
they fasted 7 days, 10 days, 12 days, or 42 days. Hislop’s claim appears to have validity only because he used partial information.
From Wikipedia:
6.) The book has been severely criticized for its lack of evidence, and in many cases its contradiction of the existing evidence: for instance, the Roman state religion before Christianity did not worship a central Mother Goddess, and Jupiter was never called "Jupiter-Puer." Likewise, Semiramis lived centuries after Nimrod, and could
neither have been his mother,
nor married him.
7.) Hislop also makes unacceptable linguistic connections and fanciful word plays, e.g. the letters IHS on Catholic Holy Communion wafers are alleged to stand for Egyptian deities Isis, Horus and Seth, but in reality they are an abbreviation for Ihsous, the Latin spelling of Jesus's name in Greek (Ιησους), although popularly, they stand for the Latin Iesus Hominum Salvator meaning Jesus, Savior of Mankind (which also fits the teaching of Transubstantiation, where the wafer and wine are said to become the body and blood of Christ).”
(Source: Wikipedia article, Alexander Hislop. Alexander Hislop - Wikipedia)
From Wikipedia:
8.) The book
The Two Babylons (1853), by the Christian minister
Alexander Hislop, was particularly influential in characterizing of Semiramis as associated with the Whore of Babylon despite a lack of supporting evidence in the Bible.[11] Hislop claimed that Semiramis invented polytheism and, with it, goddess worship.[37] He also claimed that the Catholic Church was a millennia-old secret conspiracy, founded by Semiramis and the Biblical king Nimrod to propagate the pagan religion of ancient Babylon.[38]
From Wikipedia:
9.) Critics dismissed Hislop's speculations as based on misunderstandings.[38][39] Lester L. Grabbe has claimed Hislop's argument, particularly his association of Ninus with Nimrod, is based on a misunderstanding of historical Babylon and its religion.[38]
Grabbe criticized Hislop for portraying Semiramis as Nimrod's consort, despite that she has not been found in a single text associated with him,
[38] and for portraying her as the "mother of harlots", even though this is not how she is depicted in any of the texts where she is mentioned.
[38] Ralph Woodrow has stated that Alexander Hislop "picked, chose and mixed" portions of various myths from different cultures.[42]
