The Plagiarism of Jesus Christ - part I: Jesus vs. Horus

Many frequently argue against the historicity of Jesus Christ, saying that he never existed as a human on earth at all. One of the most common arguments I've encountered is that of plagiarism: that the story of Jesus is a conglomeration or an outright rip-off of many previous god stories before him.

Rather than taking these claims at face value (especially since most were just comments on blogs or videos, with no effort to back them up with research), I decided to take on the task of doing some research myself. I would examine the stories of these other gods that the Jesus story is said to have been stolen from, and come to my own conclusions.

Disclaimer: I didn't break into the ancient underground vaults of the Pyramids or the Vatican, I just did some online research from places like Wikipedia and other specific sites dedicated to the research of that god. These comparisons are made by me, I am not referencing any of the hundreds of comparisons I've seen others copy, paste, and essentially regurgitate haughtily (nor will I list them here). I am not an expert on ANY religious figure, but I can read about them and compare for myself. I wasn't looking for any specific details to compare, I just made the comparisons as I ran across them. The first figure I'm analyzing is the Eqyptian god Horus.

Case Study: Jesus vs. Horus

Comparisons:

Birth:
Jesus: Born of a virgin named Mary, who was impregnated by the God / the Holy Spirit.
Horus: Born of the Goddess Isis, who reconstructed the body of her dismembered husband Osiris so that they could conceive their god-son Horus. Isis was not a virgin, since she was in fact sexed up by the golden phallus that she made for her husband Osiris. Both Horus' parents were gods.

Name:
Jesus the Christ: means Jesus "the anointed one". Taken from the Hebrew ritual of anointing someone with oil so that they have a divine purpose or influence.
Horus: means Falcon, other meanings include variations of "the sky" or "the one from above".

Death / Resurrection:
Jesus: Died after being crucifed, was resurrected only once as the same man, Jesus. He remained on earth for 40 days before ascending into the heavens.
Horus: Died and was continually re-incarnated as each successive Pharaoh. Horus is considered the Pharaoh and ruler of both the world of the living and the dead. I didn't find details relating to how Horus died.

Entity:
Jesus: God in human form.
Horus: He was said to have been the sky, and also the sun and moon. The sun and moon were his eyes, and when these celestial objects were seen traveling across the sky, it was said to be Horus, the falcon, flying across it.

Physical Characteristics:
Jesus: Allegedly looked like any other financially poor male from the period, probably having long-ish hair, a beard, and the common robes of the common man. Was a Hebrew from the middle-east, so was probably of dark complexion, dark hair, brown eyes (as opposed to the oft-depicted light-skinned, blonde, blue-eyed Jesus).
Horus: Head of a falcon. His left eye, the moon, was gouged out during a battle with his jealous uncle Set (or Seth), his mother Isis' brother. This was to explain why the moon is not as bright as the sun. Horus is generally depicted wearing a pschent (red and white crown) to symbolize his dominion of all of Egypt. Otherwise he seems to have the body of a human, dark skin, and wears the clothes of the area/period: a robe/skirt thing, bare feet, assorted jewelry.

Enemies:
Jesus: Usually enemies involved people of power: royalty, the Pharisees, etc. This was mainly because of Jesus' claim to being the song of God, which was a heresy (unless of course you actually WERE the son of God, which then of course anything goes).
Horus: Many stories show Horus' jealous uncle Set (the god of the desert) to be a prevalent enemy. Many battles between the two are told, some for Horus to avenge his murdered father Osiris, and others to fight for the rule of Egypt.

Theological Hierarchy:
Jesus: The same entity as God and the Holy Spirit. None seem to have any authority over the other, as they all are facets of the same God. Jesus does pray to his "Father" many times which could indicate Jesus' lesser status as God, however in many cases this is said to have been done as an example to other people witnessing the prayer. Other prayers by Jesus are also said to have been strictly fulfilling prophecies made by previously written scriptures.
Horus: Seemed to be somewhat of equal powers/abilities/authority as his uncle Set, whom he battled and challenged in many different ways (from actual fights to boat races). The two go before other apparently higher gods to argue over the rule of Egypt.

Youth:
Jesus: was a human child in his youth. Not much is mentioned about specific clothing or adornments.
Horus: Was thought of as the form of the rising sun, supposedly representing the first light of day. Sometimes depicted as a human child wearing the united crowns of Egypt.

As Savior:
Jesus: the savior of all humankind, providing the only way into heaven after your physical body dies.
Horus: referred to as savior with respect to rescuing his father Osiris' earthly domain from Isis' brother Set. Possibly other reasons for the word "savior", but none seem to point specifically to the salvation of man in any way.

Purpose as a God:
Jesus: God came to earth in the human form of Jesus to save the human race from damnation. He was also fulfilling prophecies of ancient Jewish scripture. By acknowledging Jesus as the son of God and worshiping him, once your body dies, Jesus saves your eternal soul and allows you to be in heaven with God for all eternity. The punishment for not acknowledging Jesus is that your eternal soul is sent to hell to be with other damned souls and you experience pain and agony for all eternity.
Horus: I can't seem to locate any specific purpose for Horus' existence as a God, nor any specific reward or punishment for worshipping him. The gods of Egypt, much like the gods of Greece, seemed to procreate at will and for no specific divine reason, just like people do. If anyone has more sources on this, that would be appreciated.

Relating to other Gods:
Jesus: Is the same as God and the Holy Spirit. Considered one of three facets of the same God. Said to be the only one true god.
Horus: Very closely associated/intermingled with many other gods, including: Re (god of the sun), Min (god of fertility), Sopedu (some sort of protecting or "border-patrol" type god), Khonsu (god of the moon, time and knowledge), and Montu (another god of the sun, also a warrior god).

I'm trying to stay unbiased here, but I have to seriously say WOW... how could anyone on earth actually think these two stories are even remotely related? I think what happens is someone reads a claim online about this (or watches Zeitgeist), and then just spouts it out to everyone they know without actually doing the research. About an hour of research tells me pretty quickly that there doesn't seem to be any plagiarism of any kind between Jesus and Horus. The two stories are very unique from each other. But hey, do the research yourself, that's the only way to know anything for sure anyway.

Our perception of reality kinda sucks

The reality of human beings is based entirely on input from our five types of sensory organs. With our eyes we have the ability to experience a certain frequency range of light energy; our ears can perceive a range of vibrations traveling through the atmosphere; our nose can detect matter particles in the air to determine their origin; our tongue can evaluate a variety of substances to identify them before ingesting; and our skin detects physical contact with other objects. Each of our sensory organs has extreme limitations compared to possible stimulus.

Similarly, the only four dimensions that humans can experience are width, height, depth, and time. We know many other dimensions exist, we can prove them mathematically, but as humans, we are only able to experience those four as our entire reality.

Bottom line: we are only able to truly comprehend a VERY small fraction of our universe. We have instruments that can detect a far greater range of stimulus, but their range is not infinite, and they still must be translated into the small range that we are able to experience and understand. And they were created by four-dimensional beings, and hence they are bound to them as we are. For us to think that the provable universe ends with our limited abilities of perception is incredibly ignorant of us.

I believe there is other life in the universe – it may be few and far between, but the universe is certainly big enough to accommodate terrible odds. It's like if your odds winning the lottery were 1 in a million, and you bought 800 trillion tickets, you'd win more than a few times. What if there was life that existed well outside anything we have the capability of detecting? There could be a whole race of beings existing right along side of us, and neither us nor them would know the other is there. What if there was one kind of being that lived in every available dimension simultaneously, and therefore was aware of every kind of life that existed? That being could have considerable power by our standards, probably even appearing omnipotent. It might have the ability to create matter, manipulate energy, exist in all times at once.

What if this being is the one that we call God?  Sure the word “God” evokes images of a bearded man who lives in the clouds, and there’s a white pearly gate surrounding his land called “heaven” and all those lovely oft-sung metaphors of the Bible and the Renaissance. And I think the word has so much mythical stigma and emotional baggage. But all antiquity aside, what if this being were an actual form of life that existed in the universe, living in all dimensions at once, appearing omnipotent to us?  What if this being had the ability to manipulate matter at a molecular level, to create and control energy such as gravity, light, magnetism, and others we don’t even know exist yet. What if it had the power to govern solar systems, to move galaxies, to exist in all points of time and space at once.

Let's say hypothetically this being we've named God is managing our universe, maybe he governed the sciences that created our solar system and planet, perhaps he initiated the spark of life that created the first amoeba in the oceans billions of years ago, and that animal grew and developed into the complex life that currently occupies our planet. Perhaps he decides to pay the human race a visit – but there’s a problem. Our brains can only perceive a limited sensory input within four dimensions – so how would we ever understand exactly who we’re talking to if he just decided to show up? The only way to truly communicate with such a race would be to become one of them, to be born into the world as a human himself. So he selects a host female, impregnates himself into one of her eggs during her ovulation cycle, and is born into the world as a human being that can walk and talk among us. And as the human form of this omnipotent being, of course this guy would have great powers by our standards: manipulating matter, energy, even life.

This type of scenario would be perfectly acceptable in an Isaac Asimov novel or an episode of Star Trek. And yes those are science fiction, but they are earnestly based on real and theoretic scientific principles. But you put the word "God" on it and for many, the stigma tears it all apart. What if God was literally another form of life that existed in the universe, who just happened to be a hell of a lot more advanced and powerful than we are?