Peter is trying to make the Christian and Jewish myths somehow different from the pagan myths. They are essentially the same.

The Bible by itself is not enough to learn about Christianity. One should also be aware of the history of the religion, influences on Christianity by other traditions and the various translations and versions of the Bible.

Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford, has written “A History of Christianity”. It is a massive book, and the notes, references and suggestions for further reading in the back of the book are worthwhile. The first two chapters tell about Israel and Greece as two important influences on Christianity.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1561 directs one to “Pagan and Christian Creeds: Their Origin and Meaning” by Edward Carpenter. This tells how much of the Jesus story is derived from pagan mythology.

From the book: At the time of the life or recorded appearance of Jesus of Nazareth, and for some centuries before, the Mediterranean and neighboring world had been the scene of a vast number of pagan creeds and rituals. There were Temples without end dedicated to gods like Apollo or Dionysus among the Greeks, Hercules among the Romans, Mithra among the Persians, Adonis and Attis in Syria and Phrygia, Osiris and Isis and Horus in Egypt, Baal and Astarte among the Babylonians and Carthaginians, and so forth. Societies, large or small, united believers and the devout in the service or ceremonials connected with their respective deities, and in the creeds which they confessed concerning these deities.

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And an extraordinarily interesting fact, for us, is that notwithstanding great geographical distances and racial differences between the adherents of these various cults, as well as differences in the details of their services, the general outlines of their creeds and ceremonials were--if not identical--so markedly similar as we find them.

I cannot of course go at length into these different cults, but I may
say roughly that of all or nearly all the deities above-mentioned it was said and believed that:

(1) They were born on or very near our Christmas Day.

(2) They were born of a Virgin-Mother.

(3) And in a Cave or Underground Chamber.

(4) They led a life of toil for Mankind.

(5) And were called by the names of Light-bringer, Healer, Mediator,
Savior, Deliverer.

(6) They were however vanquished by the Powers of Darkness.

(7) And descended into Hell or the Underworld.

(8) They rose again from the dead, and became the pioneers of mankind to
the Heavenly world.

(9) They founded Communions of Saints, and Churches into which disciples were received by Baptism.

(10) And they were commemorated by Eucharistic meals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_translations_into_English tells about the many different translations of the Bible into English.
From that site: “Jewish translations often also reflect traditional Jewish interpretations of the Bible, as opposed to the Christian understanding that is often reflected in non-Jewish translations. Many interpretation differences arise from differences between the original Hebrew and the Greek Septaguint. For example, Jewish translations translate עלמה ‘almâh in Isaiah 7:14 as young woman, a direct Hebrew translation, while many Christian translations render the word as virgin, a translation from the Greek αρθένος (parthenos). Some new Christian translations use the correct rendering "young women", though this is controversial.”

Judaism was also influenced by the beliefs around it. Samuel Noah Kramer translated many of the cuneiform tablet of the ancient Sumerians. Many of the tablets contained stories similar to those in the Bible but written over 2,000 years earlier.

http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/1059.html refers to Kramer’s book about Sumer.

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http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/toc/1059.html contains chapter headings of Kramer's book:

Chapter 1 Education: The First Schools
Chapter 2 Schooldays: The First Case of "Apple-Polishing"
Chapter 3 Father and Son: The First Case of Juvenile Delinquency
Chapter 4 International Affairs: The First "War of Nerves"
Chapter 5 Government: The First Bicameral Congress
Chapter 6 Civil War in Sumer: The First Historian
Chapter 7 Social Reform: The First Case of Tax Reduction
Chapter 8 Law Codes: The First "Moses"
Chapter 9 Justice: The First Legal Precedent
Chapter 10 Medicine: The First Pharmacopoeia
Chapter 11 Agriculture: The First "Farmer's Almanac"
Chapter 12 Horticulture: The First Experiment in Shade-Tree Gardening
Chapter 13 Philosophy: Man's First Cosmogony and Cosmology
Chapter 14 Ethics: The First Moral Ideals
Chapter 15 Suffering and Submission: The First "Job"
Chapter 16 Wisdom: The First Proverbs and Sayings
Chapter 17 "Aesopica": The First Animal Fables
Chapter 18 Logomachy: The First Literary Debates
Chapter 19 Paradise: The First Biblical Parallels
Chapter 20 A Flood: The First "Noah"
Chapter 21 Hades: The First Tale of Resurrection
Chapter 22 Slaying of the Dragon: The First ''St. George"
Chapter 23 Tales of Gilgamesh: The First Case of Literary Borrowing
Chapter 24 Epic Literature: Man's First Heroic Age
Chapter 25 To the Royal Bridegroom: The First Love Song
Chapter 26 Book Lists: The First Library Catalogue
Chapter 27 World Peace and Harmony: Man's First Golden Age
Chapter 28 Ancient Counterparts of Modern Woes: The First "Sick" Society
Chapter 29 Destruction and Deliverance: The First Liturgic Laments
Chapter 30 The Ideal King: The First Messiahs
Chapter 31 Shulgi of Ur: The First Long-Distance Champion
Chapter 32 Poetry The First Literary Imagery
Chapter 33 The Sacred Marriage Rite: The First Sex Symbolism
Chapter 34 Weeping Goddesses: The First Mater Dolorosa
Chapter 35 U-a A-u-a: The First Lullaby
Chapter 36 The Ideal Mother: Her First Literary Portrait
Chapter 37 Three Funeral Chants: The First Elegies
Chapter 38 The Pickaxe and the Plow: Labor's First Victory
Chapter 39 Home of the Fish: The First Aquarium

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Some of the above found its way into the Jewish Bible.

Christianity and Judaism are modern cults not essentially different from the pagan cults which are the source of most of their ideas.

It is time humans realised that biblical mythology is no more a guide for human behaviour, history, science or morality than pagan mythology and should be regarded in the same light.

I am fascinated by religion and the way people treat it to justify whatever they want to do. In our discussions on the net some people really get excited about homosexuality. They point to the biblical condemnation of it. It is not mentioned in the New Testament. The Jewish Bible condemns it but also condemns eating pork. Christians can get excited about homosexuality while eating a ham sandwich. A bit inconsistent.

I expect that when Christianity and Judaism disappear humans will found new cults which are just as irrational and also inspire atrocities.

Sells, at the end of the day these myths are all BS, and as we used to say."BS baffles brains".
David

Yes, you seem to be onto something important here, Peter.

According to Hinduism, life consists of the interplay of the three Gunas:

Tamas - inertia, darkness, stupefaction.
Rajas - willful activity.
Sattva - peace, serenity, tranquillity.

During one's evolution, one should overcome Tamas by applying Rajas, then overcome Rajas by cultivating Sattva, but the ultimate goal is to transcend all three.

I am not in a position to judge whether Peter's description of ancient cultures is accurate, but assuming it is, then the picture we get is that pagan cultures were inert and passive, while Judaism introduced nation-building wilfulness and this explains why Judaism was and still is at such a war with paganism and other expressions of passivity - it can even explain why Jews are at the forefront of science and technology and even why they are usually so hated by the Greens.

However, wilfulness can also be quite violent, as exemplified by the story of Dinah (Genesis 34) and bring with it that alienation and anxiety which Peter describes, so while it's a step beyond passivity, one should not stop there!

Alienation and anxiety can be healed, but not by retreating into magical nature: while the human dilemma and existential wilderness remain, we can attain peace and tranquillity by de-identifying ourselves from the human condition which sets us struggling to remain apart from otherness.

From the outside, Tamas and Sattva may seem similar because both are passive, but Tamas passivity is due to helplessness while Sattva passivity is due to self-sufficient wholeness and inner peace.

However, Peter ended right here, writing: "they are not for curing but for enduring". Perhaps the cure was been postponed for the his next article.