This post is part of The God Question, an ongoing response series to Mark Clark’s apologetic book The Problem of God. Each post critically examines a section of the book using reason, evidence, and the lens of The God Question’s Core Philosophy: Begin with curiosity, not belief. Today’s focus: Clark’s handling of Mithras in Chapter 4, “The Problem of the Christ Myth.”
🧱 The Core Claim
Christianity, we’re told, is utterly unique. It didn’t borrow from other religions. And when someone points to parallels with pagan gods like Mithras, it’s all just “copycat conspiracy” nonsense—so says Mark Clark.
But let’s be honest.
If you were inventing a religion in the Roman Empire in the first few centuries AD, and needed it to feel familiar yet new, would you:
- Invent every symbol from scratch?
- Or lean on recognizable mythological themes like miraculous birth, divine meal-sharing, and resurrection?
Clark accuses critics of the Christ Myth theory of sloppiness—but then turns around and dismisses symbolic and ritual parallels as irrelevant or reversed. Let’s look closer.
🪨 Born of a Rock Isn’t Virgin Enough?
Clark begins by mocking the claim that Mithras was “born of a virgin.” Why? Because the myth says he emerged from a rock.
But the point of the comparison is not human biology. It’s mythic symbolism.
Just as Jesus is born of a virgin without sex, Mithras is born without sexual union—fully formed, weapon in hand. It’s miraculous. It’s non-sexual. It’s symbolic. That’s what matters.
If Clark thinks this isn’t “virgin” enough, then by that logic, Jesus’ birth isn’t “miraculous” enough unless someone saw Gabriel hand Mary a DNA kit.
🐑 Shepherds at the Birth of a God
Clark concedes that shepherds were present in the Mithras myth—then shrugs it off as coincidence. But ask yourself: in a world of countless gods, why do both Mithras and Jesus have shepherds at their miraculous births?
This kind of overlap in imagery—especially when tied to humility, countryside, and innocence—should raise questions. But Clark doesn’t explore them. He dismisses them. Because if Christianity is a “revealed” religion, such borrowing must be impossible.
🔟 The Myth of the Twelve
Clark claims Mithras had no twelve disciples—citing that in one version he had one, in another two. He fails to mention the dozens of Mithraic images showing Mithras surrounded by twelve figures, often understood to be the twelve signs of the zodiac.
Were they literal men? No. Were they twelve symbolic companions? Yes. And that’s all you need when tracing mythological influence—not historical one-to-one matches, but adapted storytelling archetypes.
⚰️ The Resurrection That Wasn’t?
According to Clark, Mithras was never buried, never resurrected, never rose after three days. But again, he’s reading myth like history. In Mithraic initiation rituals, the initiate underwent symbolic death and rebirth. That’s resurrection. That’s transformation.
The Christian ritual of baptism (death to sin, raised to new life) mirrors this. The Eucharist (eating the god) mirrors similar pagan feasts. But instead of exploring these parallels, Clark invokes church fathers who accused the pagans of copying them.
So which is it?
Did Christianity invent these motifs? Or did the pagans have them first and “mimic” the Christians afterward—even when Mithraic rituals predate the New Testament?
This is chronological cherry-picking at best—and apologetics in reverse at worst.
🔄 Copying or Converging?
Clark argues that Mithraic traditions came later than the Gospels. But the Mithraic cult’s roots go back to Persia centuries earlier, and its Roman expressions were flourishing when Christianity was still underground.
Even if textual evidence for Mithras post-dates the Gospels, the rituals, symbols, and iconography were well-known in the Roman world.
It’s not about who wrote it down first—it’s about shared mythological DNA. And the evidence suggests Christianity didn’t invent its key motifs. It absorbed them—then canonized them as history.
🧭 Final Thought: Start With Curiosity
You don’t need to believe Jesus is a repackaged pagan god. But you do need to admit this:
Christianity arose in a sea of myths. And the water it swam in was full of gods born without sex, gods who rose again, and gods who shared holy meals.
Dismissing this isn’t curiosity. It’s fear.
And The God Question starts by letting go of fear—and asking, what’s really behind the story we’ve been told?
God or Delusion? 