To be specific

THE NEED TO BE SPECIFIC WHEN MAKING SUCH COMPARISONS

Furthermore, once one becomes highly specific about the legends in question about (say) a dying god or rites of a mystery religion, the apparent similarities to

Christianity vanish, especially when the meanings of the myth or ceremony in question are analysed. For example, the mystery religion of Cybele and Attus had Attus come alive after dying, but to call this a "resurrection" is to artificially apply Christian terminology to force an analogy.

In the legend, Attus' body was preserved, his hair would grow, and a finger would move-and that was it.

Furthermore, in another version of the myth, he became an evergreen tree. Similarly, while one can find other "saviour gods" in pagan religions, one discovers upon closer examination only in Christianity was the death of God for other people, that it was for sin, that it was once for all, and that it was an actual event in history, not a myth.

Or, consider the ceremony in which a bull would be killed on top of a pit which had boards covering it.

Below, the pagan believers would stand or sit below, and move around to try to get the blood from it to drip on them. To label this a "blood baptism" ignores how this ceremony, called the taurobolium, was not an initiation rite for new believers.

It was something done repeatedly by the same individuals, unlike the case for baptism in Christianity-which uses water, not blood, and which immerses the believer, not splattered blood on him or her.