I've been working on a Norviscension Christian Witch course.  I've always loved Christianity, most of it anyhow, and I love Wicca.  But I am having a horrible time dealing with the fact that the pagan holidays are so pre-existant to the Christian holidays, and with identical basis.  It just makes it look so much like Christianity and Christ are nothing but a lie.  I do find some comfort in the fact that God/Godess could potentially be causative of anything that perhaps He/She cause repeat situations in different culture.  Frankly, that IS the only way I can see it.  Anyone see Zeitgeist, an internet movie?  I thought it was a bunch of bologna.  It tries to deny the existence of God by saying that these ancient cultures, far removed in time, language, and distance from one another, all had very similar religious basis', just like pagan and Christianity.  Frankly, my sentiment is that no way could those cultures have used one another as a basis for their religions.  My sentiment is that the ONLY way these religions could have had such similar ideas was if God/Goddess caused similar ideas and thoughts.

I tend to look at similarities between religions as well. Not necessarily because I think that differing cultures based their religions on each other, which may have been the case.

But I think that the Divine manifests itself in ways that we as humans can best understand and to which we can relate.

Hi
The early Christians built their churches on the sites of pagan temples and, I'm afraid they did the same with the holidays. Having said that, most of the earliest Christians, in the UK at least, seem to have been converted pagans – druids and whatever.
I've said before on these threads that I tend to believe that the central message of spirituality has been with us since the first people on earth – unchanged. I have a file somewhere of writings from ancient Egyptian alchemy that is almost identical with Christian teaching of thousands of years later. (Can't find it at the moment).
L&L
Al

Your right al and i agree theres one center theme .Just like i believe one source from which we all came ,just different views different ways in which we all can reconnect to this one true all . There are many varitions to the stories told in christian teachings   creation,the great flood,  cain and able ect .Many predate the christian ones .makes you wonder.like you i dont know any right off the top of my head but they wont be hard to locate. look into the early church and you will find many cases where the beliefs of the pagan culture were excepted by the church in order to convert them which in the long run was counter poductive .one example that comes to mine is saint worship and santeria.

Hi again
There seem to be lots of lurkers out there looking at this thread and it would be good to hear some more opinions on this fascinating subject.
L&L
Al