In recent years, some people have suggested that the figure of Jesus is not historical, but rather he was a metaphor for a psychedelic mushroom. The Theory was first put forward by John Marco Allegro in his book “The Sacred Mushroom and The Cross”. While this may be an interesting hypothesis, it is not supported by any evidence. In fact, there are several reasons why Jesus could not have been a mushroom. Let’s take a closer look at why this theory is not plausible.
Time
The first reason why Jesus was not a mushroom has to do with dates and timelines. The Gospels were written between 40-70 AD—this is decades after the lifetime of Jesus himself which is estimated to be between 4 BC and 33 AD. Because the Gospels were written after the time of Jesus, the idea that the story of Jesus was derived from an earlier mushroom cult is simply not possible since no writings or archaeological evidence exists to support it.
Us And Them
The second reason why this theory doesn’t hold up has to do with location. The mushroom cults were primarily located in Mexico, while Christianity originated in Palestine and spread throughout Europe and Asia Minor during the first century AD. It would be virtually impossible for these two cultures to cross-pollinate in such a short amount of time to create a hybrid religion based on mushrooms.
The Great Gig In The Sky
Finally, there are significant theological differences between Christianity and ancient mushroom cults that make it unlikely that one was derived from the other. For example, Christianity teaches love, mercy and sacrifice while ancient mushroom cults focused on fertility rituals and animal sacrifices. There would have had to have been an extraordinary cultural shift for one religion to evolve out of another—a shift which simply isn’t supported by historical records or archeological evidence from either culture.
Another Brick In The Wall
Although it’s always intriguing to explore alternative theories about world religions like Christianity, this theory about Jesus being a metaphor for psychedelic mushrooms does not hold up under scrutiny when examined against historical evidence or theology. The fact remains that there are too many discrepancies between these two cultures for them to ever intersect in such a way as to form one unified belief system—and certainly not within such a short period of time as happened with Christianity!
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