Betrayed by Dan Brown

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

This is Michael Medved. Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor of Germany, once said that God offers special protection to drunkards, lost dogs, children, and the United States of America. We'll explore that special protection and what it means in The American Miracle. Subscribe to The American Miracle on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Dan McClellan (0:31)

There's one account that says things got so heated that this guy Nicholas slapped Arius in the face and this is the famous St. Nicholas. So this is Santa Claus, who some people think, like to think of it as him punching Arius.

Dan Beecher (0:48)

Oh, Santa, how far you've fallen.

Dan McClellan (0:55)

Hey, everybody.

Dan Beecher (0:56)

Hi, friends. I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (0:58)

And I'm Dan McClellan, and welcome to the Data Over Dogma podcast, where we try to increase access to the academic study of the Bible and religion and combat the spread of misinformation about the same. We have a great show for you today. We're gonna start off, Dan, with a segment that I like to call. All right, let's see it.

Dan Beecher (1:21)

That's right. That's right. And then we'll move on to, Dan, you're gonna be taking us through one of the urban legends.

Dan McClellan (1:29)

One of the urban legends.

Dan Beecher (1:30)

It has spread far and wide in the world.

Dan McClellan (1:33)

Yes, thanks widely to Dan Brown. But-

Dan Beecher (1:37)

Oh, Dan Brown, the thorn in your side.

Another Dan. What's up with all the Dan? We've got too many Dan's.

Dan McClellan (1:47)

Yeah, it's an issue.

Dan Beecher (1:48)

Well, yes. Let's launch in with... I'm going to make you say it again.

Because I'm sure this is going to become one of the favorite segments of the Data Over Dogma podcast.

Dan McClellan (1:59)

I hope so.

Dan Beecher (2:00)

And it is...

Dan McClellan (2:01)

All right, let's see it.

Dan Beecher (2:04)

So today's All Right, Let's See It is about the origin, traditions, and celebration of Easter. Yeah. Now, I have trolled the internet to find some of the most pervasive ideas about Easter, and I am going to present them to you, Dan. And we can talk about how they are 100% correct, and how Easter is actually a pagan holiday that the Christians just stole because they're a bunch of festival-ruining thieves.

So...

Dan McClellan (2:37)

Did you troll the internet or troll the internet? I wasn't too clear on that.

Dan Beecher (2:40)

A little bit of both. They trolled, who knows? It's a little bit of everything.

Dan McClellan (2:44)

That's fair.

Dan Beecher (2:45)

What's fun about this segment is that our show is so often about dispelling myths and misinformation within Christianity. But this segment, I get to mess around with a lot of stories that have become prevalent among my people, namely the atheists, about Christianity. One of the narratives that I see a lot among atheists and non-Christians, and I will admit here that I have participated in spreading this, is that when early Christians were out trying to make the world Christian, they would go into a population, say, the Pagans, for example, and they would try to impose Christian traditions upon them, and make them stop doing their own celebrations. Because they were big and mean. But the Pagans liked their own traditions, and they would reject Christianity, so the Christians got clever, and they just started incorporating all of the Pagan stuff into their traditions, and voila, everyone became Christian. Now, obviously, that is 100% true, and there's no bit of falsehood in it, but we're gonna test the theory anyway. Yeah. And our first test case will be Easter. So, are you ready, Dan?

Dan McClellan (3:57)

Here we go. Hit me.

Dan Beecher (3:59)

Fact number one. The name Easter actually comes from the Sumerian goddess of love, war, and fertility, Ishtar, which was actually pronounced Easter, and she went to the world of the dead, she was killed and hung on a pole, and then she came back and the world had a rebirth and renewal, and that's where the Christians got the idea to make up the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Fact, boom, checkmate, Christians.

Dan McClellan (4:30)

So it's an interesting mix in that story because some of this is based on some academic frameworks from the 19th century, some of it is accurate, and a lot of it is not inaccurate. It seems to me that this is something that has developed over time as people kind of caught wind of scholarly discussions and concocted this kind of Frankenstein's monster of ideas about where Easter came from. But to start with Ishtar, so one wasn't pronounced Easter. This has, the deity Ishtar has absolutely no relationship whatsoever to Easter.