Avoid Bad Comparative Mythology Research

I still haven't gotten to the main stuff I wanna do on this Blog yet.  Part of the problem is I have so many ideas I can't decide which one to delve into first.

Among other things, I want to help people avoid certain bad Comparative Mythology research that comes from both Believers and Skeptics.  That has it's origins in the bad research of 18th and 19th century Thesophists and Alexander Hislop.

Before recommending again what I've said on the subject, I want to recommend some material by people more formally qualified then I am.

One is the Inspiring Philosophy YouTube channel.  I don't agree with them on everything but they have some good material on this subject.  One is a video called Is The Trinity Pagan?  They have a series on Was Jesus a copycat Savior?  And I like their video Easter is not Pagan.  Their equivalent videos on Christmas also have good information but there they say stuff I can't endorse, they do tolerate more Catholic reclaiming of Paganism then I'm wiling to.
[Update August 2018: I need to add a major qualifier to my endorsement of Inspiring Philosophy's Copycat Savior playlist since in the new Inanna video he engages in the massive Hersey of denying The Harrowing of Hell.]

Another good YouTube channel is Religion for Breakfast, they come at things from a secular perspective, so as such certainly say things I don't agree with here and there.  But sometimes that outsider perspective is useful.  He has a video on the Cult of Mithras Explained, and his own about Why is Christmas on December 25th?

Chris White did a lot of stuff on this.  In a way he's still more a conspiracy theorist then I am now.  And to some extend I recently don't find his work as re-watchable as I used to.  Still I have my own Playlist of Chris White videos on YouTube.  Not everything there is about Comparative mythology, the ones about Zeitgeist and specific New Agers are the key ones.

Now for some of my own work.

My most important post on this topic is Paganism is about what you Believe not what you do from Sola Scirptura Christian Liberty on BlogSpot.

On m A Chronological View of Revelation blog.  I actually think I do deal with the Letter of Hadrian from the Histora Augusta better then IP did in their Serapis video.  And I also talk about Christmas Hanukkah, and December 25th.

And on my now semi-defunct Revised Chronology views of Mithrandir blog I talked about a lot of the Nimrod disinformation.

So the first two YouTubers I mentioned are the best starting point.  I'll see how many videos I can successfully embed here.  On some of these I've left comments in the comments sections.

Update October 2018: I found another Playlist on the history of the Christ Myth Hypothesis, from the Casual Historian YouTube Channel.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTZaOylOgJT-GLyroghQSfXAUPAusaEI4
Though he still says things I disagree with like considering Paul's Epistles older then any of the Gospels.

Tuatha Dé Danann, The Table of Nations and the Ramayama

In Irish Mythology the Tuatha Dé Danann are a people who invaded Ireland from Northern Europe before the Milesians.  Said to descend from a Goddess named Dana or Danu.

British Israelism, and other theories, have sought to identify them with the Biblical Tribe of Dan.  In my own theories I've come to prefer more specifically identifying Dan with Greece, Makedon, Ionia and maybe parts of Italy.  And thus come to reject attempts to identify them with northern European tribes.

I still think the Tuatha De Danann came from Scandinavia and thus may be partly related to modern populations of Scandinavia and Germany.  But where did they come from Biblically?  Well the D-n element is used in The Bible of more then just children of Jacob.  Lately I finally noticed something interesting.

TuathaDeDanann, as in Dedan.

There are two Dedans in Genesis, both have a brother named Sheba.  Some might be tempted to identify the De Danann with the Dedan who's a grandson of Abraham.  But Abraham's sons by Keturah were settled in Arabia, according to Josephus along the Red Sea, where the the Dedan of Abraham was also known as Lihyan.

The Tuatha De Danann are often identified with two other groups from other Indo-European mythologies.  The Children of Don of Welsh Mythology, descended from the Goddess Dôn.  And the Danavas of Hindu mythology who also descended from a Goddess named Danu.   There is a state called Dedan in modern India.

I've already argued elsewhere that the Rama of the Ramayama was a deification of Raamah son of Cush of Genesis 10.  Rama by his wife Sita has two children just like the Raamah of Genesis.  And one of the sons of Rama and Sita was named Kusha, showing that the Ramayama has the genealogy changed a bit, but is definitely evidence of them being Kushite.  Cush wasn't just in Africa.  I think the Sheba son of Raamah was deified as the Hindu god Shiva.