Christians have no business denouncing the character of pagan myths, particularly fundamentalist Christians. The Israelites bought the idea that God had specifically ordered genocide against the inhabitants of the land promised to them. Fundamentalist Christians to this day say that they were right; I have heard a fundamentalist preacher denounce a more liberal minister precisely because the liberal would not take that literally. But I have never encountered a modern fundamentalist who would condone genocide in our time. They are just too programmed, with thought processes too truncated, to hear what they are saying themselves.

And yet, funnily enough, until Hitler made anti-semitism entirely unacceptable (Note: I am not explicitly or implicitly defending anti-semitism by that remark! I condemn it utterly.), it was often a perfectly acceptable, & sometimes positively encouraged, part of christer dogma, both protestant & catholic!

There is a major divide between the eye-for-an-eye god/jehovah of the old testament, & the christer new testament. This sudden metamorphosis is yet another reason why I am somewhat suspicious of the fair-weather changes to christianity.

As Bill & brucie both point out, Mithras was a major competitor to early christianity. So much so, that a lot of the early ritual was adapted (i.e. stolen) from other faiths (especially Mithraism). In fact, most of the important christer festivals aren't theirs at all (vice Yule/Xmas), but pagan festivals in christer clothes.