The Christian Church adopted the 'Sun God' Mithras and pagan festivals from Mithraism - Doug Michael

Christian religious community.

bishops, and the word is still used in that sense in Catholicism, Oriental Orthodoxy and Eastern Orthodoxy. In modern usage, the word often refers to the governing body of a particular church, whether its members are meeting or not.

church recorded as existing in the Roman province of 3rd century Britain. The governing structure of the church is based on dioceses, each presided over by a bishop. Within each diocese are local parishes. The General Synod of the Church of England is the legislative body for the church and comprises bishops, other clergy and laity. Its measures must be approved by both Houses of Parliament.

the past, the Church Fathers were regarded as authoritative, and more restrictive definitions were used which sought to limit the list to authors treated as such.

(perfect goodness), divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence.
<ul>
<li>In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe</li>
<li>In deism, God is the creator, but not the sustainer, of the universe</li>
<li>Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one God or in the oneness of God</li>
<li>In pantheism, God is the universe itself</li>
<li>In atheism, God is purported not to exist, while deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism. </li>
</ul>

millennium CE), regionally within Nepal, India and in southeast Asia, and across Hinduism's diverse traditions. Illustrations of major deities include Vishnu, Sri (Lakshmi), Shiva, Sati, Brahma and Saraswati.

imagery, and the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice is debated. Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake". They met in underground temples, called mithraea, which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its centre in Rome.

archeologist Hugo Winckler in 1901. It was proliferated in the USA in the 1990s, first via the publication of Robert Morey's pamphlet The Moon-god Allah: In Archeology of the Middle East (1994). Morey argues that "Allah" was the name of a moon god in pre-Islamic Arabic mythology, the implication being that "Allah" as the term for God in Islam implies that Muslims worship a different deity than the Judeo-Christian one. Joseph Lumbard, a professor of classical Islam, has stated the idea is "not only an insult to Muslims but also an insult to Arab Christians who use the name 'Allah' for God."

Christ). Alternate terms in Christian texts for the same group were hellene, gentile, and heathen. Pagan and paganism were pejorative terms for the same polytheistic group, implying its inferiority. Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry", and for much of its history was a derogatory term. Both during and after the Middle Ages, pagan was a pejorative term that was applied to any non-Abrahamic or unfamiliar religion, and the term presumed a belief in false god(s).

name Sol or by its Greek name Helios.

religion to America in 1959, where he would spread his message and develop international followers known as "moonies." This religion tends to be more controversial due to some of its practices and its eccentric leader.