Reddit reviews The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross: A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East

Ya I don't know why this is the top voted comment, it is pretty ignorant. The study of "mushroom" cults is an academic study with ample evidence and it's an interesting field which is actually fairly popular. It was probably the word "Jesus".

References :
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Gods-Original-Knowledge-Evolution/dp/0553371304
http://www.amazon.com/The-Sacred-Mushroom-Cross-Christianity/dp/0340128755
http://www.amazon.com/Persephones-Quest-Entheogens-Origins-Religion/dp/0300052669
http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/wasson/BIOG.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Shanon
http://www.artepreistorica.com/2009/12/the-oldest-representations-of-hallucinogenic-mushrooms-in-the-world-sahara-desert-9000-%E2%80%93-7000-b-p/

this goes on and on and on

Absolutely. Perhaps it was due to intentional ingestion of mushrooms or other psychedelics. Some theorize that our ancestors may have been under the influence of psychedelics when they saw God - "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross". Terrance McKenna theorized that mushrooms were responsible for the emergence of language. Google Stoned Ape Theory.

The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross

a GREAT book by John Allegro that if you are at all interested in this type of stuff I would 100% recommend. Whether it's true or not I'm not going to speculate, but there is some very interesting "evidence" (evidence in quotes since he is using paintings and the bible for reference) that seems to support his theory.

also as a follow up, by Jan Irving and directly reviewing and critiquing The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross is: The Holy Mushroom: Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity

I am not qualified to judge his interpretations of the evidence, but I find John Allegro's theory that Christianity arose out of a hallucinogenic mushroom cult of ancient Jews pretty interesting.

That makes a lot of sense. There is a writer that contends that Jesus was actually a Psilocybin mushroom. His name escapes me at the moment however he wrote a serious historical account of this. Also Terence McKenna has mentioned more than once that the sacrament in the Roman Catholic tradition is actually fake and the the mushroom was/is the real sacrament.

Edit: it might be this book

Here is a good list of sources for anyone that takes interest in this. I don't consider all of the information to be 100% correct, but I think it is a far better explanation than "the Bible is the literal word of God" or "the Bible is a work of fiction."

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/sunheath.html
The Astronomy & Astrology of the Solar Hero Myth by Robin Heath
(33 year cycle of the Sun)

http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Mushroom-Cross-Christianity-Fertility/dp/0340128755
John M. Allegro - The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross: A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East
(John M. Allegro was on the team that translated the Dead Sea Scrolls)

http://johnallegro.org/Allegro-SundayMirror.htm
Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, Sunday Mirror Series, 1970, By John Marco Allegro
(book excerpts and such)

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/history/paine_t.html
Thomas Paine’s Origin of Free-Masonry
"The Christian religion and Masonry have one and the same common origin: both are derived from the worship of the Sun. The difference between their origin is, that the Christian religion is a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom they call Christ, in the place of the Sun, and pay him the same adoration which was originally paid to the Sun"

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ushistory.org/more/images/rising-sun-chair.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ushistory.org/more/sun.htm&h=699&w=378&sz=75&hl=en&start=1&sig2=JDPvZst_3LbBTYFQa8pLaw&um=1&tbnid=sy5L25DqCbtgpM:&tbnh=139&tbnw=75&ei=2eSeSIy0G5SypgTiu8TgBw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drising%2Bsun%2Bchair%2Bwashington%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN
The Rising Sun Armchair (George Washington's Chair)
(something I find of interest as the Sun is clearly depicted and it looks like an amanita muscaria mushroom directly above it, my best bet is that Freemasons know much of the knowledge from the ancient mystery schools)

http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Christ-Sun-God-Cosmology/dp/0835606961
Jesus Christ, Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism (Paperback) by David Fideler
(I still struggle to understand much of what is in this book. It is some of the knowledge of the mystery schools. It is a very deep book.)

http://www.amazon.com/Pagan-Christ-Recovering-Lost-Light/dp/0802714498
The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light (Hardcover) by Tom Harpur
(an excellent book and an excellent first read for anyone interested in this subject,
Tom Harpur was an Anglican minister, a CBC Documentary was even done called "The Pagan Christ", it was recently re-broadcast as an InFocus episode on HDNet)

http://www.calendar-updates.com/info/holidays/us/easter.aspx
(how the day of Easter is calculated)


http://m_euser.tripod.com/gmass/kmarchiv.htm
Links to Alvin Boyd Kuhn and Gerald Massey archives

"Alvin Boyd Kuhn and Gerald Massey have done a lot of research into the myths and religions of this world.

Alvin Boyd Kuhn wrote many books documenting his in-depth research into the pagan origin of Christianity. You can find an overview of his work here

Gerald Massey was the teacher of Kuhn. Massey was one of the few truly independent researchers of religion. He was known for his vast knowledge of religious symbolism. Among his works you can find research respecting ancient Egyptian civilization (see: Massey lectures) and its symbols. He wrote about the Christian belief too. Take a look at his work"

(many books written today on this subject, like those of Acharya S,. are mostly based upon the works of these two men)

http://members.cox.net/deleyd/religion/solarmyth/christ2002.htm
Solar Mythology and the Jesus Story
(great website by David W. Deley's who has studied this topic, many links from his site, one of the first places where I started finding information)

http://www.pocm.info/
Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth
(another great site showing that the story of Jesus is a retelling of more ancient stories)

http://www.pharmacratic-inquisition.com/Pharmacratic-Inquisition_Sales_Page.html
Pharmacratic Inquisition
(website by two guys that have studied much of this, although I don't consider their studies to be 100% correct, they offer interesting ideas and they have an interesting video, watch their DVD online for free)

Relevant

Also see this book The Mushroom and the Sacred Cross.

Edit: I forgot to put [funny] in the title.