(For what it's worth, btw, I *bet* there are atheist writers
out there who make things up about the (putative) pagan origins
of the Jesus story. Why wouldn't there be? Atheism isn't a
guarantee of honesty or good sense any more than Christianity
is. On the other hand, I also bet that most falsehoods about
Christianity that circulate among atheists -- I'm making no
comment on how common such falsehoods are, not least because
I don't know -- arise in the same sort of way as falsehoods
that circulate among Christians: not from deliberate lying
but from indifference to inconvenient truths. When someone
hears a story that fits his prejudices -- be they Christian
or atheist or anything else -- the fact-checking impulse
tends not to be very strong.)

--
Gareth McCaughan
.sig under construc