In Bill Maher’s movie Religulous, he tells the story of the Egyptian god Horus.

Some say that the life of Horus closely mirrors the life of Jesus and could have been used by the writers of the gospel to form the story of Jesus’ life.

Before looking into this claim, it's important to keep in mind that, as Christians, we believe that:

• the Bible was inspired by God and is without error
• having four accounts of Jesus' life adds value to our understanding
• historians and scholars have verified the historical integrity of the Gospels
  

So, what are the comparisons between Jesus and Horus? According to ReligionTolerance.org, they are the following.

Conception:
Horus: By a virgin. There is some doubt about this matter.
Jesus: By a virgin.

Father:
Horus: Only begotten son of the God Osiris.
Jesus: Only begotten son of Yehovah (in the form of the Holy Spirit).

Mother:
Horus: Meri.
Jesus: Miriam (a.k.a. Mary).

Foster father:
Horus: Seb, (Jo-Seph).
Jesus: Joseph.

Foster father's ancestry:
Horus: Of royal descent.
Jesus: Of royal descent.

Birth location:
Horus: In a cave.
Jesus: In a cave or stable.

Birth heralded by:
Horus: The star Sirius, the morning star.
Jesus: An unidentified "star in the East."

Method of death:
Horus: By crucifixion.
Jesus: By crucifixion.

Accompanied by:
Horus: Two thieves.
Jesus: Two thieves.


These are just a few of the comparisons. You can read the rest here.

But are they true? Did the gospel writers really model the story of Jesus’ life off of an Egyptian god?

The easiest way to debunk them is to read the Gospels for yourself because they describe Jesus' life and ministry. I like reading the Message translation (for the book of John) because it's almost like reading an email, and if you use YouVersion.com (for the book of John), you can read other people's commentary on the verses to gain better understanding.

You should also read the story of Horus for yourself:

• Encyclopedia Mythica - Horus
  
• Egyptian Mythology: Horus
• Ancient Egypt: The Mythology - Horus
  
• Wikipedia: Horus

You can also read the book that most of these myths are based on - Acharya S's book "The Christ Conspiracy" ...it's probably at your local library, but you can get it from Amazon too.


In the meantime, here are some responses to the common comparisons used for Horus and Jesus.

Horus’ mother was a virgin:
Horus’ mother was not a virgin. She was married to Osiris, and there is no reason to suppose she was abstinent after marriage. Horus was, per the story, miraculously conceived. Seth had killed and dismembered Osiris, then Isis put her husband's dead body back together and had intercourse with it. In some versions, she used a hand-made phallus since she wasn't able to find that part of her husband. So while it was a miraculous conception, it was not a virgin birth.

Horus’ mother’s name was Meri:
Acharya's footnotes don't provide evidence for the claim of Isis being a virgin or for "Meri" being part of her name. Only Christ-mythers make the claim that "Meri" was part of her name.

Horus was born in a cave:
Horus was born in a swamp, not a cave/manger. Acharya's footnotes for this point only make the claim that Jesus was born in a cave, and say nothing about Horus being born in one.

Horus’ birth was heralded by a star:
Acharya's source for this claim appears to be influential scholar Gerald Massey, who says "the Star in the East that arose to announce the birth of the babe (Jesus) was Orion, which is therefore called the star of Horus. That was once the star of the three kings; for the 'three kings' is still a name of three stars in Orion's belt . . . " Massey's apparently getting mixed up, and then the critics are misinterpreting it. Orion is not a star, but a constellation, of which the 'three kings' are a part. And even if there is a specific star called 'the star of Horus', there's no legend stating that it announced Horus' birth (as the critics are claiming) or that the 'three wise men' (the three stars in Orion's belt) attended Horus' birth in any way.

Horus is crucified accompanied by two thieves:
Horus was never crucified. There’s an unofficial story in which he dies and is cast in pieces into the water, then later fished out by a crocodile at Isis’ request. This unofficial story is the only one in which he dies at all.


Conclusion
Through these responses, we can see that there is little validity in the claims that the story of Jesus' life, as recorded in the Gospels, was modeled after the story of the Egyptian god Horus.

Even if there are a few commonalities, Jesus still fulfilled hundreds of the detailed Messianic prophecies given in the Old Testament that Horus did not fulfill, proving that Jesus is the Messiah and Savior that God promised, not a made-up character based on a mythical Egyptian god.

As a sidenote, this site compares Horus to Hitler in the same way (scroll to the bottom) that Acharya compares Horus to Jesus, so we can see that if someone knows enough about to people, they can misconstrue the facts enough to make you think twice about the validity of the stories.