Or, to put it differently, when the Christian God was introduced to Europe, He was better able than other pagan gods to thrive in the European environment, passing His information on through His followers in greater numbers from generation to generation, slowly squeezing the other gods either into their own reduced niches or into extinction?
Would this be a fair way of describing the Christian God's conquest of Europe in the first thousand or so years C.E.?
2006-08-17 00:35:26 · 8 answers · asked by XYZ 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Okay, okay, I failed...
I was just wondering if I could get any Christians to agree with Darwin's concept of natural selection if put in a context of theology instead of biology, but it seems nobody took my bait.
Oh well...
2006-08-17 01:07:40 · update #1
I feel there was more agression involved, especially after nascent Christianity merged with a Latin liturgy that was the poer seat of citystates .. The perrenial and varied pagan faiths (and remember how vast the cultural and language variants-Thessalian.Goth,Visigoth, post Hellenic Coptic, Ptolemaic Coptic,Gaelic,Cymry,Irish,diverse Norse) .. had always been fluid, tolerant and mutable .. Christianity walked into their midsts in this atmosphere .. The varied pagan faiths had similar alphabet mysteries .. This was not "coincidence" .. but more a matter of how they had blended and fused over ages ...
So as a Roman based and Latin clergy .. became the new "bishops" ruling cities .. At first the blending were once again of mutually tolerant natures .. observe the designs of most ancient Christian Cathedrals and you will find them "directionally" laden with Christian iconography ...
But the Roman "Newly Christians" .. had not at all lost that traditional Roman drive to power .. and as the "canonization" process began .. of what was to be "Bible" and what would not .. so began the multitude of edicts(Inquisitions) against heresies ..quite ruthless .. and initially beginning with all legitamate Gnostic rivals ... some of these Mithraic ..Manichean .. but the majority nominally and spiritually Christian .. after exterpating and genociding these rival creeds .. The same attitude of declaring "witchcrafts, heresies and anathemas" continued systematically against all remnants of pagan faith for the next ten centuries .. Fortunately through psychology, philosophy, and literature(ie,Shakespeare) .. we stiill have fragments of the perrenial beauty and wisdoms that pervaded many of these "heathen" religions ...
The Christian God triumphed because he was more brutal and intolerant in my opinion ..
2006-08-17 01:05:21 · answer #1 · answered by gmonkai 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nope. Christianity is a social movement. The old gods and goddesses are still around and potent. When Constantine declared Christianity to be the state religion, it had a wide effect on the 'civilized' world. It was the spread of a manufactured social construct and does not reflect Yahweh's superiority over the old pagan gods. The old ways began to come back during the Crusades and the Inquisitions were a responce to this.
2006-08-17 07:43:09 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Things are realistics, even for gods and religions.
Formal religions consist of deities, philosophy, paradise realm, teachings...
Christian is a formal religion, the other western gods' *worshipments* are not.
Having such advantage plus political power enforce by strong military, (from Roman Constantine to modern days western nations), it destroyed other old gods' worshipment.
Nowadays, by the might of western nations, military, technology has become a method for christian to spread. The people is powerful, the people!
When westerners invade the east during imperialism age, they spread christians and try to destroy other religions, keep giving impression that their god make them win, so you must submit or burn in hell. Simply just a dark face of human expressions.
Whether the christian god Jehovah is stronger than other gods, or whether those other gods really exist, and why they loose or back down? that is another issue. Of course, the christians will say .... and of course, I have selections of answers.
If you truly wanted answer, I swear that Buddhism is the right source. It explain a lot about supernatural, just whether you can get the right info out from the vast knowledges.
If we talk again, I will tell you. Bye, dinner is waiting.
2006-08-17 08:00:22 · answer #3 · answered by Chevalerie Classe 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Even though I knew the aim of your question before I read the details, I will answer the original question or at least my view of it.
The Christian God triumphed over other Gods because man forced the beliefs onto others. It is historically known that religioius wars happened in the dark and middle ages that solidified christianity as the primary deity for people of European descent. During those particular time periods it was done by force and cemented by fear.
2006-08-17 16:11:08 · answer #4 · answered by genaddt 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is one and only one GOD, "ALLAH" is the GOD all the human beings ever existed on earth. ALLAH is the GOD of Jews, Christians, Muslims and all the humans before Judaism and after Islam. ALLAH is the GOD of Adam, Noah, Jonah, Suleiman, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. OK.
2006-08-17 07:41:16 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't be an idiot. Any moron who has read a history book knows that Christinaity triumphed because of the organisation (and ruthlessness) of the Catholic church. Don't mean to insult you but that's a seriously retarded question.
2006-08-17 07:51:51 · answer #6 · answered by softenthecorners101 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nope
It's because He is the only true God
The others all all false gods
2006-08-17 07:39:38 · answer #7 · answered by kenny p 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
a big reason was because the christians used deceptive tactics to convert them
2006-08-17 07:42:10 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋