TO Christians,Pagans,Atheists?

Question

First state who you are as per my Question.
Then Answer my following question-
Why did the Romans who were Notorious for having a strong Army and were Murderous and Great Conquerors, Did not Convert the Jews who they had defeated to their own Religion ?
Why did the not convert the Egyptians who they had defeated to their own religion?
And why is it that Constantine who captured power in Rome with the help of the Slaves Forced entire Rome to Convert to Christianity?
And why is it that The Roman Catholic Church During the Dark Ages(300 years+) conquered almost all of Europe and Converted them to Christianity?

Answer 1

I think polytheism is by definition more tolerant than monotheism. You can't really say that there was 'one Roman religion' - really you had a whole lot of gods that were worshipped differently in every city. If I worshipped one god above others and you worshipped a different god above all others, we could get along provided that you acknowledged my god existed and I acknowledged your god existed.

From the Roman perspective, the Jews were probably seen to have their own god called 'Yahweh', but Yahweh was just one among many.

When the Roman Empire turned Christian (i.e. monotheistic), though, other sects became threats because Christianity specifically outlaws the worship of other gods. So in order to be 'truly' Christian, they had to suppress worship of so-called 'false' gods. When they were polytheistic, there had been no reason to do that.

Answer 2

romans didn't care what religion you practiced. they only wanted the revenues from taxes. converting the people they conquered was not feasible and would require to much money be spent to achieve such conversion.constantine converted to christianity in order to fill the ranks of his armies, which were being depleted by usless warring. the christian church went throught the dark ages, a period of nearly 1000 years, and went about spreading the gospel throughout the known world. the use of force was determined to be the best way, as well as the means of staying in power for those who had it to begin with. religion was just a tool to control everyone, and gave the ignorant a sense of importance, and a way for the wealthy to gain more money.

Answer 3

I am a Christian.

The Jews have held on to their faith despite insurmountable odds. Other peoples from the same era, Hittites, Pheonecians, etc., have vanished, but the Jews remain because I believe, it is God's will. The Jews never submitted completely to the Romans, which is why they were driven from their land in 70 A.D. The Romans renamed the area "Palestina" after the Philistines, in a further attempt to eradicate their memory of that land. But the followers of Zues and Diana failed.

The Romans allowed the people of foriegn territories to keep their religions, and would take back an idol to Rome to "appease the gods", including Egyptian idols. The cult of Isis became popular in Roma for a while. By the end of the Roman Era, there were thousands of idols in Rome, and the people had been exposed to all kinds of Pagan religions, and they began to have doubts in idol worship. For one thing, the Pagan afterlife was usually never depicted as too pleasant (remember the river Styx?). The inscription from one Roman Pagan coffin of a nobleman warns those reading to enjoy life because the grave was "earth and fire". Christianity taught a person could escape all this unpleasantness, which is why it could not be extinguished (remember the Lion Times?).

Constantine had a dramatic religious conversion. Many people close to Constantine wanted to convert to be on his good side.
People were only to glad to be done with the barbarism and cruelity of the Pagan religions. Rome had a chance to go back to Paganism under Justin. He even tortured and killed Christians who would not convert to Paganism! He closed churches and killed Roman soldiers who would not remove the crosses from their shields. Sadly many Neopagans think this butcher is some kind of hero.

After he died, instead of remaining Pagans, the Empire went back to Christianity! They weren't "enslaved" by it, they wanted to be Christians. Despite what most people think, women gained rights under Christians (the right to inherit property for one), and servants fared better too. Under the Christians, the masters couldn't kill their servants on a whim, for instance. That's not to say he didn't make mistakes, and that there were never forced conversions. Many of the early converts were slaves and women, and nobody had to force them. Christinaity offered a better way of life for them.

Christian missionaries, when entering a new land, would use the stargedy of first converting the King, and then the rest of the Kingdom would usually follow suit. There were a few times when the Pagans killed the Christian king. Once the King was converted, almost everyone wanted to convert too to be on the King's good side. The idea of forced conversions is exaggerated in the minds of Neopagans, probably because they are transfering a harsh Christian upbringing of their own. It was never a Biblical doctrine and was officially banned by the Roman Catholic Church by the 8th century A.D.

By the Dark Ages, Europe was already Catholic, Rome didn't have to "conquer" it. After the fall of the Roman Empire due to Pagan tribes, the Roman Catholic Church was basically the only thing that held civilization together. Priests would oversee business deals and settle disputes. Irish Monks preserved many writings that would have been lost otherwise to Pagans like the Vikings. Eventually heathens wanting to become civilized sought out these monks to educate their own children, and with this brought the spread of Christianity. Oxford History Professor Ronald Hutton says Paganism had completely vanished from Europe, even in the most remote parts(like Iceland), by the 12 century A.D.. Hutton contends the word "Catholic", meaning "Universal", was just that, universal. It was engrained in the people's minds and lives.

Answer 4

Because the Romans weren't conquering to spread their religion, they were there to conquer for whoever was in charge that day, month, or year. They had already had great men walk amongst them i.e. Plato, Socrates, etc... and so weren't as entranced by religious beliefs. The power of fanaticism hadn't yet developed.
Anyway, Constantine finds listeners even if it was their bound duty to listen.
The R C C during the dark ages found the combination of organization & dedication to be a heady fuel to drive them towards power.
BTW, please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste...

Answer 5

That wasn't Rome's style...they were happy letting their conquered people practice their local religions...they just wanted their gods to be included with what the locals had already been using...

Answer 6

The Goths are the key to your answer. They were forced into things they did not belive and destoried Rome. The earlier leaders knew how to use religion to control the masses. Conversion causes more strife than control.

Answer 7

Because you can control the people easier if they all believe in the same belief system.

Answer 8

because he knew what was goin on. he knew what was right and he fought for it. that's why when america took over germany we turned them into a democracy just like we're doing to iraq. see the parrallel?