How did this happen, seriously, does anyone have an explanation?

Question

How did a small sect of ,primarily middle eastern, fanatics come to dominate the religous world? In all seriousness how can a religion that promotes murder for supposed sins, intolerance ,hates of others and outright bigotry spread like it did?

Was it thru fear of retribution that people converted or suddenly 'found god'? Was it thru intimidation? I know they will say that they 'found the spirit' or some of that nonsense.

Does anyone know how the historic greed, intolerance, bigotry and hate of the christian church became as big as it did? I mean you don't have to look very far to see the ethics of these..ahem...pillars of the community. Look in any local church and you'll see enough backstabbing and lying, not to mention idiocy, to make you wonder.

I just want to know what one factor (or was it a combination of factors) let christianity spread like it did. The historic violence of the sect helped im sure. But what other factors?

What say you?

Answer 1

Constantine began to get notions of making himself the Emperor when he was a general, stationed in Britain. At that time, there was a small community of Christians in Rome. They were generally tolerated, but every now and then some of them would get uppity, and get fed to the lions, so they pretty much kept their beliefs a secret. A lot of these Christians held posts in the Roman civil service... and Constantine had some of them in his retinue. Constantine conspired with the Christians to provide him with intelligence (spies) and to provide targeted disruptions back in Rome (sabotage, assinations) in return for his patronage and protection. So, when he announced this patronage and protection, he essentially absorbed a ready-made '5th column', which was already embedded within Roman society throughout the whole empire, and they were easily able to transform their 'religious cult' communications networks to purposes of political/military communications, intrigue and intelligence on behalf of Constantine. With this advantage in place, Constantine embarked from Britain, and conducted a military campaign in which he defeated Roman forces in detail, and ultimately ascended to the throne.

By the way... at this time, Christians numbered in the thousands. They were wide-spread, but there were not numerous in very many specific locations.

Duly noting how well the Christian underground network had served him, and taking note that he did not have the necessary military forces to garrison the whole empire, it occurred to him that he could suborn the religious cult which had served him so well to a role which keep the peace in the empire through a threat of eternal damnation, rather than threat of military reprisal. So, clerics replaced military garrisons, and the limited military forces were placed at the disposal of the clergy, and utilized to suppress and destroy pagan infrastructure, in favor of the Christ-cult. This worked so well, that the end result was humanity being dragged into the Dark Ages by Christianity. So, essentially, Christianity was spread at the point of a sword, as a reward for services rendered... spying, sabotage, assasinations... by the Christians.

Oh, yeah... it was only the particular Christ-cult who had aided Constantine directly who benefited from this... the rest were suppressed, along with the Pagans.

324 The emperor Constantine sacks the Oracle of the god Apollo and tortures the pagan priests to death. He also evicts all non-Christian peoples from Mount Athos and destroys all the local Hellenic temples.

335 Constantine sacks many pagan temples in Asia Minor and Palestine and orders the execution by crucifixion of “all magicians and soothsayers.” Martyrdom of the neoplatonist philosopher Sopatrus.

341 Constantius II (Flavius Julius Constantius) persecutes “all the soothsayers and the Hellenists.” Many gentile Hellenes are either imprisoned or executed.

354 A new edict of Constantius orders the destruction of the pagan temples and the execution of all “idolaters”. First burning of libraries in various cities of the empire.

359 In Skythopolis, Syria, the Christians organise the first death camps for the torture and executions of the arrested non-Christians from all around the empire.

364 Emperor Jovian orders the burning of the Library of Antioch. An Imperial edict (11th September) orders the death penalty for all those that worship their ancestral gods or practice divination. Three different edicts (4th February, 9th September, 23rd December) order the confiscation of all properties of the pagan temples and the death penalty for participation in pagan rituals, even private ones.

370 Valens orders a tremendous persecution of non-Christian peoples in all the Eastern Empire. In Antioch, among many other non-Christians, the ex-governor Fidustius and the priests Hilarius and Patricius are executed. The philosopher Simonides is burned alive and the philosopher Maximus is decapitated. Tons of books are burnt in the squares of the cities of the Eastern Empire.

372 Valens orders the governor of Minor Asia to exterminate all the Hellenes and all documents of their wisdom.

373 The term “pagan” (pagani, villagers, equivalent to the modern insult, “peasants”) is introduced by the Christians to demean non-believers. The non-Christians are called “loathsome, heretics, stupid and blind”. In another edict, Theodosius calls “insane” those that do not believe to the Christian God. The Christian priests lead the angry mob against the temple of goddess Demeter in Eleusis and try to lynch the hierophants Nestorius and Priskus.

381 At the Council of Constantinople the 'Holy Spirit' is declared 'Divine' (thus sanctioning a triune god). On 2nd May, Theodosius deprives of all their rights any Christians who return to the pagan religion. Throughout the Eastern Empire the pagan temples and libraries are looted or burned down.

385 to 388 Thousands of innocent pagans from all sides of the empire suffer martyrdom in the notorious death camps of Skythopolis.

389 to 390 Hordes of fanatic Christian hermits from the desert flood the cities of the Middle East and Egypt and destroy statues, altars, libraries and pagan temples, and lynch the pagans. Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, starts heavy persecutions against non-Christian peoples, turning the temple of Dionysius into a Christian church, burning down the Mithraeum of the city, destroying the temple of Zeus and burlesques the pagan priests before they are killed by stoning. The Christian mob profanes the cult images.

392 On 8th November, Theodosius outlaws all the non-Christian rituals and names them “superstitions of the gentiles” (gentilicia superstitio). New full scale persecutions are ordered against pagans. The Mysteries of Samothrace are ended and the priests slaughtered. In Cyprus the local bishop “Saint” Epiphanius and “Saint” Tychon destroy almost all the temples of the island and exterminate thousands of non-Christians.

399 With a new edict (13th July) Flavius Arcadius orders all remaining pagan temples, mainly in the countryside, be immediately demolished.

401 The Christian mob of Carthage lynches non-Christians and destroys temples and “idols”. In Gaza too, the local bishop “Saint” Porphyrius sends his followers to lynch pagans and to demolish the remaining nine still active temples of the city.

405 John Chrysostom sends hordes of grey-dressed monks armed with clubs and iron bars to destroy the “idols” in all the cities of Palestine.

408 The local bishops lead new heavy persecutions against the pagans and new book burning. The judges that have pity for the pagans are also persecuted. “Saint” Augustine massacres hundreds of protesting pagans in Calama, Algeria.

415 In Alexandria, the Christian mob, urged by the bishop Cyril, attacks a few days before the Judeo-Christian Pascha (Easter) and cuts to pieces the famous and beautiful philosopher Hypatia. The pieces of her body, carried around by the Christian mob through the streets of Alexandria, are finally burned together with her books in a place called Cynaron.

435 On 14th November, a new edict by Theodosius II orders the death penalty for all “heretics” and pagans of the empire. Only Judaism is considered a legal non-Christian religion.

450 All the temples of Aphrodisias (the City of the Goddess Aphrodite) are demolished and all its libraries burned down. The city is renamed Stavroupolis (City of the Cross).

482 to 488 The majority of the pagans of Minor Asia are exterminated after a desperate revolt against the emperor and the Church.

And THAT, folks, is just the BEGINNING of the 1,400 year Christian 'Reign of Terror'... 'Holocaust'... whatever you want to call it.

Answer 2

You're only looking at the bad sides of Christianity. For many people, Christianity brought hope. The early Christians did not promote murder. Quite the opposite, many died for their faith. Some of the things that Christianity offered:

Objection to the practice of infanticide, commonly accepted in the Roman empire

Superior status for women. While a woman's position was a sad state of affairs by the middle ages, in the Roman empire Christianity looked like a feminist movement! Women were told they were important in the sight of God. They were also told they could escape unhappy marriages by devoting their bodies to Christ.

Something to look forward to. As the Roman empire collapsed and life was becoming VERY ugly, Christianity offered a good afterlife as well as meaning for the sufferings in this mortal life.

Unity. The religion brought like-minded people together in a sense of wide community in a time when society was fracturing.

In the frist several centuries, Christianity spread through missionary work. Some leaders eventually started using violence, but often without the church's blessing. For the first thousand years the Church really had no say in what Christians in much of Eruope.

Answer 3

christianity was a lot of different things after the death of Christ. Because Christ was killed and eventually his apostles and many disciples were killed one by one after. those who wanted to continue the legacy of Christ did, but unfortunately with time the true meaning of christianity was altered and lost about a hundred years later because noone with authority to teach unaltered truth was around. That didnt stop people from claiming the title and making up truth on their own. In fact many during the midevil period used the title for dictorial purposes. I think that your question is more towards a sect or denomination in the christian faith today that has existed for centuries and not towards the entire christian faith as one. Unfortunately, the dictorial manner of spreading religion still exist amongst many christians as did in midevil ages. But there are also many christian communities or sects that exemplify or maybe even mimic the primitive church or christ he established in biblical times. They have been able to restore structure, some by bible and historical study, and personal belief, others by replication, and others by modern revelation through prophets.

Answer 4

You as most do, confuse true Christians with false ones. There are quite a great many false ducks out there. You know, they walk, talk, quack, and have feathers like a duck, only they are not ducks. Just bad decoys. Most of the so-called Christian religions would be unrecognizable by any 1st century Christian. They through the Bible out decades ago. Most of the doctrines are "doctrines of men" as the Bible puts false worship.

They only stay in business because there is true worship in existence. Their creator, Satan, keeps them going to keep most people from finding true worship. Keep the "shell game" going. True worship is protected by God so it lasts despite the efforts of Satan to destroy it. So Satan must keep his false Christian religions going. They are the ones you are talking about. Who better to promote the disgusting things than something powered by Satan?

Answer 5

I say people use religion as an excuse to hate. Don't blame religion.

If there were "no religions" on the face of this earth, "man would still have to deal with his greedy, selfish, ego-centric nature."

There would be as many wars, if not more.

Religion often serves as a damper for such offenses.

But that is a paradigm that offers "critical thinking skills," not just the status quo.

Thumbs down for me, right?

Most of our problems, our reasons for anger, hate, malice: We need to look no further than the mirror.

Answer 6

I think it has something to do with the fact that Christianity took a strong hold in Europe around 1000 years ago. The roman empire was strongly Christian. Of course, since the majority of the U.S. is of European ancestry, that religion just came over and we haven't lost it yet. I guess it doesn't have to do with the fact that people chose it or agree with it, just that its tradition and its been that way for a long time.

Answer 7

There are good and bad Christians, same as everybody else.
Christianity spread because it's value was sufficient to overcome the examples of hatred, idiocy, etc. demonstrated by many so-called believers. People claiming to follow some truth, that do not actually follow those truth, do not change that it's true.

Answer 8

It *might* be worth my time bothering to answer your 'rant', if you can show me one place in the Bible where God promotes the hatred of others.

Answer 9

Fear and intimidation my friend. Religion is nothing more than a medium used for control and profit. They prey on the weak and uneducated (uneducated in history of the bible and Christianity that is). It is all the things you listed and more that made me vow never to go to any church ever again!

Answer 10

Well obviously YOU'RE SMARTER than most the greatest minds throughout history, who WERE Christians!

In fact, you're probably smarter than all of them put together. Why don't you tell us poor, benighted dummies, there genius?

Answer 11

Part of the age old war between Israel and Babylon. It echos throughout the entire Earth.