Atheists & Agnostics
Related: About this forumIf you're going to worship a fictional god, you might as well pick one that's kick-ass!
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)Why did they disappear? How did the god of Jews, Christians, and Muslims come to rule over all the others?
Makes you wonder. I suppose it was organization and intimidation.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)Uh.... they don't. Hindus have plenty of gods.
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)But as far as how spread over the globe the "single god" relgions are, and the numbers, they have the upper hand on the others.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)Must be that "convert or die" thing...
dimbear
(6,271 posts)crime to be anything but Christian or Jew. He completed the moderate efforts begun by (Saint) Emperor Constantine, but because of his eminently bloodthirsty nature was never allowed sainthood.
One of the most important Christians of all of history. Theodosius the Great, he's usually called. See your Gibbon. For some reason unknown to me, this period is soft-pedalled in Sunday school.
To understand the history of the era, and why it's so ill recorded, ( the so called Pagan holocaust,) imagine the history of the Third Reich if the Germans had won. When the victors write the history, truth is sometimes swept under the rug.
It is truly hard to get a grip on that era. It is rife with quackery from radicals, but there are a few legitimate historians of the time. Best one I know: Ramsay MacMullen, who toward the end of his career wrote two books which pulled no punches. Needless to say, any Christian theologian would immediately see the doors of academia slammed shut from any such scholarship.
Also enormously illuminating: the letters of Emperor Julian, called Julian the Apostate. He refers to the slaughters, even though his letters were also edited by the victors. Some of his remarks slip through, so to say.
rrneck
(17,671 posts)GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Go get him, Kali!
Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)iris27
(1,951 posts)"Jesus promised the end of all wickedness on earth. Thor promised the end of all frost giants. I don't see any frost giants around, do you?"