From: ppugliese@pimacc.pima.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: Re: References of Christianity
Date: 22 Jul 92 07:05:59 GMT
 <1992Jul18.233807.6805@pimacc.pima.edu> <1992Jul21.024807.1509@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU>

In article <1992Jul21.024807.1509@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU>, markc@hydra.maths.unsw.EDU.AU writes:
>> 
> {Somebody, whose name I lost, writes:
> 
>>Well how about the way that you've just twisted the early history of Christi-
>>anity? FYI, The HOLY WAR (I assume you mean the First Crusade here) occured
>>more than 1000 years AD! Blamimg the christians for the Dark Ages is ludi-
>>crous. Contemporary Romans like Nero etc. preferred to make the Christians
>>scapegoats for the collapse of the Roman Empire when it would've been much
>>more productive to reform the corruption of the Empire itself. There is cer-
>>tainly ALOT more historical evidence for religion than a "small shattered
>>tablet". Guess you haven't heard of all the non-christian religions , some
>>of which, like Hinduism, have recorded histories much longer than Christian-
>>ity. But then, like you said, people, like you, are always twisting things
>>around to suit themselves.
> 
> Before you talk about such things, why don't you try and find out what
> really happened. Nero died long before the Roman Empire in the west
> collapsed. Nero tried to commit suicide in A.D. 68. He was eventually
> killed by one of his guards when he couldn't take his own life. The 
> first persecution of the christians happened in A.D. 64 after the fire
> of Rome. The christians were probably not distinguished from judaism at
> that point, and provided convenient scapegoats when people started
> accusing him of starting the fire. (Itself a vacuous charge). The
> persecution is recorded in Tacitus' Annals", who notes that the christians
> aroused sympathy for the cruelty of their punishment. They were torn apart
> in the arena by wild dogs (Not thrown to the lions), and used as torches 
> to light the spectacle. 

Why don't YOU try to find out what YOU'RE talking about? Historians have
been writing for years about how contemporary Romans considered Christians
to be a bad influence on the Empire. I believe that Gibbon addresses this
in his writings. The attitude was present before any systematic persecu-
tion began & probably facilitated the persecution. The fact remains that
Christians *were* persecuted for centuries in any case.

> 
> The last serious persecution of christians was under the Emperor Diocletian.
> The Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as his religion after claiming
> to have seen a sign from god promising him victory in the civil war if
> he adopted the religion. By the time the Empire fell in A.D. 476, the 
> official religion of the Empire had been christianity for more than
> one hundred years. It is a sad irony of history that the church which had 
> been so savagely persecuted, became an even worse persecutor. 
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
                               sounds like personal opinion to me
                               ----------------------------------
> a persecutor, but an instrument for the suppression of knowledge. Witness
> the destruction of the library of Alexandria by the mob, incited by the 
> Christian Saint Cyril.
> 

(The history books I've studied always credit the destruction of the Library 
of Alexandria to the moslems who conquered the city in 642AD) 

Such "sad ironies" encompass virtually every ascendant culture &/or religion
the world has ever seen. Nothing extraordinary there. No doubt future his-
torians will discover many 'sad ironies' associated with contemporary cul-
ture as well.

PHIL