I'm with you Sauron - a person's beliefs and their label can only be assigned by that person themselves. Jenny, I do believe you may need to look a little deeper into why paganism was ousted by Christianity. I very much doubt it was the willling choice of those moving to a better religion. My reading indicates that Chrisitanity was used by the rich to justify oppressing the poor even more than they did under paganism. Constantine, the first Roman Emporor to embrace Christianity, was motivated by a justification of worshipping himself by alignment with the "One God". Conversions were done under the threat of violence - hence the later Crusades and Witchburnings - all designed to kill those who would not fall into line with losing their living standards, and have their property stolen into Church and State hands. Ask yourself, just why is the Catholic Church so rich? Where did all that treasure come from? Collection plates? How many people were murdered and their children's inheritance stolen to fill Christian coffers? Why did it take so many centuries for Europe to be almost fully Christianized, if the new religion was so great? Don't believe all the pro-Christian PR you read...
So you'd say that the birth of christianty was a mistake.. Jesus shouldve stayed a carpenter + lived out his life like a regular guy..?
No, really. Without jews there would be no christianity and islam, there would be no Israel, no 9 million people sentenced to death in middle ages for being "anti-christian", no muslin terrorists, no mormons, etc. No group has brought in more hate wars in this world than jews.
I wonder.. if there were no Jews, would somebody like Jesus still have come along in that part of the world (thered still have been a Roman empire, right, still people living in what we call israel..) and perhaps Mohamed wouldve still existd too, he wasa n Arab not a Jew..
People have been murderous for other- equally good in their eyes- reasopns: what jewish influence inspired the hindus, aztecs or toltecs who were all pretty unpleasant to people they disagreed with religiously? The human race seems to have a taste for murdering and torturing one another and only to need an excuse to carry it ouit. If the jews had remained a small obscure bunch of religious eccentrics people like you would probably be talking about the evils of polytheism and extolling the moderate monotheists.
Islam is a later copy of christianity. Slightly edited, etc, but it's still highly simmilar/copied. Somebody like Jesus? Maybe, but there would have been no christianity as we know it.
What the world got instead mighve been worse for wars and inquistions.. something based on Zoroastrianism?
Hidus have been equally murderous. the problem is that religion appears to suit something in human psychology- if there weren't religion then there probably would'nt be a species that could actually be described as human.
