A few replies later someone brought up a hilarious idea that the pre-Christian peoples of Europe readily converted to Christianity. He went on saying that Christianity represented some sort of introduction to morality and civilisation, and that Charlemagne was a beloved and respected leader, a 'fact' that prompted his people (and his neighbours) to convert to Christianity.
What a load of bull.
Who marched into Saxony in the 8th century to cut down its most revered symbol, Irminsul, to wage war and declare conquest? Who provoked the Frisians and Saxons to war because they would not convert and yield their native land to the Christian Franks? Who issued several decrees to forbid aboriginal practices on pain of death? Who had several seid-men (Norse male-shamans) tied to skerries because they would not convert to the new religion of the king? Who shut down the temples that were of no business to him just because his god was not housed in those same temples? Who burnt the books and shut down the libraries? The list can definitely go on.
Wars have been with us since the dawn of time but, make no mistake, supremacist monotheism brought upon the world a halt to scientific learning and the unleashing of a new breed of violence called 'killing in the name of my god'. Pursuits unknown to the people they called 'barbarians'.
Whatever order or education the Christian institutions introduced to the aborigines, it wasn't something original; in fact, something adopted from the earlier pagan Greeks and Romans. 'Love thy neighbour' was neither original nor revolutionary. Far greater things had already been taught before the gospels were written.
I'm not saying the pre-Christian peoples enjoyed a 'Golden Age'. But whatever advancements the Christians brought in, it wasn't theirs, and whatever they created that was indeed theirs (such as the Crusades) was something one can hardly call a 'gift' to mankind.
Somebody put the love back in Christ, please. I'm sure there are many respectable and intelligent Christians out there who do the work of their master because they genuinely think it will better humanity (not just so they can earn tickets to 'Heaven'). May they multiply so they might outnumber their murderous asinine brethren.
Related reading:
http://alheithinn.blogspot.com/2009/08/myth-of-morality-upgrade.html
http://www.mosmaiorum.org/persecution_list.htm
Good post, my friend. It's an amusing stance, these folks have, thinking that by introducing rampant intolerance and mindless hate, they improved the condition of humankind. Thanks to them, we not only had wars over resources, wealth, and land, but wars over belief as well. Scholar Gerd Lüdemann {Gerd Lüdemann, The Acts of the Apostles, 383) believes that Christianity has has consumed "at least a million people per century" over the past two millennia. That's a lot of dead people for a peaceful conversion to generate. The problem for me is that whatever their protestations to the contrary, their end-time scenario promises the biggest genocide in the history of the world - that of everyone who refuses to accept "Christ". And as you can imagine, that's a LOT of people.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Hrafnkell. As the young ones say nowadays: "I know, right?"
ReplyDeleteFor a religion that claims to be on the side of love, you don't see much of it in many Christians: seeding hate and intolerance without even knowing it.
And that's a shocking number of dead people over the millennia!