sapphi_snake said:
I'd go with the brainwashing part, as cults are known to do that. Too bad there were no deprogramming experts back then. Anyways, Christians were persectued back then because they often refused to fight in the military, and they did not awknoledge that the Emepror was a god (something which gave the Emperor legitimacy in the eyes of the people). Of course people back the were superstitious, and when Constantine thoght that he recieved help from "God" when he won a battle, he decided to give special favor to Christianity (the whole legitimacy issue would be solved in the future, by sayin things like "the King/Emperor was sent by God to rule over the Empire/Kingdom" nonsense). People only converted to get in the Emperor's good graces, not because they found the religion "enlightning". And eventually, when Christianity was declared the official religion, pagans were persected, killed, their places of whorship were destroyed etc. |
Wow, ok, im gonna stop arguing right now after i read that bolded part...wow. Did you hear yourself when you typed that?
EDIT: BTW, just to collapse your 2nd paragraph, Emperor wasn't considerd a God in Rome back than, Jupiter was. People thought that Emperor wa put in his position by God, not that he was God himself