| The_vagabond7 said: I have no idea where this conversation went, as I just clicked on the last page, but to those wondering why rome accepted christianity after torturing and murdering christians, it wasn't brainwashing, or a peaceful grassroots movement. It was a combination of dumb luck, religious intolerance, and time.
The romans were polytheists, believed in many many gods. The emporer Constantine before going into the battle of the milvian bridge was looking for a god to pray to in order to bring good luck in the fight. He went with the christian god, painted crosses on the sheilds of his soldiers and prayed to Yahweh. Then he won the fight, praises be to Jah. To celebrate he said that all religions were acceptable for romans (thus stopping persecution towards christians), returned property and churches to christians, and then he himself converted to christianity. And we all know the christian view of non christian religions. Under him temples to roman gods became christians temples, and christians started to be placed in high places in the roman government. Namely these were christians that had been "traditors", or traitorous christians that handed over christian documents to be burned and sold out other christians to the romans back before Constantine had converted himself. He believed that there needed to be a christian orthodoxy that all christians abided by, which lead to him leading a christian army to slaughter a different sect of christians (the donatists that labeled the traditors heretics) that were not part of christian orthodoxy (there goes the whole "conquered rome without violence" theory). This was probably the first instance of christian on christian violence. This also lead to the first council of Nicaea which eventually leads to the holy roman empire and the catholic church, and christianity as we know it today.
So there. Rome converted to christianity because an emperor chose one out of a thousand deities to aid him in battle, won, converted to christianity, promoted a group of traitorous roman sympathizer christians that had sold out their own people and heritage to positions of authority, then they lead a violent crusade against christians that didn't agree with their theology, then they set that theology in stone and made the holy roman empire and the catholic church that made a habit of the practice.
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So are you saying that Constantine was incredibly stupid for changing his fate because he needed someone to help him in battle, or that he was enlightned by our God and accepted Christianity as the only true religion?
EDIT. These links explain the story quite well
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_early_Christianity
http://www.allaboutreligion.org/history-of-christianity-in-rome-faq.htm
http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Why-Romans-Convert-Christianity/182873
