Quote:
Originally Posted by Knalus
But it wasn't insignificant in the time of Constantine, it was very significant. The Christian church by the time of Constantine was a major part of the Roman Empire, but it tended to resist many of the controlling forces the Emperor and the Empire used to maintain the status quo. Emperors spent centuries attempting to quell the anti-emperor stance of the Christian Church, why do you think so many were fed to the lions? Why would you feed Christians to the lions if you invented it to control those people? This makes absolutely no sense. If anything, you could say that Constantine twisted the early Christian church, but you couldn't say that it was invented in order to create a mechanism of control over the regular folk. The emperor cults WERE the "invented" tool to control the masses, why build a new one? Christianity was divisive to Romans, not uniting. It's not just "not the most awesome tool", but it's possibly the worst tool available if control is your goal.
Christianity took off because he embraced it, not because he constructed it, and allowed the Good News to spread.
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I never suggested he invented it. I suggested he "might have" manipulated it to his benefit. Whether it was good news or not depends completely on your thoughts about Christianity.