Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests When did sex become wrong?

The destruction story in the Bible certainly isn't unique, either. I recall a number of African tribal religions having their own version of the "Great Flood", as well as a few Native American religions holding a "Great Flood" story as well.

Past that, many ceremonies and traditions in the Old Testament are blatant carry-overs from other far-older religious doctrines and practices; the act of marriage is certainly one of these...

One could (and I think there is a cadre of scholars out there that do) spend a lifetime comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences between the polytheistic and monotheistic religions that are well-documented.

But, to your question of why Christianity has become one of the most dominant and long-standing religions on the planet:

It's accessibility and the "luck of the draw" that most of the empire-building and colonial powers during the first 2 millenia bought into it's message.

While nowhere as easy as the Lotus Sutra in Buddhism in terms of obtaining guaranteed "Buddhahood" (i.e., salvation), Christianity in it's basic message and teachings bring forth the path to salvation through a fairly easy and easily-understood process that the Western mind had little problem digesting. Outside of digging into the miniscule particulars of worship and bylaws in the Old Testament and strictly running of off the messages in the New Testament, Christianity is fairly straightforward on the KEY concepts of salvation. PLEASE note the emphasis on the word "KEY" here, as entire sects have popped up over one group arguing the more granular theological points that are mostly meaningless to the masses...

I think the one of the greatest "watershed" events was Constantine converting to Christianity in Rome and making it a state-practiced religion. This certainly pushed it into the forefront of attention in the known world. Even though Rome was definitely in decline in the 4th Century, it was still THE world power at the time...

The other, of course, was the Gutenberg printing press and the slew of other presses that popped up in competition. Two guesses as to which particular religious book was the most popularly-printed, but you should only need one.

It was this that helped further spread Christianity, in addition to another important one, the Spanish and Portuguese sailing into the New World bringing forth the mantra of "God, Gold and Glory" to cultures that were totally unprepared for the physical, mental and spiritual onslaught that was to come.

Perhaps if the Chinese hadn't of turned absolutely xenophobic after a few strange omens and events that took place in the early 1400's, Buddhism would have been competing right up against Christianity as a far-flung religion. Islam tried with the Moors, but they only got as far as mid-Spain until they were turned back...

I do take point at the article claiming Jesus wasn't a real person. Roman documents, unless they were forged and at different times do notate that Jesus did actually live and die. I know Tacitus wrote about this and I vaguely recall that a few other Roman historians did as well.

EDIT: Where in the Hell did holycow's posts go? This was in reference to the last one!