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It's because one of the Roman Emperors converted to Christianity. And then ordered everyone else too. Or get their heads cut off. Gotta love the Romans.

I, for one, would rather practice a religion that doesn't involve human sacrifice or murdering my liver by drinking nonstop for a few days.

Albatross wrote:I think it was the whole 'be excellent to each other' vibe. The world was extraordinarily violent at that time, so I can see how a religion based on peace and love followed by eternal salvation would appeal. It's something to aspire to.

This.

The description of Christianity in the OP is pretty narrow. If all it was about was going out of your way to not have fun it wouldn't exactly have caught on.

Remember folks! This is NOT a serious thread. Further attempts to take it so will be refrred to the REAL Rod Hull

Maybe it was a way to rebel against the Romans (who, let's face it, were stamping on every available face at that time); a nice, banner to gather people under? Trouble is, at some point it got organized....

Organized religion has always been about controlling people through fear, and the more restrictive the rules, the better. People are far less likely to question authority if they spend their days repenting and feeling bad about themselves as opposed to say waking up and getting chinese-eyed at the first opportunity (a la Bacchus).

Cheese Elemental wrote:I, for one, would rather practice a religion that doesn't involve human sacrifice or murdering my liver by drinking nonstop for a few days.

You forget one important fact Cheese. The liver is evil and needs to be punished. Thats why I get the Capn' to make it happen.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:So, how the hell did Christianity manage to surplant older Religions then? I mean, it's not exactly a barrel of laughs is it? No, it's instead about self denial and feeling bad for being human.

Honour God, do nowt on a Sunday but be humbled. Compared to, honour the Gods, have an orgy. Honour the Gods, go get plastered. Honour the Gods, stuff your self silly on lovely foods.

What the hell man?

Do you start these threads with the sole intention of starting a flame war?

Seriously?

Two pages in, no flames, noy even mildly toasty thus far!

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Remember folks! This is NOT a serious thread. Further attempts to take it so will be refrred to the REAL Rod Hull

Hey man, if you start a religion that has an orgy every Sunday I'll be first in line.

No fatties though.

I'd like to profoundly apologise first of all for giving a reasonably serious answer.

But basically, from what I can gather as far as Britain was concerned, it was all because of women.

Essentially, the Celtic gods, the Norse gods all pretty much valued one thing about all else. Killing folk. Dying with a sword in my hand all that. And well, what did women have to look forward to particularly? Getting... polite word... rodgered by a drunken oath of a husband who's already just rodgered a valkyrie or whatever.

Probably not the best afterlife. Then you're told by a travelling monk or whatever about how if you're a dutiful wife (which you probably have to be anyway if you don't want to get cut apart or whatever) if you join this new religion, it's probably going to sound a whole lot more appealing.

So, the wife converts. The husbands all out fighting and whatever. The wifes at home, then teaches her sons and daughters about her new religion. Daughters go for it, son probably doesn't.

Things take a while, except, what happens when the husband doesn't die in war? He grows old, ill, bedridden. Valhalla or whatever is pretty much denied to him now, why shouldn't he convert.

And, as far as I can tell from wikipedia and stuff, that's pretty much exactly what happened to the viking King Guthrun of East Anglia.

Anyways, now back to your silliness.

When romans first tried to convert brits, they where ignored and laughed at
We had winter solstice pissups
And summer solstice pissups
Then some bright spark decided christ was born late december and it was ok to celebrate then
Then they discovered he was killed in the summer time. so it was ok to party then aswell

strange really You'd think someone planned it.

loki old fart wrote:When romans first tried to convert brits, they where ignored and laughed at
We had winter solstice pissups
And summer solstice pissups
Then some bright spark decided christ was born late december and it was ok to celebrate then
Then they discovered he was killed in the summer time. so it was ok to party then aswell

strange really You'd think someone planned it.

loki old fart wrote:When romans first tried to convert brits, they where ignored and laughed at
We had winter solstice pissups
And summer solstice pissups
Then some bright spark decided christ was born late december and it was ok to celebrate then
Then they discovered he was killed in the summer time. so it was ok to party then aswell

strange really You'd think someone planned it.

+1 for this. Early Christians suborned most of the pagan holidays- without a lock on the parties, it came down to who had the better house. Have you seen the Medieval churches? Stained glass windows for the win! Also, wine and bread at every service. It was a tremendous marketing coup.

I can appreciate the lighthearted jokes, but I get the feeling that some people are actually serious with their strange ideas of history. Could it possibly be that they genuinely believed it? We really aren't anti-fun, although people perceive us that way...

I wonder why...

But in truth, I think the idea of a fairly 'nice' afterlife appealed to many. After all, Hades isn't exactly my idea of a vacation, even the more lenient interpertations of it.

...plus early Britons were big on equality (for the time). See 'Boudicca', 'earth-mother/queen' concepts and 'fertility icons' for more details.

Equality? Really?

Well, MORE equality...

At least if you had a sword...

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Remember folks! This is NOT a serious thread. Further attempts to take it so will be refrred to the REAL Rod Hull

Is it...greeen jelly?

Then again, they fought in the nude. That's equality for ya'.

TREES FOR THE TREE SPIRITS!

I think we need to go back to nature worship. Plus I can think of a whole bunch of people we could burn in giant wicker men...

I can definately see the attraction in Paganism. Especialy considering that the Christian gods sybol is his own son nailed to a cross and one of the principal Pagan gods (Thor) symbol is a hammer. Coincidence?

Emperors Faithful wrote:I wonder why...

But in truth, I think the idea of a fairly 'nice' afterlife appealed to many. After all, Hades isn't exactly my idea of a vacation, even the more lenient interpertations of it.

The Elysian Fields don't seem so bad...

So Hades (which may or may not exist) Is a bit dull, but you're allowed to have orgies and piss ups in the here and now.

Whereas Heaven (which may or may not exist) is awesome, but in order to get there, you have to be a bit dull in the here and now.

One of these two must have it backwards. They can't both be right!

To be fair all the old ones are worn out by now, I'm going with a new religion!

Has anyone seen the second futurama movie 'the beast with a billion backs'?

LONG LIVE THE TENTACLE!

well, there is a part called 'mattress island' AND an all-you-can-eat buffet with no limit on meat courses!

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:I know that! Remember, this is a slightly silly thread orbiting a serious question, and thus, is not to be taken entirely seriously.

Though as Dogma said, it is worth investigating. Perhaps I have finally found a Degree worth pursuing in my eyes?

But no! No more serious! Back to the silly!

I now have visions of Albatross walking round and round a Petrol Station, wearing a gimp mask. With a Buttflap Punk in tow to scare people.

Maybe they were right? A shocker...

Regardless its a topic that much to important than investigating on Dakka OT.

Ok, for starters there are a lot of wierd stories going around, and because they are anti-christian they get automatically believed by some. Convert and you get a free night with a whore, that sounds really corrupted, so of course it must be true! Let's hate 'em Christians.

Yes its supposedly a light hearted thread, but you get some 'light hearted' vile propaganda someone will still believe it. Trust me on this, I have seen a lot of abuse for being religious in my time, and the odd lies people like to believe about Christianity and Christians helps fuel that. I am no longer shocked by what people tell me I believe, the sharper ones amongst you will notice the paradox in that argument immediately. I wont deny my God, but I dont need to be forward about my faith and face persecution, on several occasions I have been outed then set upon verbally.

Having 'fun' this way is a bit like erecting a burning cross on a black neighbours front garden and then saying afterwards "its only a joke, we aren't the KKK really."

I can handle being the butt of jokes for my faith, every good Christian should be able to do that, but the thread isn't clear when people are switching from bigotry to humour and back again, and that is no good for anyone. The basic concept of the thread is fair enough, but it devolves too easily.

Orlanth wrote:Ok, for starters there are a lot of wierd stories going around, and because they are anti-christian they get automatically believed by some. Convert and you get a free night with a whore, that sounds really corrupted, so of course it must be true! Let's hate 'em Christians.

Yes its supposedly a light hearted thread, but you get some 'light hearted' vile propaganda someone will still believe it. Trust me on this, I have seen a lot of abuse for being religious in my time, and the odd lies people like to believe about Christianity and Christians helps fuel that. I am no longer shocked by what people tell me I believe, the sharper ones amongst you will notice the paradox in that argument immediately. I wont deny my God, but I dont need to be forward about my faith and face persecution, on several occasions I have been outed then set upon verbally.

Having 'fun' this way is a bit like erecting a burning cross on a black neighbours front garden and then saying afterwards "its only a joke, we aren't the KKK really."

I can handle being the butt of jokes for my faith, every good Christian should be able to do that, but the thread isn't clear when people are switching from bigotry to humour and back again, and that is no good for anyone. The basic concept of the thread is fair enough, but it devolves too easily.

A serious post in a joke thread.....Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe this is what is commonly known as a:

@Ketara: He is right you know...