Originally Posted By: Curmudgeon
Bob,

I'm sure you know that those who decided to start this new religion claimed to have been eyewitnesses of His resurrection and ascension. Ya, that could have been part of their big deception, except that they went to the ends of the earth to proclaim it and were martyred as a result. Personally, I'd find a different line of work.


I would not equate a willingness to die as evidence that the early practitioners of the faith actually witnessed anything. First of all, one of the things that Christianity represents is the partial fulfillment of Alexander the Great's goal of hellenization of the world. Christianity grafted Greek ideas onto the Jewish religion and then used the Greek language and Roman roads to spread. The Christians started off not as a Religion but as as a sect within the Jewish religion that was largely lead by Jews who spoke and wrote Greek. Christianity was very much a way of challenging not only the pharisaical law and control of everyday life, but also Roman law and control, and freedom is certainly worth dying for. People are killed not so much for what they believe, but because the believer can not be controlled by the powers that be. The more a believer recruits in opposition to the social order, the more likely that he will forfeit his life.

Keith
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