Why did polytheism fail in the West? Why did Rome convert to Christianity? At what point would the rise of monotheism be possible to stop?
>>1388224
Why did polytheism fail in the West? Why did Rome convert to Christianity?
Oppression and murder.
>>At what point would the rise of monotheism be possible to stop?
Either have Constantine lose the battle of the milvian bridge or have Julian the Apostate be more successful.
I have the one theory.
>>1388224
Trick question. Christianity is only quasi monotheistic. The Godhead consists of three entities.
>Why did Rome convert to Christianity?
Constantine and a desire to control the masses and not persecute them.
>At what point would the rise of monotheism be possible to stop?
We're working on it right now
The Roman religion is so universalistic that when Caesar goes to conquer the Gauls, he says they worship Mercury, Venus, etc.
The Roman interprets the foreign gods as his own, and sometimes goes out of his way and brings them back home, like Isis (the good one, from Egypt, not the acronym from Iraq and Syria).
Only the Hindus are comparable to this degree of universalism and tolerance.
What the Romans cared about was the Pax Deorum: all divinity of all religions and all peoples being worshipped and pleased with Civilization and its citizens.
The Romans thought this "Christus" guy could have been yet another addition to their ever-expanding collection of protectors.
Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, believed this was the case, as the Edict of Milan shows.
But the open polytheisms born out of the Proto-Indo-European religion, and the intolerant monotheisms of Semitic origins could never mix. They were never meant to.
>>1388224
Because Jesus rose from the dead.
>>1388260
>Isis (the good one, from Egypt, not the acronym from Iraq and Syria)
Her name was Aset you Greek fuck
next you're gonna say "Horus" or "Osiris"
>>1388224
Christianity was simply too memetic compared to other religions, especially esoteric ones
>>1388327
I'd wager the social security and aid Christian churches gave out to the poor were also pretty important.
Why sacrifice cattle to Mars because of silly things like "honor" and "strength" and "tradition" when the Messiah cultists are giving out free bread, teaching children to read, and will help get you a job?
>>1388269
She has a lot of names. She started out as Semiramis. She is now called "Mary".
>>1388354
Oh I was assuming we talking about Christianity as a concept being so popular and not the actions of Christians pre se. Not that I disagree with you though.
>>1388269
One moment while the God of Autistic Wiseasses writes down your name.
>>1388426
DJEHUTY
J
E
H
U
T
Y
>>1388255
Finally someone who gets it.
>>1388224
>Why did polytheism fail in the West?
Because Christianity took over, mainly because Rome converted en mass to it. This was due to heavy patronage by powerful people, and because it caught on as a stylish new religion in some influential groups.
>Why did Rome convert to Christianity?
Legend has it that the emperor Constantine had a dream or vision and he instantly converted in one night, he then basically required everyone else to convert by royal decree or some shit like that. Not really but he funded the church heavily and made it much easier for them to spread and gain power.
>At what point would the rise of monotheism be possible to stop?
Probably around the time of the council of Nicea. It was still a very fluid religion before that time, and that's when they decided what would be accepted in the bible and what would be official doctrine.
Christianity was sculpted by the Romans to appeal to a continent of polytheists, mainly by taking a monotheistic belief structure and incorporating concepts like the trinity, mother Mary, and later, saints. Pure monotheism is a concept still foreign to much of Europe. But it's a step towards monotheism, and its spread benefits from ideas associated with monotheism, which is seen as a more developed world view. Put simply, it's shiny and new, and is able to appeal to many and spread quickly. Polytheism often only works for the region in which it originated, it's not as universal, nor is it as organized. At the time organizing people through religion was the name of the game. Religion was your nation, your culture, everything, governments as we have now didn't really exist. The only people with significant power for a long time were the priesthood.
>>1388433
Hermes.
You mad?
>>1388224
Why did polytheism fail in the West?
Polytheism was already on the way out when Christianity appeared. Platonism and the mystery cults were already moving in that direction. In fact, Christianity moved from something more like a cult to a viable religion when it integrated neoplatonic ideas. Ultimately the idea of integrating the many gods into the all was already happening and just waiting for some peasant friendly version to show up.
Why did Rome convert to Christianity?
Rome, and the eastern half of the empire in particular, was a clusterfuck. The levant was a collection of different people, largely incompatible with one another, living in an environment where there was both severe poverty and extreme wealth living side by side. A combination of easy access to grain and slave labor had allowed the wealthy class to maintain its position through therapeutic welfare (state bread and patronage) and shutting out competition with slave labor and government protection (does any of this sound familiar?).
We can't know the psychological profile of what the average person living at the time was, but we do know that people in a similar social situation in the modern era tend to suffer from feelings of helplessness leading to depression and a variety of social ills.
A passive aggressive religion that promises the ascendence of the impoverished, punishment for the oppressive, and a salvation applied universally to all the wretched of the earth was not exactly a hard sell.
At what point would the rise of monotheism be possible to stop?
Monotheism was inevitable, but the chauvinistic, abrahamic religions were not. They took power because Rome 1) did not sufficiently guard against Jewish perfidy, 2) grew an oversized multicultural empire full of incompatible people way too fast and 3) did not maintain a balance of power between the different classes, leading from a republic of citizen soldier-farmers to an empire of masters, slaves and mercenary armies.
