Christianity actually spread mostly by voluntary conversion which is still happening now. People are taught otherwise but those beliefs are largely myths. During the age of European colonialism, only a little headway was made spreading Christianity in the third world. Only after the European countries set their colonies free, Christianity began growing by leaps and bounds. The first national groups to convert wholly to Christianity were the Armenians, Ethiopians, and a small border state between the Roman and Sassanid empires. None of these were run by Rome and they all became Christian before Rome. Look at the British isles, no Christian army invaded Britain and Ireland and imposed Christianity on them. Rather, after becoming Christian, they were invaded by pagan Angles, Saxons, Danes, and Norsemen who persecuted Christians until they in turn converted and became civilized.
The great thinkers of Greece and Rome were either killed or forced to forced to conform to a belief system that was not real.
The great thinkers of Greece and Rome were NOT killed off or coerced into accepting Christianity. And those great thinkers aren't what you think. Remember Socrates? He was a great thinker put to death on a charge of atheism and blasphemy, but it wasn't Christians who put him to death. Greek and Roman societies ran on massive slavery, only an elite were educated, infanticide was widespread, the paterfamilias had the power of life and death over his family and every Roman city had a colosseum (a public works project) where humans and animals were put to death to amuse the crowds. |
