Big Lies
False Dichotomies, Blind Alleys, Red Herrings, etc
1. Christianity has always been spread by peaceful persuasion and voluntary conversion.
2. Paganism is not a religion.
3. Paganism is dead.
4. Christianity brought reason and morality to a corrupt and violent Pagan Rome.
5. Monotheism is philosophically more advanced than polytheism.
6. Many Pagans, including Plato and Plotinus especially, were "Pagan monotheists."
7. Christianity is the rightful inheritor of classical culture.
8. Paganism is a European phenomenon.
9. Pagan religions are naturally divided along racial and ethnic lines.
10. Even if Christianity is violent and intolerant the same is true of all religions.
11. The works of Homer portray the Gods as laughable bufoons who are intellectually and morally inferior to humans.
12. Pagan religion was just a "social" institution - Pagans had no direct personal experience of the Divine.
13. Christianity replaced Paganism because it met spiritual needs that were not addressed by Pagan religions.
14. Philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Epictetus, Plotinus, etc, were not Pagans.
15. Plato's works can be divided between early works in which he accurately depicts the teachings of Socrates, and later works in which Plato becomes a muddle-headed mystic.
16. Later Platonists, such as Plotinus and Proclus, did not really follow "Platonism" - rather they invented a completely new philosophical system that was only "Platonic" in name.
17. The Aeneid should not be viewed as an expression of Pagan spirituality.
18. The description of Isis found in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius cannot be taken seriously.
19. The God Pan was never consider an "important" Deity by the Greeks and Romans.
20. Contemporary Paganism is a wholly modern religion completely unrelated to historical Paganism that preceded Christianity.
A rough sketch of the early history of the persecution of Paganism
300 AD Christianity has existed now for three centuries. In the prevailling climate of religious tolerance Christianity has established itself as one of the hundreds of different cults that existed throughout the Roman world.
312 - 325 The Emperor Constantine has some sort of religious experience in the year 312. For the next 13 years he fights against everyone else, Christian or Pagan, who has any claim to the throne. Finally in 325 Constantine has defeated all his enemies.
325 Constantine, having routed his political enemies, sets out to establish a monolithic, centrally controlled version of Christianity. The first "Ecumenical Council" (from the Greek word oikoumene which refers to the "known world") is held at Nicea in 325. This Council established the first "creed" - which all Christians would henceforth be required to recite or else face the consequences of being labeled "heretics".
325 - 337 Constantine then establishes the city of Byzantium as his capital - and names the city after himself: "Constantinople". Constantine dies in 337 - only receiving baptism on his deathbed.
337 - 361 Some pretense of tolerance had still been maintained during Constantine's reign - but his successors become increasingly open in their attempts to use the power of the state to both (1) destroy all Religions other than Christianity, and (2) destroy all "heretical" forms of Christianity.
361 - 363 The brief reign of the Emperor Julian provided Pagans with some breathing space. During this time Pagans could once again worship the Gods openly. Julian felt that the Christians were their own worst enemies and saw no need to persecute them, but rather to simply let them have at each other.
363 - 392 Julian is killed in battle in 363 under mysterious circumstances. His successors ushered in a backlash against Paganism. In 391 the Emperor Theodosius began the most sweeping series of laws yet restricting Religious freedoms. In Rome the eternal fire at the Temple of Vesta was forcibly extinguished. In 392 the Temple of Serapis in Alexandria is destroyed by Christian mobs.
392 -410 Paganism persists among all strata of society including women, slaves and the rural population. In the city of Rome itself Paganism continues to be extremely popular. In 410 the city of Rome is sacked by invaders, many of Rome's elites flee across the mediterranean to Africa. Augustine writes "City of God" in response both to Rome's tragedy, and to the influx of Pagan intellectuals in Africa that resulted. Augustine was concerned about the Pagan claim that the fall of Rome was the result of the Empire's "conversion" to Christianity - which angered the Gods. The Sibylline Books are burned during this period by the Arian Christians.
410 - 527 Persecution of Pagans and destruction of Pagan holy places and sacred objects and sacred texts continues. Among other things, Theodocius II begins the process of collecting all the "Roman Laws" enacted since Constantine - this project would eventually culminate in the Code of Justinian.
527 Justinian ascends to the throne.
529 Justinian closes the Platonic academy in Athens. The "Justinian Codex" is also published. The Codex "codifies" two things: (1) the use of all the power of the state to extirpate all forms of Religion other than a narrowly defined and carefully controlled form of Christianity, and (2) above and beyond simple Religious repression, the Codex lays the framework for Absolutism as the form of government that would eventually form the basis for "western civilization."
"The Whole World In Their Hands"
A long time ago there were people who worshiped the Gods. Some of these people lived in cities - others lived in the countryside. Some of the them could read and write - others were illiterate. Some of the them were rich and powerful, some of them were poor and some of them were slaves. But they all worshiped the Gods. Then along came some mean people who told them to stop. "You are Pagans - stop it!!!" The mean people had big clubs and swords (and later on guns) but the other people didn't want to stop worshiping their Gods, so they said "you can't make us!" This was just what the mean people were hoping they would say.
So the mean people killed lots of Pagans, and then they proclaimed "Aha - we've killed them all, now no one still worships the Gods!" A lot of the other people were still worshiping the Gods - but now they were very afraid, so most of them said "Yeah ...... that's right .... yeah, we, uh, don't worship those nasty old Gods any more...." But there were still a few troublemakers who said "yes we do!"
"Who said that!?!?" the mean people demanded. At first the other people just looked at the ground and no one said anything. Then one of the mean people (a really big one) picked someone out of the crowd and said "If you don't tell me who said that I'll kill this person!" Still no one said anything and the big mean person killed the other person like he was brushing a bug off his arm. He smiled at the smell of blood - he had forgotten how much fun it was to kill these "Pagans". So he grabbed another one.
"How many of you Pagans do I have to kill before you tell me who said it." He brushed another bug off his arm......
Eventually the "Pagans" learned to keep their mouths shut. Or maybe the big mean people really did succeed in killing them all. But the mean people couldn't kill the Gods - and they couldn't kill the ability that the "Pagans" had to communicate with these Gods. You see these "Pagans" believed that no one had to be taught how to "be a Pagan". The mean people, on the other hand, believed that there was only one God - but that no one knew about "Him" unless the mean people explained it to you. Usually after explaining it to you they would put a big sharp sword against your throat and ask "so, now do you understand?"
Stories persisted about the Gods - and when no one was looking these "Pagans" would sometimes pray silently "Gods - are you still there?" Some people claimed that they heard answers to these prayers - but they had to be careful who they told. Other people claimed that their great great great grand-parents had never stopped worshiping the Gods. Considering the circumstances it was hard to tell who was crazy, who was lying, who was a spy and who just might be a real live honest to Gods "Pagan".
But the mean people weren't done yet. They looked around and saw that the whole f*cking world was full of these goddammed "Pagans". "Jesus Christ - lookat 'em all! How in the Hell are we ever going to afford enough cannons to save all their souls!?!?!?" But the mean people found a place where there were Pagans who had never seen iron - but where there was lots of gold. The mean people called this place "The New World" - but really they should have called it "easy pickings." The mean people thanked their bloodthirsty "God" and got to work. They quickly became fabulously wealthy - and it gave them more than enough "investment capital" to invest in taking over the whole goddammed planet.
The White European Christians went totally ape-shit. They rampaged across the entire surface of the planet earth. They murdered people in the name of Jesus. They leveled cities in the name of Jesus. They burned books, destroyed temples, tortured Priests and Priestesses - all in the name of Jesus. They even had the nerve to simultaneously enlave people and baptize them in the name of Jesus! This really happened. They had no shame whatsoever. They were intoxicated with the lust for power and wealth.
The world had seen lots of empires - but there had never been anything like this before. And once the White European Christians started running out of planet to conquer - they immediately went to war with each other! They slaughtered each other by the millions.
But before the White European Christians had started butchering each other, a bunch of them had colonized the Eastern part of North America and eventually became "Independent." They were the most shameless and bloodthirsty of them all. They could simultaneously proclaim that "all men are created equal" while complaining that the King of England hadn't done enough to eradicate the local "savages." They even quibbled over what fraction of a human being a slave was - for the purposes of their census.
When the White European Christians who were still in Europe started turning on each other, the "Americans" saw this an opportunity to grab the whole world and make it their own personal empire. They invented television, coca-cola, machine-guns and other handy tools to help them fulfill their "Manifest Destiny." To make sure that their fellow "Christians" would understand who was boss, they finally invented a new evil weapon that could literally destroy all human life - and then they did some educational demonstrations of the proper use of these weapons. So today we live in a "unipolar world" - a world that is basically one big happy Christian empire.