WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?

Jesus Christ sowed the seed of Christianity but it was John who ultimately took his teachings to the masses of Rome. He was, of course, crucified as Christ was, but the damage had been done. The people of Rome were turning Christian. Rome, which was Pagan, had a problem with this. The problem: Christianity only had one god, that god was not the Roman Emperor, and under Roman law, not worshiping the emperor as a god was an act of treason. There are actually a number of court records regarding the prosecuting of Christians. Some magistrates thought them heretics. Others were besides themselves, knowing the people they were sentencing were absolutely peaceful and spiritual but they were bound by law. Some magistrates chose to resign their posts rather than have to make another such horrible decision a second time in their careers. These people knew the persecution was wrong but they had to do it because they were bound by law.

Still, Christianity blossomed until it spread across all walks of life. Then comes Christianity's big break: Emperor Constantine. If you're Catholic, you know the story. He was in battle, his army was being massacred and then he saw a cross in the sky with a banner that read "Conquer with this." Lo and behold, he rallied his beleaguered troops and won the day. Well, this story is BS. Food for the masses, as they say. Here's what really happened: while repairing the damage to Rome caused by years of civil war, Constantine had an epiphany; all of the government officers could read, and the only people who could read were Christian. Why? Because Christians have to be able to read the Bible. This meant that Constantine was surrounded by his enemies. Solution: become Christian.

Well, here is what Christianity did for European civilization. You could read books, but they had to be approved by the church. Any book that did not venerate god in some way or venerated god in a way that disagreed with the Canon was banned. Imagine what happened to books written by non-Christians. The result: throughout the first ten centuries of Christianity, the European population became horribly illiterate. Progress was often regarded as blasphemy so inventions and their inventors were often disposed of. Just to give you an idea of what our world would have been like without Christianity, in the 13th century one such invention that was destroyed was an actual working jet engine (the schematics have survived. It is a functioning, highly fuel efficient, steam-driven engine. Technology that existed before it existed is something of a hobby of mine. Ask me about the Victorian computer, sometime.).

Okay, I've digressed. Back to the history lesson. Around the 7th century, we have a Moorish man called Mohammed. He's trying to spread Christianity to the Persian world. They run him out on a rail. During his exile, he comes to attend a European religious school (not just any school, either. He enrolled in Oxford.). During his studies he learns the Bible and learns that, Lo!, Christ has promised he would return. Well, Mohammed isn't quite right in the head. He thinks Christ was talking about him. So he goes back to Mecca and claims that he is the second coming of Christ, goes into a cave, has a vision of the Archangel Gabriel and the 1200 page ejaculation that results comes to be known as the Qu'ran. (Just an aside, even if you don't agree with the philosophy, the Qu'ran is worth reading simply for the fact that it is linguistically one of the most beautiful poetic pieces ever conceived. Nothing that I can think of compares to it, except perhaps some of Shakespeare's loftier works.)

Thus, is born the tradition of Islam. The result: The Persian people become obsessed with knowledge (it is my opinion that Islam of today has lost itself. Whereas today, they destroy anything that disagrees with Mohammedan philosophy, under Mohammed and his followers, Islam prized foreign knowledge above all else.). They engaged archaeologists to locate ancient or hidden manuscripts, built entire libraries. The Persian world knew its renaissance under the beginning of Islamic rule and the 2000 questions of Sha'Ria.

So what do we have? The Christians, an entire civilization that is largely illiterate, losing ground to the Muslims, a civilization that is at its height in art, education and wisdom. Who do you think is going to come off better? If you guessed Islam, give yourself a gold star. Christianity, by the 10th century was facing a grim death at the hands of Islam. Of course, this could not be allowed and so Europe, led by the Vatican declared war, a jihad, against Islam, their goal to destroy it wherever it could be found. A very enlightened way to deal with the situation, don't you think. It was out of this era that we get such tales of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, tales of adventure that don't paint the governments of Europe in a very pretty light.

The Christians say they won the Crusades. The Muslims say they won the Crusades. The fact that the Christians on this board are not Muslim suggests that everyone agreed to disagree. Of course, Paganism has been allowed to flourish while everyone was busy fighting the Muslims. Well, we can't have Europeans not believing in Christ. They must die...erm...sorry, they must be saved!

(Jarring chord)

NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!! Of course that was just one branch of the Inquisition, but probably the bloodiest, following the writings of the Malleus Malificorum (The Witch's Hammer), they are said to have killed some 60,000 people, mostly women...of course, they also killed Jews, and the number was closer to 200,000 because of that. Their preferred method? Jeez, don't you people watch Monty Python? They burned them!...after comparing their weight to a duck.

So would you like to know what Jewish faith believes should happen to unbelievers. Just read the Old Testament. It includes the Torah and some very select parts of the Talmud (obviously not the whole thing). It gives you a good idea. Feed them wormwater and see of god chooses to save them. Drive a tent stake through his head if he's a foreigner.