Friday, January 20, 2012

Christian Atheists

Though I absorbed a good deal of church history while attending parochial schools for ten of the twelve years of my K-12 education, I did not know this.

The whole body of Christians unanimously refused to hold any communion with the gods of Rome, of the empire, and of mankind.  It was in vain that the oppressed believer asserted the inalienable rights of conscience and private judgment.  Though his situation might excite the pity, his arguments could never reach the understanding, either of the philosophic or of the believing part of the Pagan world.  To their apprehensions it was no less a matter of surprise that any individuals should entertain scruples against complying with the established mode of worship than if they had conceived a sudden abhorrence to the manners, the dress, or the language of their native country.

The surprise of the Pagans was soon succeeded by resentment, and the most pious of men were exposed to the unjust but dangerous imputation of impiety.  Malice and prejudice concurred in representing the Christians as a society of atheists, who, by the most daring attack on the religious constitution of the empire, had merited the severest animadversion of the civil magistrate. (bold by ed)

Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume One, Chapter XVI (180-313 A.D.), The Conduct of the Roman Government towards the Christians, from the Reign of Nero to that of Constantine, The Modern Giant Library, New York, pgs. 448-449

Who woulda thunk, Christian Atheists.

And on a related note, linked via a post by DougM at Sondrakistan titled unholier than than, we learn this. Anti-church sentiment rises in Europe as more people seek ‘de-baptism’

Posted by John Venlet on 01/20 at 09:02 AM
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