From
The question of why particular countries
in
The early
spread of Christianity is almost entirely attributed
to the Apostle Paul. His letters to neighboring regions, especially the one to
the Romans included in the New Testament, were widely influential in changing
local religious views. Before the purported arrival of Jesus Christ, the
original Hebrew religion, as found in the Old Testament, was an unfathomably
harsh one. If you’ve taken the time to read the Old Testament in its entirety,
you’ve probably noticed that God was consistently angry and vengeful for what
appear to be petty reasons. He even threatened to kill people for excuses most
of us would consider insane if offered by an ordinary earthly individual.
Records made shortly before the Common Era (otherwise known as the BC period)
indicate that the support for this deity had about run out of steam. This
natural fizzle is nothing new considering that dozens of religions have
flourished and vanished over the past few millennia. Paul, however, was convinced
that the idea of Christ renovated the old religion. Thus, he altered the
formerly distant and spiteful God into a loving and fair ruler. In fact, the
makeover was so drastic that some virtually extinct sects of the new religion
believe the god of the New Testament is an entirely different god than the one
depicted in the Old Testament.
Paul also dropped an array of incorrigible
requirements for converting to this new persuasion, including the most
deterring one of all: circumcision. In order to garner a larger following, he
also emphasized the aspects of Christianity possessing universal appeal. The
most notable of his addendums, the gift of an afterlife, may have been
essential for the conversion to be successful. Furthermore, Paul took an additional
step toward creating a more accessible belief system by proclaiming that anyone
could get into this afterlife regardless of any immoral behavior previously
exhibited by the new believer.
Because few people are readily content
with the idea of their own mortality, it’s perfectly understandable that many
would want to jump to a religious persuasion offering a gift of eternal life.
Paul was clearly one of many who was self-convinced
that he would never truly cease to exist. Quite predictably, fossil records
from the era in which historians now think that beliefs of an afterlife began
indicate a concurrent expansion of the human skull around the frontal lobe of
the brain, the location at which we appreciate our mortality. In essence, religion was born when we
saw death coming. God’s afterlife could be nothing more than the product of a
human defense mechanism against death. All creatures fight for their earthly
survival; man has tricked himself into believing he’s immortal.
In
the first century CE, Rome was in an obvious state of religious and
governmental flux. The traditional Roman and Greek religions were rapidly
falling out of favor with the citizens of the Empire. Zeus, Jupiter, and
company were scarcely observed in religious
ceremonies. The Caesar was the closest thing to a god that the people of Rome
had ever experienced. In addition, many of the other government officials were
corrupt without a thriving religion to provide moral guidelines. At the same
time of this spiritual downfall, a highly advanced road system was being laid throughout the Empire to expedite information
exchange. These coalescing factors provided the perfect environment for a novel
way of thought to remodel their society. Had the citizens of Rome enjoyed a
solid religion and governmental stability, they certainly would have quickly
rejected Christianity on the grounds of having no practical use for it. Thus,
the fate of Christianity as a dominant world religion would have already been
doubtful without its acceptance by the powerful and influential Roman Empire.
Christianity
eventually arrived in Rome to a warm public reception because the religion was
the first with intricate detail and organization to reach this region of the globe.
A large collection of recorded events and stories from which potential members
could gain the religion’s essential lessons also accompanied the movement.
Such inclusions were great new concepts for the Romans who previously had
religions founded on abstract ideas. Before Christianity, the closest thing to
an afterlife that previously established religions ever offered the Romans was
the concept of Hades. While this mysterious idea permitted their souls to be
saved, it wasn’t clear exactly what transpired after
their deaths. Heaven, on the other hand, was a remarkable refuge where they
would sit alongside their god and savior while singing praises to them.
Furthermore, this wonderful gift had only one prerequisite: accept Jesus as a
personal savior. Such coherent simplicity was obviously a vast improvement over
the older vague religions. While Christianity did have strict guidelines, the
followers were seemingly immune from God’s post mortem punishments if they had
received forgiveness for their sins. Even though Christians are adamant about
living what they consider a respectable and moral life, they cannot deny that
God also admits rapists and murderers into Heaven under the provided
guidelines.
Christianity had a couple of great
psychological factors working in its favor centuries before modern
psychologists recorded the foundations of the science. First, Jesus prophesied
his own return within the lifetime of certain individuals who personally
witnessed his miracles. There are several passages in the New Testament
reinforcing this essential idea, and we’ll discuss these statements at length
in future chapters. If the Romans desired to avoid eternal damnation in Hell,
they absolutely needed to act quickly before it was too late. Once Jesus
returned, the offer was seemingly void. A sense of urgency is always useful in
coercing people to behave a certain way. For example, if product discounts in a
store are only valid for an extremely short period, researchers have
demonstrated that people act impulsively by making purchases they would not
have otherwise made in a normal setting. If a significant percentage of people
behave this way with small discounts on material possessions, how many would
take the chance with eternal damnation by postponing one simple task? When
Jesus’ return prophecies eventually failed, however, it was necessary to alter
the predictions into ambiguity.
The second great attraction was the
initial ban of Christianity from practice and observance within Rome. As we all
know, when you can’t have something, you want it even more. This rule of human
nature fueled the desire for the religion, similar to the way that Prohibition
fueled a desire for alcohol in 1920s America. The fact that the government
didn’t allow people to drink made the idea of consuming alcohol more enticing
than ever before. Coincidentally, the height of the Empire’s expansion in the
early second century was concurrent with the prohibition of Christianity. As a
result, word of Jesus Christ spread throughout the entire European continent
via their improved road system. By 380 CE, Christianity had become such a
widespread belief that Emperor Theodosius recognized it as the official
religion of Rome. Even though the Empire was collapsing during his reign, it
still held large portions of present-day France, Spain, Portugal, and England.
As we will see in a moment, these countries were the most vital in shaping the
West.
Christianity’s
Failure
While Christianity was making its numerous
rounds throughout Rome, missionaries also pushed the beliefs on societies
farther to the East. However, in deep contrast to the citizens of Rome,
inhabitants of these regions didn’t welcome the religion with open arms. The
key difference between Eastern Asia and Rome was the presence of previously
established, easily understandable, and consistently observed religions. By
1000 BCE, India already had Hinduism, a set of beliefs founded on their sacred
Veda books. These written tales of the world’s verifiably oldest surviving
religion were widely distributed centuries before Paul was even born. Since
Hinduism was firmly rooted in Indian culture, Christianity had very little
impact in the region. Likewise, large portions of Asia, including China, had
Buddhism by 500 BCE and a written moral guideline, the Tripitaka, by 200 BCE. Needless to say, efforts in bringing Christianity to
By the dawn of the Middle Ages, followers
of Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism had long established their respective
belief systems as the dominant world religions. However, Christianity was the
only one of the three that often resorted to violent tactics of conquest and
conversion. Its only competitor in crime would be Islam, which was already
several centuries behind its more ancient counterparts. Shortly before Columbus
rediscovered the Americas, Christians cast a quickly growing Islamic following
out of Europe through a series of wars and crusades in the eleventh through
fifteenth centuries. Their access to the
The Roman Empire may have been a distant
memory by the 1600s, but it left its mark on Europe through the continued
presence of its last principal religion. English Christians made their way to
North America in order to escape persecution of harsh religious governments. It
wouldn’t be long before these immigrants succeeded in murdering or converting
several native tribes
out of a desire to occupy the eastern third of the continent. France was a
trifle more humane to the natives, but they still forced their way into
occupying the middle third of the continent. Roman Catholic Spain claimed the
western third of the continent as well as most of Central and South America.
Portugal, another Roman Catholic country, occupied present-day Brazil. In
short, all four countries that conquered the Americas had some form of
Christianity as their only publicly accepted religion.
The
United States, the region formerly held by England, would eventually buy
France’s claim in the Louisiana Purchase, an acquisition of definite threat to
Spain’s presence in North America. The idea of Manifest Destiny, the popular
belief that the Judeo-Christian god wanted Americans to rule the continent and
firmly impart their ideologies to others, spread quickly in the 1840s. Because
of this misguided belief, Christian Americans murdered large numbers of native
inhabitants and started wars with Mexico, the region formerly held by Spain, to
force them out of the western territories. Greatly weakened by their recent
war for independence, Mexico eventually agreed to give up their claims as far
south as the present-day border.
By 1865, the Union freed the slaves held
by the Confederate States of America. Some of these former human possessions
decided to return to Africa, bringing their coerced Christianity with them. To
this day, Protestant Christianity dominates the land above the US/Mexico
border, while Roman Catholicism is dominant in the regions to the south. Africa
is now a balanced mixture of Islam and Christianity.
Why Does
Christianity Dominate The West?
One very influential missionary had a
desire to spread the idea of Christ. Paul passed the new
Hebrew religion onto the Romans through his persuasive skills for writing and
speaking. As the citizens of the Empire were desperate for a new religion, they
were quite open to the change that Christianity offered. The vastness of Rome
then allowed Christianity to spread throughout much of Europe. Before the
Empire collapsed, Christian believers had well established their religion in
the regions that would play a key role in shaping the West. No other religions,
with the exception of the much weaker Islam, were interested in conquering and
converting societies with contrasting religious viewpoints. Thus, a lack of
viable threats allowed the European Caucasian population to flourish unopposed
across the Atlantic Ocean. With this unmolested liberty, the proportion of the
Christian world increased to nearly one-third of the present-day religious
preference.
If Paul had
decided against becoming a Christian, or if Rome wasn’t in need of stability,
Christianity may have never survived in Europe. In this case, the West could
have been free from the burdens and oppressions of religious nonsense. If Islam
had formed quicker or sooner, Muslims may have been capable of forcing
Christians to release their hold on the Atlantic. The West would then be
susceptible solely to Islamic faith. As it stands, the West is a Christian
region because Christianity was simply in the right place at the right time.