Christianity was one of the reasons Rome fell. Not because *religion bad*, but because it became a MASSIVE money sink and practically crippled their military budget.The only reason Rome got as big as they were was because they had the manpower and funds to support such huge military operations. Roman Mythology was more reliant on local funds and smaller temples, more-so to the individual, not the state. Christianity required tithes and greater monetary demand to the state to fund, also MASSIVE amounts of funds were spent on conversion of their populace and new Churches that had to have over-the-top design to convert more people.Again, before you call me anything, I'm not saying it was a bad move, but it did severely cripple their military power at the time which is a factor in their fall.
>>17978809Religion itself is not bad, but the people who abuse it's teachings are. Christianity was only really an issue because the government and church pushed for these reforms upon the populace. If it was allowed to naturally grow like the Romans did with their previous Mythology, then there wouldn't have been an issue.A point that a lot of people forget is that pre-Christian Rome was actually really smart in how they implemented their mythology in new populations and cultures, both in maintaining peace, but also keeping financial requirements low. It use to be "Hey guys, your gods are now part of our myth, just bit different." They still used the same temples and methods of prayer. Donations and the like was moreso a "do it when you can", than it was "You need to set aside a tithe".It was when Christianity became the centralized religion, that it turned into "Your gods don't exist, we must burn down your temples and build a giant church instead". And priests and government officials started requiring people, and the state, to donate funds to fatten their own coffers. This also started causing more issues with the populace because they were being forced into this new religion instead of adapting to it, causing riots and crime to increase (this caused even more funds to be expended).Organized Religion isn't the issue. It's how it was implemented and abused that made it into an issue.
>>17978809I don't approach this from a purely materialist standpoint. The causes as to why Rome fell in the 5th century in the West had a lot to do with mismanagement by the elites and the instability of the political system, with generals staging insurrections at a time when Germanics and others were growing in strength at the Roman border, as well as inside of it. The amount of blame you place on individuals, like the late emperors, has to do with how you evaluate what options they had, and how much was unavoidable fallout from earlier decisions.I lean toward the notion that the Western empire was already in a hopeless position after Theodosius I died, due to reasons that were beyond any one person's control. I would then be inclined to look at history prior to that to further evaluate the answer, which I do under this hypothesis.>Christianity required tithes and greater monetary demand to the state to fund, also MASSIVE amounts of funds were spent on conversion of their populace and new Churches that had to have over-the-top design to convert more people.I believe this is where an oversimplification occurs. When Constantine established Christianity as a religion and Theodosius later attempted to solidify it, neither of them were adopting the primal and original Biblical-based Christianity. Instead, they were founding a separate religion called Catholicism, which only claims on the surface to be Christianity.Having established that, history can readily be explained: The original problem is that Constantine tried to merge his church with the state.Hypothetically, if he had somehow been able to do what the American founding fathers did, and keep the institutions of church and state separate... and if he had successfully allowed people to convert organically to the inherently-best belief system, rather than conversion by swordpoint, I think that would have opened the possibility for a completely different trajectory of history than what we got.
Rome never fell lmao, Latin is still considered an intellectual language needed to study philosophy and theology, all modern law has its roots in Roman law and people still very much act and live Roman culture. That pathetic "empire" that was rotting away was replaced but Rome itself lives on immortally inside Europe.
>>17978809>Christianity required tithes and greater monetary demand to the state to fund, also MASSIVE amounts of funds were spent on conversion of their populace and new Churches that had to have over-the-top design to convert more peopleAh, so you just have no idea about history whatsoever. Yes anon, the church was definitely a giant bloated moneysink in the fucking 4th century. Sure, the Papacy only inherited Rome centuries after the WRE fell but who cares about that?
>>17978926Europe is cucked, the Roman spirit if it is alive and well, is dwelling in the hearts of Americans
