Thursday, January 20, 2005

Thanks Constantine... I think....

So last nights Literature & Art class was pretty interesting. Im always amazed at the ability of college professors to talk for hours and hours and manage to keep it fairly interesting. This woman can talk church until the cows come home, which is interesting for me, because Ive never learned much on the subject.

And Im not talking the spoon fed version either.

To hear a former nun talk about the church, and discuss openly the positives and negatives of the church's influence over the past 1000 years or so, is something I could sit and listen to for hours and hours and hours.

One of the most interesting stories we talked about was how the Roman Emperor Constantine had a vision going into battle of the Cross, and how that led to converting the Roman Empire from a Pagan religion to Christianity. And forgive me if my facts arent 100% there... Im just a student for crying out loud...

So not only does this appear to be the point at which people began dying in war in the name of God, but think about it... if this guy doesnt see this Cross going into battle, its quite possible the main religion in the world could be a type of Paganism.

Constantine has a hallucination, and the world is forever changed. For the better? For the worse? Who cares, its a cool story and reminds me of the movie Gladiator.

The first war scene in Gladiator is quite possibly the best scene in a movie ever created. Gladiator is quite possibly the best movie ever created. If its not in your top 5, you need to lay off the crack.

strength and honor
nick

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah tal about nostalgia... I used to teach a class on Constanine when I was a university lecturer. Some people think that Constantine may never have been a real Christian but a follower of the SUN god. His mother Helena, however, was quite definitely a Christian convert and was responsible for the discovery of the relic of the true cross. Another good story

She and her helpers found the remains of several cross from calvary and used a crippled man to test them. They put different pieces together and then laid the cripple man on them. Eventually, when they got it right, they laid the man on a cross and he was cured. Ok, lecture done!

5:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

C'mon now... See, this is where religion doesnt make any sense to me. There is no way you lay a crippled person on a cross and they are cured. I dont care who you are, or what you are using.
Fairy tales are fun for kids and all, but Im much too skeptical for stuff like that :)

5:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well the bible's kinda full of stories about miraculous cures but I have to say I find those rather easier to believe (seeing as God was THERE in the form of Jesus) than later miracles. I don't think miracles are what Christianity and faith is all about. All that kinda television evangelism stuff has milked it so much and set false miracles before us.

I'm not trying to convert you but I do find it stimulating to talk about this stuff with people who DON'T agree with me! Bring on the skepticism! :oD

6:54 PM  

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