So I’m a mite less inclined to super-villainy than normal these days. Why, I dunno; it must be something I ate. Anyway, right now there’s more mischief than murder on my mind. So I was thinking of hopping in my Burroughs-Libby continua device, switching off the Novikov filter, and doing some time-stream pollution. Specifically, I’d zipping back to the first century AD and hunting down a certain carpenter from Galilee just before he gets executed. I’ll pop him, Mary Magdalene, and all their friends into a holosuite, there to live out all their days in a blissful simulation they never recognize, and to be on the safe side, said holosuite will be located on the moon. On the way home, I’ll find a certain tentmaker from Tarsus, and, I dunno, break all his fingers or something, so he never writes anything (not that he has anything to inspire him.) I will, in other words, stop the flower of Christianity from ever blooming.
How will history be changed once I do this? Will Mithraism spread all across the world? Who will Constantine swear fealty too? Will Islam spread worldwide? Will something happen I simply haven’t anticipated?
I think it’s perfectly possible for Chrisitianity to have formed exactly as it is even if none of those people ever existed (aside from whoever actually cobbled the Gospels together.)
Uh, no. You realize that I started by (a) assuming that Jesus and his disciples were historical figures, but that Jesus was not divine (otherwise I’d be an idiot to start the mission), and (b) preventing the seminal event of the narrative from ever occurring). It’s possible, even likely, that some other faith would’ve developed, but it could not be Christianity.
But if you’d like, I’ll pop into Bethlehem right before Joseph & Mary arrive and put the holosuite in the stable in which Mary gave birth, and disappear 'em that way. (But I’ll still pop by Jerusalem to give Saul of Tarsus a black eye, just on general principles.)
ETA: I’d say Paul is the person most important to the development of Christianity, by the way, rather than any of the Gospel writers/redactors.
I’ve heard that Christianity was heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism, so I’ll go with that.
As I recall there were a number of cults at the same time Christianity was beginning that had similar savior figures and themes (the Mithras cult was one), so it may have just been the time for it - if it hadn’t been Christianity, it would’ve been something similar.
Or I might be completely wrong, seeing as I’m no kind of religion studies geek.
I’d lean towards YAJS*. Judaism was spreading quite quickly at the time. The single God business and such was much more intellectually pleasing than the Greco-Roman riot of psychotic deities.
The key step would be to drop the big rules on things like circumcision and kosher diet. (Something Christianity did but clearly not for such overtly crass purposes.;))
Which possibly means it would have disappeared. After the distruction of the second temple the Essenes, Sadducees, Zealots and others disappeared.
Any naturally born Jew today will be decended fomr the Parisees.
From looking over Gnosticism on the Wikipedia page, it looks like there’s a good argument to be made that Jesus was John the Baptists student and then pretty much went and set up shop himself as a competitor. So possibly we could have ended up with Baptistian Gnosticism.
Skald, I’d have to go with what **Cher3 **said, even taking your rebuttal into consideration. I think it’s likely Christianity would have come into being and evolved into what it is today regardless of whether or not Jesus, or any of the other cast of characters actually existed.
Your abduction of a figure, or figures, the mythology is ostensibly based on would not have negated the mythology from developing anyway. It may have developed a little later, or in a different place, but I contend it would have developed, probably in exactly the same way it did.
Or else it wouldn’t have, and there are a lot more wouldn’t have’s.
For every choice Christianity made, there were multiple other options. Even just rewinding the tape and starting again might have given us other outcomes. This time through Pilate says “Screw it, let 'im go, I don’t like the look of that Barabbas rascal, crucify him instead, I don’t give a shit what the crowd will say.” Judas screws up finding Jesus, 'cause he went to take a leak. Saul doesn’t eat the mushrooms for lunch, and Christianity stays a Jewish cult.
Once you start knocking off the main characters, you get further and further from the same outcome. Skald has kidnapped Mary, Joseph, Jesus twice and beaten Saul of Tarsus. How 'bout if he drops Ebola in Judea, or nukes Jerusalem?* At some point there has to be a significant enough change that the end result is different. Even mythology has to have some nucleation point around which it forms.
I think some other cult - Jewish or not - would have eventually claimed the bulk of the empire, and would remain dominant in it’s descendants today. What cult is pretty random in my opinion.
Hail Mithras.
*It really worries me when I sound like Skald.
I’d have to say, comparatively, that this would simply come down to the richest church or religous organization at any point in time, that which comes about first politically and through creedo. Money is influence, Money is time, Time is a foothold…
Maybe if the Buddhists weren’t quite so anavangelical, they might just take first place naturally.
I guarantee Islam owes its existence to Christianity. Be a lot less strife.
(I’m going to assume by evangelism you mean proselytizing)
Who says Buddhists are opposed to evangelism? Over the years there have been scores upon scores of Buddhist sects, some evangelical, some not. Just like Christianity.
Did Buddhism spread from India throughout all of eastern Asia through simple osmosis? It was very common in the early years of Buddhism for monks and priests to take part in missions in other regions and countries.