x-post, Swami Devananda
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Christianity practiced today was the invention of the 218 bishops who gathered at Nicaea in 325 AD and persuade the Roman emperor Constantine to make their guru cult--in Hindu terms Jesus is no more than an acharya guru--into the state religion. They promised him all political support for his effort and they all bowed down to his feet. Constantine remained to the end of his days Pontifex Maximus, i.e. Pope, and it is only after his death that the Bishop of Rome inherited the title. So there was no St. Peter in Rome to get crucified upside down as Deivanayakam and his disciples suggest.
The first question to be decided by the Council was whether Jesus was a god or not. Two bishops from Libya dissented and were assassinated that night. The vote the next day was a unanimous 216 for deifying Jesus.
Prior to the Council of Nicaea, there was neither Bible nor cross nor a Virgin Mary cult. Some historians will state that the Roman cross used as the identifying mark of Christianity did not come into popular use until the seventh century. It probably came into use a little earlier, say fifth century, but certainly there was no Christian cross in the first century.
The whole of Christianity that is known today is a creation that came after the fourth century. The Bible itself was edited, rewritten, and collated by Constantine's bishops a year after the Council of Nicaea, in 326 AD.
In the first century BC/AD Alexandria was the intellectual center of the Roman Empire. It was a world academic center with a famous library and university. As Alexander himself had established the city and had later travelled to India, there is historical evidence to show that Buddhist monks and Brahmin pundits were in Alexandria during the period that Christianity was being formed by the Church fathers in the first three centuries.
Christianity shows very profound Buddhist and Hindu influences. The glaring example is the Sermon on the Mount which all historians agree is not a Christian text. Some say it is Buddhist, others say it is Neo-Platonist. All agree it is not Christian and a later interpolation into the New Testament.
Except for the invention of the concept of eternal damnation, which he threatened his critics with, Jesus contributed absolutely nothing new to the vast religious and philosophical literature of the world at that time.
It is Christianity that has copied the world's religions, not the other way round. Its early theologians copied Buddhist and Platonist ideas, but <b>they finally settled for Aristotle's philosophy as they could use it to reconciled their material interests and push for political power and world empire. </b>Christianity is a political ideology that claims divine sanction. That Hindus believe it is a religious system of service and sacrifice only shows up their own ignorance.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Christianity practiced today was the invention of the 218 bishops who gathered at Nicaea in 325 AD and persuade the Roman emperor Constantine to make their guru cult--in Hindu terms Jesus is no more than an acharya guru--into the state religion. They promised him all political support for his effort and they all bowed down to his feet. Constantine remained to the end of his days Pontifex Maximus, i.e. Pope, and it is only after his death that the Bishop of Rome inherited the title. So there was no St. Peter in Rome to get crucified upside down as Deivanayakam and his disciples suggest.
The first question to be decided by the Council was whether Jesus was a god or not. Two bishops from Libya dissented and were assassinated that night. The vote the next day was a unanimous 216 for deifying Jesus.
Prior to the Council of Nicaea, there was neither Bible nor cross nor a Virgin Mary cult. Some historians will state that the Roman cross used as the identifying mark of Christianity did not come into popular use until the seventh century. It probably came into use a little earlier, say fifth century, but certainly there was no Christian cross in the first century.
The whole of Christianity that is known today is a creation that came after the fourth century. The Bible itself was edited, rewritten, and collated by Constantine's bishops a year after the Council of Nicaea, in 326 AD.
In the first century BC/AD Alexandria was the intellectual center of the Roman Empire. It was a world academic center with a famous library and university. As Alexander himself had established the city and had later travelled to India, there is historical evidence to show that Buddhist monks and Brahmin pundits were in Alexandria during the period that Christianity was being formed by the Church fathers in the first three centuries.
Christianity shows very profound Buddhist and Hindu influences. The glaring example is the Sermon on the Mount which all historians agree is not a Christian text. Some say it is Buddhist, others say it is Neo-Platonist. All agree it is not Christian and a later interpolation into the New Testament.
Except for the invention of the concept of eternal damnation, which he threatened his critics with, Jesus contributed absolutely nothing new to the vast religious and philosophical literature of the world at that time.
It is Christianity that has copied the world's religions, not the other way round. Its early theologians copied Buddhist and Platonist ideas, but <b>they finally settled for Aristotle's philosophy as they could use it to reconciled their material interests and push for political power and world empire. </b>Christianity is a political ideology that claims divine sanction. That Hindus believe it is a religious system of service and sacrifice only shows up their own ignorance.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->