On 03-16-98 Keith Knapp wrote to Day Brown... 
 KK> DB>Well, I give credit to Paul for setting up a religion that would 
 KK> DB>work with the Roman power structure; Jesus wouldda been crucified 
 KK> DB>no matter where in the empire he had been, and his message woulda 
 KK> DB>got nowhere. 
 KK>  
 KK> Yeah, Elaine Pagels makes that point.  If it had been only the 
 KK> Gnostics (who I personally think were carrying on the true 
 KK> esoteric tradition), the whole thing would have slowly vanished. 
Edw. Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol I, chap 2: 
"The policy of the emperors and the senate, so far as it concerned
religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlight- 
ened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their sub- 
jects.  The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman 
world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the 
philosophers, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally 
useful." 
 
More useful than I would have imagined.  The Romans, before going 
to all the work to beseige a city, would send emissaries to their 
priesthood, and build them an even grander temple dedicated that 
god in Rome.  The priests would be delighted, leave the city for 
their new fancy digs in Rome, and the resulting panic would leave 
the city in their hands.  A stoke of pure genius. 
 
In contrast to the religions, which built the temples, basilicas,  
monestaries, and palaces, all lavishly decorated, the only thing 
the Stoics built were schools. 
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 * OFFLINE 1.58 * I don't need understanding: I want a bimbo, maybe a harem. 
--- Maximus 3.01
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