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Pagan Arguments against Christianity
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The Pagans persecuted the Christians and made many arguments against Christianity. Some pagans thought that Christians were atheists because they scorned the traditional pagan gods. The Christians either denied the existence of pagan gods or called them evil. The pagans, who believed in their gods just as strongly as the Christians believed in their god, feared that their gods would not look favorably upon the Roman Empire anymore because of the Christians’ blasphemy. The pagans genuinely misunderstood the beliefs and practices of Christianity. A pagan historian named Tacitus was one of many who opposed Christianity because it was seen by the pagans as a bizarre new sect. Tacitus believed that Christians despised the human race. Tertullian spoke out against these accusations in support of Christianity. He specified what Christians would be willing and would not be willing to do in the company of their pagan neighbors. Tertullian said that despite the bad treatment the pagans gave them at times, the Christians had never retaliated. He stated that the pagans like to call the Christians enemies of the human race rather than enemies of human error. He said that Christians share a corporation based on consciousness of religion, unity of discipline, and a partnership in hope. The early Christians mostly kept to themselves, and because of that the pagans developed a distrust and fear of them, seeing them as unsociable and subversive. The pagans also believed that the Christians were cannibals. They misunderstood their celebration of the Lord’s Supper were the Christians believed to eat and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The pagans thought that this was an act of cannibalism the Christians participated in. This led the pagans to believe that the Christians openly took part in immoral and indecent rituals. Pagan writers openly expressed how they felt about Christianity as a religion. One pagan writer was a man named Celsus. He wrote a literary attack on Christianity which expressed his ideas as to why he felt Christianity was a silly religion. Celsus could not understand why Christians seemed to believe their religion without questioning it. This was something the pagans would never do.
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