From: rhinoceros (rhinoceros@freemail.gr)
Date: Thu Jun 26 2003 - 09:05:13 MDT
[Kharin]
Space impact 'saved Christianity'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3013146.stm
Did a meteor over central Italy in AD 312 change the course of Roman and Christian history?
About the size of a football field: The impact crater left behind
A team of geologists believes it has found the incoming space rock's impact crater, and dating suggests its formation coincided with the celestial vision said to have converted a future Roman emperor to Christianity.
It was just before a decisive battle for control of Rome and the empire that Constantine saw a blazing light cross the sky and attributed his subsequent victory to divine help from a Christian God.
Constantine went on to consolidate his grip on power and ordered that persecution of Christians cease and their religion receive official status.
<snip>
[rhinoceros]
The power of signs... The meteor trick could probably work even today. Don't people look into things like Tarrot cards for affirmation of what they are unwilling to see by themselves or of what they wish to be so? One can read a lot of significance in a low probability event with a large impact, such as a meteor impact. Remember the etymology of "significance" and "signify"...
That reminded me of a goofy comedy movie called Orgazmo (1997)
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0124819
where a Mormon doorknocker guy stumbled on a porn movie studio and had an offer to play a lead actor role in a porn movie. He would be a superhero wearing a fancy costume and holding a ray gun causing nonstop orgasms. The money was good, but he had religious issues. So, he sat at a table in front of a Jesus statuette, pretty much perplexed, and asked for guidance from Jesus:
"Give me a sign..."
This was followed by an eartquake where the statuette fell off and broke in pieces. After things calmed down a bit, the guy looked at the pieces of the broken statuette and asked again:
"Any sign at all..."
While googling for that movie, I found out that the "give me a sign" joke was actually stolen from an older movie, "The Man with Two Brains" (1983), with Steve Martin.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0085894
In that movie, Steve Martin was asking a wall portrait of his mom about a relation of his.
"Mom, give me a sign."
A dark storm comes up and the portrait starts spinning on the wall. After things calm down a bit, he looks again at the portrait and says
"Just a sign, mom, any kind of sign."
Of course, the opposite is also true: One can see a sign in a less improbable event if that is what he/she wants to see.
[Kharin]
<quote from the BBC article>
But what would have happened if this chance event - perhaps as rare as once every few thousand years - had not occurred in Italy at that time?
Maxentius might have won the battle. Roman history would have been different and the struggling Christians might not have received state patronage.
The history of Christianity and the establishment of the popes in Rome might have been very different.
<end quote>
[rhinoceros]
Getting back to the BBC article about Constantine, Maxentius, the first Christian state, and the meteor, I find it doubtful that the meteor had any major impact on how things turned out.
First, such a "sign" could be interpretted either way (good omen - bad omen) by both camps. What could make the diference? Probably the way they already saw things -- a "faith" in their cause and/or capability. That said, we shouldn't forget that many of the known facts are actually history written by the winner.
Second, I'll happily drop in this arogant statement for discussion: Major battles which caused crucial turns in history were never won by mere chance or clever strategems, and major battles which were won by mere chance or clever strategems did not really account for crucial turns in history.
Of course, a lot of the details of the history of Christianity could have turned out differently in many ways for other reasons.
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