The Unexpected Cosmology

Alexander & the City of Immortals - Visions of Homer, the Blind Bard of Ionia   HIS OWN precious copy of Homer was safely locked in a golden casket, which he furthermore clutched between his fingers, when Alexander the Great stood along the Egyptian shore. Alexander had in mind a grand city which would bear his name; a Greek metropolis; a philosophical […]

“The Contagious Superstition” | #4 Are Christians Stupid? Celsus Thought So (and Even While Defending Them, Origen Agreed) - NOT A SINGLE COPY OF CELSUS’ BOOK SURVIVES. This is due to the astonishing fact that Christian emperor Valentinian III, tag-teaming with Archbishop Theodosius, ordered in 448, and successfully saw to it, that every copy of The True Doctrine was destroyed. Then again, such aspirations were not unheard of. In fact many books were destroyed […]

“The Contagious Superstition” | #3 When Origen of Alexandria Rocked the Cradle of Christianity - THE DAWN OF YET ANOTHER CENTURY WAS ALREADY AFOOT, and what better way to celebrate it than with a high tide of persecutions against the superstitious faith? The year was 202 when Emperor Severus’ orders found their way to the doorstep of Origen’s childhood home. The young Origen (184-253) insisted on accompanying his father, Leonides, […]

“The Contagious Superstition” | #2 Celsus, Orator of Rome, and the True Doctrine - MORE BAD NEWS FOR CHRISTIANS EVERYWHERE—the year was 175 or perhaps 180, when along came a man, and his name was Celsus. Christianity’s first noted intellectual tormenter had likely been raised in a Jewish home, possibly even Christian. He had been on the inside. He had listened in to dinner table conversations. He speculated on […]

“The Contagious Superstition” | #1 Second Century Christian Atheists and Pliny the Younger’s Cure-All - AMONG THE MANY DECORATIVE ACCUSATIONS heaved upon the infant Christian faith, one particular claim was presented, rather early on, which can be deemed as true. Christians refused to worship the gods. As early as 111 AD, Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia along the Black Sea, wrote Emperor Trajan a letter. He accused Christians of […]