Christian catacombs in Rome
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. –Galatians 3:28
In this essay I want to outline how the poor in the Graeco-Roman world survived – if they did – and how we might place early Christian networks in and among the poor, on the assumption that most early Christians were poor themselves. –John Barclay, Professor of Divinity, Durham University, England
Gary: Christian apologists like to claim that early Christianity spread like wildfire in the first three centuries after Jesus’ death, attracting thousands and maybe even millions of converts to the Faith. What they often fail to mention is that the overwhelming majority of these converts were poor and uneducated (ignorant and superstitious). So did Christianity grow because it had good evidence to support its supernatural claims or did it grow because it promised poor, desperate people social equality and eternal riches?
Slaves seem to have been a significant part of the early Church and in some cases even found themselves in leadership roles (Shaner (2018), but cf. Meeks (1983), 64). Early Christian communities were evidently accused of targeting the illiterate, enslaved, young, female and under-educated (Origen, Cels. 3.44, 55; Tert. Against Praxeas 3) – the early Christian apologists seek to defend the Church against this charge, but it does seem that there was some truth to the characterization, at least of the makeup of the Church if not its proselytizing. –Dr. Bret C. Devereaux, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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Escaping Christian Fundamentalism 
Early atheism was a religion of the poor and uneducated…because MOST people were poor, uneducated and illiterate! Go figure! Modern atheism is the religion of those who are in the dark, and thus refusing to accept the evidence of a Creator in all of nature and creation around them. Instead, they choose to believe the impossible…in that nature created itself!
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You are operating out of your realm, and it is best you leave this topic to those willing to actually think rather than push an agenda (which yours has been quite clear that you want to stamp out Christianity).
There is one MAJOR item of note that you fail to realize in these posts. I don’t know where it starts, so I’ll state the whole of it: There is a God and He, not you, not anyone else, not any religion, is in control.
Christianity is very plainly written in the OT, which you fail to realize. Since it is prophesied to happen, it has its purpose. You haven’t “seen” that yet, this much is evident. Since that is the case, all you are doing is criticizing the plan of the Father. Much worse, you are doing so in a very divisive way. Learn its purpose BEFORE you call people out of it or suffer the consequences: you will convince people to leave and they will enter something much worse than Christianity. You should be able to look at the world today and notice there are “religions” much MUCH worse than Christianity that people can bind themselves to. Continue down this path at your own detriment. Just know, your current method helps no one.
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Christianity is nothing more than a BELIEF in events that were recorded in a book by essentially unknown individuals. Qualified modern-day archeologists have demonstrated time and again that many of the recorded events never took place. Further, no one to date has been able to provide validated and/or authentic evidence of any god, let alone the god of the bible.
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One thing Christianity provided to its adherents in the early days was a kind of social safety net. That could be very appealing to to poor and downtrodden in a pretty uncaring Roman society that didn’t have anything like it. If I recall, even the Pagan emperor Julian, who wanted to get rid of Christianity, bemoaned that Rome had nothing to offer like that of Christians who looked after each other when sick, took care of widows and orphans etc. People with low social status wouldn’t have much to lose by leaving the pagan system, and perhaps much to gain by joining a new cult that promised eternal life and also looked after you in the physical world.
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Amen Gary!!! 😉
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