Nosuperstition wrote:manfred wrote:Did you not read even the paragraph you plucked that sentence from?Suspicious of the loyalty of Christians to the Roman state, Diocletian started persecuting them. He demanded that all Christian soldiers resign from the Roman army. He forbade gatherings for Christian worship and ordered the destruction of churches and sacred writings. Christian members of the government were tortured and executed.
Other edicts followed when Christian uprisings took place in the eastern parts of the empire where Christianity was strongest. Bishops and priests were arrested, tortured, and martyred. In 304, Rome decreed that all Christians sacrifice to the pagan gods or face death.
The "uprisings" were little more than demonstrations, at most minor skirmishes, as we would say today. Christians had no national identity like the Jews, no military leaders, no weapons, no army. They served as a scapegoat for a succession of emperors, and resistance on the whole was minimal because it was futile.
Actually all pagan gods are demons and hence pagans supposedly sacrifice to demons and hence Christians are asked not to sacrifice to pagan gods.That was the reason why Christians did not participate in pagan rituals considered binding for those in the society and why they were persecuted,not because they served as convenient scapegoat.
1. What would you call a supposed God that asks for you to sacrifice a child? I'd call it a demon.