Originally published at: Cult of the Dead, an aptly-named book about the history of Christianity | Boing Boing
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It took a couple of centuries for early Christians to all agree on logo design for their common faith. There were so many possibilities for imagery to choose from; the Ichthys from the “loaves and fishes” miracle, the Alpha and Omega, the triquetra, the lamb, the dove and many more.
So what did they finally settle on? The device Romans used to torture their Messiah to death.
Though in fairness probably part of the decision had to do with picking something that was really easy to draw.
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I don’t know if this is a universal sentiment among Jehovah’s Witnesses, but growing up my good friend was a really active Witness. One day he said something about how most Christians celebrate Jesus’ death instead of his life. It really impacted me and became one of those coffin nails in my already feeble “faith”.
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See also The Myth of Persecution by Prof Candida Moss.
Basically, early Christians fixated on Martyrdom as the best way to be a saint and the most direct path straight to heaven, and rewrote their own history to emphasise martyrdom and its miraculous nature. And then they believed their own invented history, and started demanding martyrdom from authorities who, in the beginning, had no idea who these strange people even were, let alone wanted to persecute them.
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Yeah, but the Bible is like comics; the hero doesn’t stay dead.
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The Chi-Rho was the frontrunner for some time before the cross took over.
Like many of the features of Christianity, the Chi-Rho preceded the religion.
“In pre-Christian times, the Chi-Rho symbol was also used to mark a particularly valuable or relevant passage in the margin of a page, abbreviating chrēston (good). Some coins of Ptolemy III Euergetes (r. 246–222 BC) were marked with a Chi-Rho.”
– Wikipedia, Chi Rho
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The fish ICTUS logo came from an acronym for Jesus Christ Annointed Savior in greek. Now that logo is mostly seen on evolution bumper stickers.
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They can keep telling themselves that. We know the truth about their Jesus Vulva.
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