1. The question of the origin of Christianity

1.1. Attempts at Natural-Scientific Explanation

The Origin of Christianity

The question of the origin of Christianity is fully resolved by the historical testimonies of the sacred writers of the New Testament, the Apostolic Fathers, the apologists, as well as the opponents of Christianity, and the secular historians of the first and third centuries, not to mention the writers of later periods. A mass of other testimonies: temples, catacombs, Christian images, icons, coins, etc., speak more than enough about the time of the emergence of Christianity – the first half of the first century – and about the nature of its emergence – sudden, unexpected, supernatural. On the other hand, an analysis of the historical situation at the time of the emergence of Christianity testifies to the fact that the birth of this new religion in this epoch was not only not conditioned by any objective historical and social reasons, but, on the contrary, was, as it were, unnatural, because Christianity was initially met with extreme hostility by all strata of the population.

Of course, atheism cannot accept such a conclusion, and therefore tries to find the natural causes of the emergence of Christianity. Contemporary and past attempts to explain the natural origin of Christianity can be summarized in the following main theses:

1. Christianity arose as a consequence of the despair of the slaves and oppressed, who were unable to free themselves by struggle and rebellion from the yoke of the enslavers and poverty, and therefore turned their gaze to religious fantasy in the form of Christianity.

2. Christianity did not arise immediately (so to speak, revolutionarily), but was gradually formed from separate Jewish and pagan beliefs, ideas, and myths. Therefore, it is syncretic in nature from the very beginning.

The substantiation of these theses, as well as a number of other, less significant statements, has been given one of the central places in atheistic literature for about two hundred years.

Without touching upon their analysis by the defenders of Christianity, we will try to elucidate these questions on the basis of those who are significant authorities for modern Russian atheism.

1. The article "F. Engels on the Origin of Christianity" in the journal "Questions of Philosophy" for 1970 No 2 speaks of the hypothesis of the origin of Christianity, based on the so-called defeat of the slave revolution: "The theory that was fashionable at one time in our literature, linking the formation of Christianity with the so-called slave revolution" has no serious grounds, especially since the "slave revolution itself turned out to be a historiographical fiction."

Let us point out, for example, some of the uprisings of this era: 24-19 AD – the uprisings in Spain; 6-9 AD – in Pannonia; 9 AD – In Germany, three legions of the Romans were destroyed in the Teutoturg Forest. In 14 AD (the death of Augustus), the Pannonian and Rhine legions proclaimed Germanicus emperor, but were defeated. 17-25 AD – in Africa; 21 AD – in Thrace, Gaul, Numidia; 24 AD – in the south of Italy (like the Spartacus uprising); 50 to 61 – In Britain, where 20 thousand Romans were killed; 66 – 70 AD – Jewish revolt.

The assertion that the cause of the emergence of Christianity was the deterioration of the material situation of the oppressed masses of the people and new forms of exploitation that arose in connection with the Roman conquest and the defeat of slave revolts is also untenable. In the same article we read: "But, apparently, the change in the forms of exploitation did not have a direct impact on the emergence of Christianity... ». "Now we know better than in the last century the economic history of the Roman Empire and can emphasize a surprising paradox: a social vacuum and moral deterioration... were established in conditions of relative material progress.