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Asteroid impact may have prompted Constantine's conversion

I missed the part where they established the age of the impact crater. Could you please point it out?

Thanks!
 
Pretty interesting stuff in the main, though, like Penguin I'd like more information.

One big problem these researchers run into initially is the timing. I still hear from time to time the story of Constantine's dramatic conversion at the Milvian Bridge, but the chronicles don't bear it out. Most contemporary histories agree that the emperor didn't convert until he lay on his death bed, some 18-19 years later. This seems more in line with the behavior of other Roman rulers that had to deal with Christianity. Those that weren't outright hostile and into the whole lion/Christian Caesar salad were quite prone to deathbed conversions. They were Romans, after all, and Rome was never too keen on throwing out gods, any of them, because they might turn out to be useful. Its quite possible, then, that Constantine, like many before and after him, was just covering his bases.
 
Oh, and thanks for posting something remotely historic in nature. Simply not enough of it around!!!
 
Thank you, thank you. Long time listener, first time caller.
 
If this bears out to be true it's one more reason to dismiss the supernatural explanation and replace it with a naturalistic one.
 
You'll never sell that to the believers of course. God simply sent the asteroid.
 
What isn't mentioned often is that Constantine converted to Gnostic Christianity, not what we now consider to be orthodox belief. He took to the notion that there was "secret knowledge" given by Christ to the Disciples, that was passed on from one to another. (This would contradict the New Testament statements by Jesus that he did everything out in the open and kept nothing from anyone.)

So, Constantine never really accepted "Christianity" as we now know it. But he did take towards the end a form of it, because he saw the politically expedient utility of it. (Hmmmm. That sounds awfully familiar. Now where would that be happening today....?)
 
It may of inspired him as there may of been many other natural catastophes that inspired the unkown authers of the bible. this may be one
There are a lot of Biblical stories that are based on the disastrous eruption of Santorini volcano. One of them is the story about the Egyptian darkness. The concentration of volcanic ashes and gases was very high in the air after the eruption. The sunlight was cut off from Egypt and from the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea for several days. This is how the Bible writes about it: ?And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.¦ (Exodus, 10.21-23).

I think few people in my country seriously believe the biblical flood story is literally true. However floods are an ever present danger in the Mesopotamian Valley and there was the mother of them all in the Black sea:
The flood of the Black sea, Ballard and company’s charted a shadow shoreline etched 508 feet beneath the Black Sea suggests a previous freshwater lake. Partial samplings of shell species and subsequent carbon-14 dating indicate a shift from freshwater to saltwater, somewhere between 5460 and 4820 BC.

They may not be true, but at least they are more plausible than the supernatural explanation like it is more plausible telling people that I have a German Shepherd in my backyard (even if I lied ) then telling them I have a unicorn in my backyard.
 
Roadtoad said:
What isn't mentioned often is that Constantine converted to Gnostic Christianity, not what we now consider to be orthodox belief. He took to the notion that there was "secret knowledge" given by Christ to the Disciples, that was passed on from one to another. (This would contradict the New Testament statements by Jesus that he did everything out in the open and kept nothing from anyone.)

Christianity then was not how we know it now. There were many other Gospels available. There were 'secret' gospels, infant gospels, etc. Now we only have four - back then there were hundreds! Everybody believed different things depending on that communities favorite gospel. At that time they were debating whether Jesus was a man or a god. This was the setting for the creation of christian dogma.

Gnostic Xianity was the original. Paul wrote a Gnostic mystery religion - in the same style as Mithra. It was the power-hungry church fathers in the time of Constantine that made it into a whittled down history of Jesus.

It has to be the biggest scam ever perpetrated on mankind.
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