>>510889359
>But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind.

>If religion is manmade, then why does it go against man's desir-ACK
Atheists already answered this in 1887. The highest feeling of power attained by humans so far was attained by ascetic priests. Asceticism increases the feeling of power. "Going against one's desires" is done in favor of a deeper desire of power. Also, just read the Old Testament; Abraham is literally lured into faithfulness towards God by promises of rewards.

One lost text I'd like to read is Porphyry's "Against the Christians". It was a massive 15 volume work refuting every aspect of Christianity from both a historical and philosophical perspective. Porphyry had access to sources we don't have anymore like histories of the Phoenicians (he was from Tyre himself). It's arguments were so searing that multiple Christian emperors had it banned and every copy burned. Even mentioning his arguments was banned, so stuff Christians wrote in an attempt to "refute" it didn't survive either. We only have a few fragments via quotations, and even from what little we know, he prefigured a lot of what was later independently discovered by academic Biblical study, e.g. the Book of Daniel NOT being written during the Babylonian exile but rather, being written in the 180s BC under the reign of Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

Of all the lost texts, the one I'd like to read most is Porphyry's "Against the Christians". It was a massive 15 volume work refuting every aspect of Christianity from both a historical and philosophical standpoint, he even had access to sources we don't have anymore like histories of the Phoenicians (he was from Tyre himself). It's arguments were so searing that multiple Christian emperors had it banned. Even mentioning the arguments he used was banned, so Christians' attempts at "refuting" it didn't survive either. We only have a few fragments via quotations, and even from what little we know, a lot of it has been independently proven to be correct (for instance, he brought up that the Book of Daniel was NOT written during the Babylonian exile but rather, it was written in the 180s BC under the reign of Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes).

They weren't wrong

>>17766863
>akshully it was a jew cult that made europe great not europeans
>when we ruined everything and gave jews a monoply on banking that was us saving you
Amazing bald-faced lies you get paid to tell here

>>17766869
>foolish childish thinking
Your fairytale book literally tells you the carnal mind is evil and to have foolish childish thinking instead lmao. Now be a good little retard and obey