A lot of excitement on here about the article in Science summarising the discoveries of @alistairsponsel.bsky.social and Brian Sutton, just published in the Journal of the History of Biology. Some people have asked, so here is what I think they show, and what are the implications:

Yes - and that theologian’s comment in the article that “the ‘average’ Christian in the world today is poor, female and black” is strangely divorced from any sense of colonial history!

I think it’s impossible to say - given that there are no contemporary reports written during his lifetime. You can see the way even today that people are made into myths after their deaths - especially if they are seen as martyrs.

Those are general humanistic values - not the preserve of any one religion. It’s dangerous when one religion claims to have exclusive access to such values - that creates a sense of righteousness and entitlement.

I’m doing it now.

Reading that, it seems they think Christianity originated in Britain!

To be fair, the values represented by Christianity as it became enmeshed with the Roman imperial project were pretty commercial and militaristic.

Yes - the Roman Empire did that too, initially - while pushing the imperial cult in the provinces. If religious groups are “on side” with the state, empires can afford to be tolerant; if they represent political antagonism, empires tend to be quick to suppress/persecute them.

That’s what it became under the Roman Empire - tasked with taxation, legal proceedings, running cities, running the entire Egyptian grain business, and becoming the biggest landowner in Europe by the Middle Ages. A multinational corporation with a strong brand.

Yes, they perfected patriarchy.

Interesting - can you share? (Unless it’s already in the recycling bin!)

Religion has always been an instrument of state - used to gain and demonstrate power, to gather taxes, create political/military alliances and to ‘other’ groups who compete with the state or stand in the way of imperial expansion.

Company behind Scotland’s biggest data centre proposal is owned by the treasurer of the UK Conservative party via British Virgin Islands. It could receive £23m public subsidy. BVI facilitates opacity and tax avoidance. Successive UK govts have defended the use of tax havens by wealthy elites.

Why, thank you!

Looking at where Christianity is in the world today reveals the footprint of the Roman Empire - followed by European imperialism over the last 500 years. I explored the use of Christianity by the Roman Empire (and vice versa) in my book: Domination. 3/3

…which employed it as a way of securing wider alliances and military support. Christianity continued as the state religion of the empire’s successor kingdoms - which used it as a tool when creating their own empires. Missionaries prepared the ground for imperial expansion… 2/3

That sounds very positive. Most of us believe in the same things - the importance of empathy and kindness primarily. The other beliefs can get in the way, sometimes.

See my book:Tamed

Definitely risk-taking teenagers trying a new thing!