Explanation: In the 19th century AD, Europeans flooded inland into the continent of Africa, formerly largely closed off to them by difficulty of travel and supply, seeking to colonize and, secondarily, to convert to Christianity whomever they could find. The African country of Ethiopia, however, which retained its independence in the face of 19th century European aggression, had been Christian for longer than most of Europe had been - Ethiopia had adopted Christianity in the 4th century AD!
this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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I find it funny to see a clarification of "AD" when the spread of Christianity is concerned. If it happened before Christ I would be really impressed!
God damn time traveling hipsters!
I had never thought about this!
Yeah but here is the kicker:
most biblical scholars and ancient historians believe that his birth date is around 6 to 4 BC.
They also have a sizeable number of Jewish population. So, Ethiopia has Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the words of Mallory Archer.: that is Abrahamic religion triple whammy.
I'd like to visit Ethiopia one day. I have seen videos and documentary about the country and its history. I had a colleague who is Ethiopian and mentioned that the capital city is lovely especially during winter, when it is cool but not too cold because Harare is in the highlands. I know there is conflict in the country at the moment, but compared to its neighbouring countries, Ethiopia seems pretty good at recovering quickly from any turmoil. When it is safe enough, i would like to visit the country.
Harare isn’t the capital of Ethiopia. Addis Abeba still is located at a high altitude.
They also adopted an amazing style of Jazz in the 1960s and 70s!
"Ethiopian Jazz" is a genre all by itself. And I love it.
I had thought that this meme was a reference to how the Ethiopian Bible is older and more extensive than the King James Bible. They have 81 books vs 66.
I mean, they're literally in the Bible. Acts 8— the Queen of Ethiopia's treasurer is heading back home after worshipping in Jerusalem, and Phillip tells him about Jesus, having learned about him from the guys who walked around with Jesus for three years. Then Philip miraculously teleports elsewhere, and the eunuch goes back to Ethiopia with an impressive story.
Europeans didn't get the Gospel until Lydia, in Acts 16—by some reckonings, eighteen years later. Maybe even longer.
I swear, if Christians actually read the Bible instead of trying to thump it, we'd get a lot more done.
If Christians actually read the (entire) bible there'd be a lot less Christians.
Maybe. Or maybe we'd actually be loving and pleasant to be around and wouldn't be the reason so many people are put off by religion in general. Either way, probably a win.
Don't blame yourself! It's not Christians that put people off religion, it's religion itself.
I'd have to disagree with you, in my experience. I don't do much proselytization, but whenever I interact with atheistic or agnostic folks and the subject of my faith comes up, the push-back I get is almost invariably one of two things: either "my parents/my grandparents/a pastor in my town/some idiot I used to be friends with in high school/a really horrible church down the street are generally awful to people and claim that it's because Jesus said so" (which is something that I've seen happen way too many times myself), or "megachurches and televangelists are con artists and grifters" (which is also true). Neither of which actually aligns with the reality of what Jesus teaches. People warp Christianity to make themselves feel better and more powerful, just like they do with any moral or philosophical framework, or any narrative that they're drawn to.
I get what you're saying, though. The people who are warping it are definitely super loud right now.
And fewer mega churches with private jets (sell your stuff and take care of the community for the money). But there would be more slave owners (Philemon). Gay people would still be under fire but probably to a lesser extent.
Also works if you replace "Ethiopia" with "Atheists"
It seems you can't take the whole quiz, but only an excerpt:
https://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/u-s-religious-knowledge-quiz
But you can check all the questions here:
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/07/23/what-americans-know-about-religion/#question-list
Hmmm, 14 out of 15 on that quiz, better than I thought I'd do. I forgot that days in Judaism technically begin at sunset, so I got the one about the Sabbath wrong.
Am atheist, so I guess that tracks.
Ah, I had that in the back of my mind that it was Friday evening, but then chose Saturday, because I figured that would be the first full day then.
@SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social @Typhoon@lemmy.ca
As a context, I was born Catholic, was atheist for a while, then agnostic, then "unchurched" Protestant (during 2020), then Luciferian, currently a follower of a syncretic left-hand path focused on Lilith as Goddess. Part of this current syncretism involves several religions and belief systems, but I have no specific religion anymore.
Even when I did have a specific religion, I was always curious and somewhat open-minded to other beliefs, even during my Protestant phase, when I had nice and productive conversations with a practitioner of Brazilian Umbanda (even though Christianity see Exus and Pomba-Giras as "demonic": I used to feel some fear about the names, yet I kept myself open to learning about because, deep inside, maybe I always had a leaning to the so-called "forbidden knowledge" as the "demonic" somehow always attracted me).
That said, I tried the quiz out of curiosity, and i got 12 out of 15 questions correctly.
But some of the correct answers seem so oversimplified.
For example: "Which of the following best describes the Christian doctrine of the Trinity?". Turns out that it depends on which Christian branch we're talking. There's nontrinitarianism, there are specific denominations (e.g. JW) who don't see Jesus as "God the Son". Also, there's Filioque among Orthodox Catholicism, something that ended up splitting Catholicism (the Great Schism). So the answer to such a question isn't straighforward.
Similarly, "Which of these religious groups traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith alone?" also depends on the denomination. Some Protestant branches, such as Calvinism, believe salvation doesn't come through faith but, rather, God's Will and predestination (they often refer to the biblical verse that goes something within the lines "Before you were in the womb, I knew you"). Some Protestant branches believe that salvation comes from "church's work". Again, no straightforward answer for such a question.
The questions I got wrong were:
- "Which of the following best describes Catholic teaching about the bread and wine used for Communion? The bread and wine": Here, my esoteric perspective and my focus on symbolic archetypes talked louder.
- "On which day of the week does the Jewish Sabbath begin?": here, my "literal" side talked louder.
- "Which of these religious groups traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith alone?": I ended up picking "not sure" due to what I explained above.
So the quiz is not complete insofar it oversimplifies many things. Also, considering that the quiz covers Abrahamic religions alongside Hinduism and Sikhism, I missed questions about other religions and spiritual perspectives as well, such as Wicca, Neo-Hellenism, Luciferianism, Thelema, Hermeticism... Even Gnosticism, which shares some ties with Christianity, as well as Orthodox Catholicism which is a direct branch of Christianity, aren't covered by this quiz.
Wow, I wonder what kind of questions they're asking for the rates to be so low. 19/32 is still a failing grade.
Wow, those are pretty basic. I could get 26 or 27 of those pretty easily. I might struggle a little more with Buddhism and Hinduism, but still really basic questions.
I would've missed three (assuming no lucky guesses), all on Judaism - Rosh Hashana, day of the Sabbath, and Maimonides.
Those too. I missed the truth of suffering.
Atheiopia
Note that this is referring to the US and US evangelicals, which make up the majority of Christians in the US cannot be said to be representative of Christians in the world overall.
They've got some incredible churches there. The rock-hewn ones in Lalibela are beautiful, and the fact that Abuna Yemata Guh ever got built and used at all, never mind for 1,500 years, blows my mind