Military conquests = Spread & Influence of Religion?

Bare with me here for a second before I get into the bulk of my post…I went to check out this King Tut exhibit here in Ft. Lauderdale, FL two weeks ago (took the audio tour for an extra $5)

It was an awesome experience to say the least. Just being in the presence of artifacts that were buried in various kings tombs was worth the price of admission alone. But I learned a lot more about their traditions and religion that I hadn’t known before. The exhibit depicting King Akhenaten caught my attention the most, specifically because of his departure from the traditional religion of Egypt of worshipping multiple deities. Here’s what caught my eye when I did a little further research…

From Ancient Egypt Online: Akhenaten, one of many ancient Egyptian pharaohs, is perhaps best enowned for his loyalty to one deity at a time when the rest of the world, by and large, worshipped several gods. He is certainly the only one of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs to promote a monotheistic religion. This was not to occur again until the Roman Empire took control of Egypt and Christianity was instituted as the official religion.

Wikipedia on Akhenaten's religion (Atenism): The impact of Akhenaten's religious reform, albeit introduced in steps, is hard to overstate; it is equivalent perhaps to a new Pope declaring an obscure African deity the supreme God of Catholicism, building a new Vatican City somewhere in Canada, and abolishing all bishops as well as banning the symbol of the Cross, defacing all churches to remove all reference to Jesus, and banning any personal veneration of Jesus. It is a measure both of Pharaoh's great power, and of the extraordinary circumstances of the time that an equally shocking and dramatic transformation was achieved even temporarily, for about twenty years.

So the Roman Empire took control of Egypt, and "instituted" Christianity as the official religion. Sounds like military might over persuasion to me. Why on earth would a religion have to be forced upon people? Nevermind the inquisition for a second, this conquest happened 31 years before “Christ was born”. How convenient. Check out the timeline below. Couldn’t it be that Jesus was just the mere equivalent of let’s say, the Ghandi of our age and the Christians of today have been, with all the best of intentions, hoodwinked?

Egypt: The Roman conquest begins…

While the ancient history of Egypt is both rich and well documented, western interest in the nation of pharaohs began primarily with the conquests of Alexander the Great.

During Roman Rule the Pharaohs were mere puppets of the Roman Empire. With the death of Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemies to rule, and the defeat of the once-mighty Ptolemaic navy at Actium, in 31 BC Egypt became part of the Roman Empire under Augustus Caesar.

Egypt Timeline

31 BC - Battle of Actium; Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony defeated by Augustus Caesar

30 BC-395 AD - Conquest of Egypt by Augustus Caesar; Roman period

66 AD - Jewish riots against Rome in Egypt

395 AD - Roman Empire divided into two empires; Egypt controlled by Byzantium

395-641 AD - Byzantine period; Egyptian hieroglyphic writing falls out of use and soon becomes unintelligible

641 AD - Conquest of Egypt by the Muslim Arabs; Egypt becomes Islamic

Obviously Egypt isn’t Christian anymore (small minority). The Arabs took control of Egypt in 641 AD, and what do you know, Muslim became the official religion.

Egypt: The Arab Conquest, 639-41

Perhaps the most important event to occur in Egypt since the unification of the Two Lands by King Menes was the Arab conquest of Egypt. The conquest of the country by the armies of Islam under the command of the Muslim hero, Amr ibn al As, transformed Egypt from a predominantly Christian country to a Muslim country in which the Arabic
language and culture were adopted even by those who clung to their Christian or Jewish faiths.

The conquest of Egypt was part of the Arab/Islamic expansion that began when the Prophet Muhammad died and Arab tribes began to move out of the Arabian Peninsula into Iraq and Syria. Amr ibn al As, who led the Arab army into Egypt, was made a military commander by the Prophet himself.

Does this phase anyone in the slightest? The pharaohs ruled Egypt for 31 dynasties, one of the longest surviving forms of government ever recorded. They held throughout that time, (pretty much without skipping a beat) a religion full of superstitions and rituals that would make most shake their heads in disbelief. Yet their beliefs, their way of life, all went by the wayside once an army (with a kooky religion of their own - Christianity) took over their land.

Caesar quoted in the bible?…

Why was Caesar quoted in the bible exactly?

Mat 22:21 They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.

Isn’t it odd that the political & military leader of Rome, gets a reference in the holy bible? Doesn’t seem to be too different from how the pharaohs in Egypt were worshipped among their people does it. Whatever the religion, the structure always seems to be the same; low on the totem pole are the masses, then the intermediaries (prophets, priests, rabbis…uhumm, pharaohs), and then of course God(s).

All through the Pharaonic period, Egyptian royalty was believed to be directly descended from the gods. They would confer special powers upon Pharaoh, which were essential to maintaining earthly and cosmic order. The king's coronation provided the occasion for these powers to be handed over to him.

I’m inclined to ask myself, after knowing all this, isn’t all this organized religion just, bullshit? Can't we believe in a Creator without adhering to the writings of these intolerant and contradictory books? Books that were written by men, men and women who were simply trying to explain their surroundings and make sense of it all. I think we can, that's precisely why I consider myself a Deist.