[modwest]

i read this and think, well small wonder Christianity persisted all this time. the baseline level of suffering they endured is something most of us reading this will never know in our lifetimes, if we’re lucky. (though the hounds of climate change howl outside our doors)

skies go dark, plagues. it’s literally biblical. what comfort could anyone turn to when it seemed like the very land and sky around them wanted them dead? Must have been terrifying on some level to feel God in nature all around you and it was so hostile.

and just think of the psychic trauma that gets passed down the generations from that. How it shaped society. How it maybe helped religion take hold. People have seen in their lifetimes, or their parents, grandparents and so on have seen in theirs, the terror of biblical plagues. So you want to do right by your God.

small wonder indeed.

[JetAlone]

Mhm. Tough times drive you to a strong trust in whatever authority you think can keep you safe. The Church, the State, the Academy, the Army, your Tribe etc. I can only speculate that a person who truly believes nothing can save them will be driven into profound despair, limping along between sessions of something like excessive fantasy or drug use to cope.

[dragonelite]

You could at least say we have made material progress, but as one of the millennial generation. I have already seen like 3 major economic crashes, the west devolving into neo feudalism with how much house prices and rent has skyrocketed. We are now living through what would have been a plague like situation, if it wasn't for the technological progress we made.

Imaging not knowing what we know today yeah people would have said God has forsaken us, what sins have we done to receive the wrath of God.

[pmohun]

if you haven't read Immanuel Velikovsky, you should. start with "Worlds in Collision". he talks about this exact phenomenon.

disclaimer: his work is widely cited as pseudoscience. it's a good read if you're looking for entertainment value, but try not to take it too seriously :)

[redis_mlc]

It's worse than you think.

The Hekla-3 eruption likely ended the Bronze Age c. 1100 BC, wiping out 95% of all Mediterranean cities. The first crop failure was bad enough, but the second year's starved almost everybody.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hekla

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hekla_3_eruption

Note that all societies were very religious (superstitious) whether Aztec, Mayan, Mediterranean or African.

Christianity largely grew after the Byzantine Roman Emperor, Constantine, converted around AD 312.

(The Roman Empire was so large that it had two capitals, Rome in the west, and Constantinople (Byzantium) in the east. The latter became Istanbul in AD 1453.)