Why Rome Accused Christians Of Being Atheists (And Executed Them)

Christian atheists? Make it make sense

(By Henri-Paul Motte (1846–1922) — Lighter version of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Motte_Cesar_s%27ennuie.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93379730)

One of the most persistent accusations that early Christians faced from their pagan counterparts in the Roman Empire wasn’t that they worshipped the wrong god but that they were atheists who worshipped no gods at all. Since the Roman Empire operated an official state cult and required worship of the Roman pantheon as a part of civic life, atheism was a serious accusation. Atheists were seen as being a danger to the very fabric of society. But the Christians weren’t atheists. They worshipped Jesus as the Risen Christ and YHWH as the only true God. So why were Christians seen as atheists in the second and third centuries?

The Romans had little issue with local and competing pagan religions. Since most people in the ancient world were polytheistic, it was easy to ask them to add the Roman gods to their own personal pantheons. Most people obliged. It was easy to add the Roman gods to their polytheism in order to placate the imperial magistrates. Rome even respected Judaism’s odd monotheistic worship because of its extreme age. (Though, monotheism and nationalism did eventually lead to severe conflict between the two.)

At first, the Romans asked the Christians to follow the common practice of the day and add the worship of…