What was Constantine's personal belief system prior to his official conversion to Christianity...

What was Constantine's personal belief system prior to his official conversion to Christianity? Both before and after Milvian Bridge.

He was a pagan until his dying day, he tolerated christians but never converted.

He was baptized before death.

Yes, by an Arian. You need to convert to Christianity to become a Christian.

Might be true but given how much Christians like to lie about things like that it's hard to say. Certainly from his monumental architecture it's clear he saw himself as Apollo, this isn't completely incompatible with being a Christian especially during late antiquity when the religion was highly heterodox but he was very far from the pious orthodox / catholic faithful he was painted as by later Christians

Probably a cryptoChristian, since his mom was probably always one.
If they were lying, they’d probably not have had him baptized by a heretic. A little critical thinking on your part is all one asks

Obviously the story was started by an Arian you moron.

Certainly Constantine was no saint, but I find the idea that he wasn't baptized a bit on the conspiracy theory side, especially since not even the Christosceptic historians dispute it.

Being baptized on your deathbed is not a ringing endorsement of a religion as much as an insurance policy tho, right? He could technically have remained a pagan and just gone through with the ritual on the off-chance it was Heaven and not the Elysian Fields waiting for him beyond the veil of death.

There's no way to know, and since Christians are notorious liars I'm not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

At least you’re being objective about it

Why would you take them at their word? This is something they CONSTANTLY lie about, fuck, they even claim Darwin had a deathbed conversion.

The incredulity you’re applying is so broad and biased that you’re essentially writing off the entirety of written history.

since he converted on his deathbed, it's hard to say he had a post-conversion belief system, you retard.

Not him but
>Darwin
Nigger this isn't some modern Christian proddie autism. And it's not like Constantine despised Christianity, his decisions were heavily influenced by the Christian population and even his mother was one. We're talking about a historical record, so it's better not to be certain about anything, instead, pretend you'd give the benefit of the doubt to the official interpretations.

If a Christian tells me Constantine went to such and such a place and fought such and such a battle, I have no reason to doubt him. If he tells me something as incredibly self-serving as a deathbed conversion story, then I have no reason to believe him. Christians don't value honesty when it comes to propagating their cults, they simply can't be trusted on matters that they have a direct interest in.

>not even the Christosceptic historians
By which I don't mean modern historians, I meant Roman historians from Constantine's time.

You sound more biased than any "lying cult followers"

It was actually the norm in his time. Confession wasn't a thing and if you publicly sinned the church would often just kick you out. This was especially a problem for soldiers.

So instead you often waited until you were near death to convert so you didn't have to worry about real life causing you to sin.

Fucking hell, I hope you don't teach. You must be extremely asshurt about something.

Because I recognize this obvious and undeniable fact about Christians, therefore I must be worse than they are? Great reasoning skills you have there.

>im a credulous imbecile who believes anything anyone tells me!

Good dope.

Baptism doesn’t mean he didn’t believe beforehand. If you get baptized, you clearly had some kind of previous experience with the religion.

His organizing of the Church at Nicea points to some level of actual interest in Church dogma, even if you take the most cynical view of Constantine simply wanting to curb Church infighting.

>obvious and undeniable fact about Christians
>all Christians are the same
you fucking child

Am I being trolled?

Are you actually denying that Christians make up stories about people converting on their death beds? Really?

Unlike the other sacrements, anyone can baptize someone with the right ritual, you don't need to rebaptize most heretics for example.

You believe a story told by people who stood to directly benefit from said story, with no means of corroborating it. So yes, you're a dope.

No, he’s just a retard. He doesn’t understand basic historicism.

>mimimimimimi
>mah assss is on firreee

Lol Actually kill your self

>known liars should be trusted when they're the only source available

"No".

That’s another broad generalization.

You’re splitting.

Nice non-denial.
>its okay to lie if its for Jesus!

Do you even know who you’re accusing?

>knowm liars
Nigger nobody cares anout your buttmad analysis, literally every religion is the same

What are you on about retard

It was a direct question, do you deny that Christians do this, or not? If they DO lie about this, then what value do their claims about such events have?

I'm not taking the bait

>lie
Listen muchacho, when you show me a verified document, that says every single Christian "lies", I just might find it in my self tp entertain your bait

Try reading the posts you reply to, duckspeaking dimwit.

What do you want from me faggot maybe you should grow up and meditate or something, you're clearly wounded beyond comprehension

>every single

Nice strawman dipshit. I said Christians lie about deathbed conversions, this is verifiable true. This fact makes all such claims of their suspect. It doesn't even matter if most of their claims are true (and they aren't), the pervasiveness of their dishonesty on this matter makes all these claims weak.

How do you expect anyone to be able to effectively answer this? The guy's been for around 1700 years.

VERY COOL MY FRIEND

I want you to read the posts you reply to, dipshit, I don't know why you think this is an egregious demand.
>HURR U MAD

>The guy's been dead for around 1700 years.
Fixed.

It’s a stupid question that over generalizes the issue at hand.

The answe to it is some of them do, and Historians can tell which are probably doing it. It’s their job.

The answer is that if the historical consensus is positive, it probably has better grounding than some dipshit who just listened to the God Delusion Abridged on YouTube.

You’re not even arguing with Christians exclusively

I've read your posts mate, I just don't understand why you want me to take your delusions for concrete facts. Why would you expect me to do this user?

>retard is capable of destroying this thread with one bait post
Veeky Forums fucking sucks

I don't know dipshit, why are you making retarded angry content-less posts at me? Think for yourself, or don't. I don't give a shit.

...

Given how often atheists mass-murder their fellow countrymen once they obtain absolute political power, we should probably never risk letting any into office. Just in case, cause you know we can't trust them. It just makes sense.