The only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage.

Brian Johnston:

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Yes it would be, thanks to Constantine, who couldnt really care less how Jesus died, it would still be the largest faith. But only for the next few years, Islam will rapidly pass it by in terms of number of followers quite soon.

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Are you sure about this? From what I've read, Christianity still has the lead with a little over 2 billion followers while Islam only has about 1.2-1.4 billion (depending upon which study I've read).Now, Catholicism is about to become the #2 religion as it is losing numbers while Islam is gaining, but I then say that if we're going to divide Christianity into subgroups like Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox, then we should also divide Islam into its subgroups, too, when making comparisons.------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

While I agree with the idea that the specific act of crucifixion isn't important to Christianity (though I do have some reservations about that given some of the ways some Christians seem to fetishize it...the giving of his blood, the supposed spear that pierced Jesus while on the cross and the various myths surrounding its passage through time, etc.)However, I have to wonder if the populace would have really rallied around someone who died in jail. After all, it was said that Jesus was going to be killed, not rot in jail and die of old age. Would he really have been considered to have fulfilled a prophecy by dying such an ignominious death?------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

crashfrog writes:

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I'm willing to allow blood-redemption as a fundamental axiom of Buz's Christian worldview. It's certainly no more arbitrary than any physical constant, I'd say.

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And if you look at the Bible, it is filled with symbolism attached to blood. One of the theological reasons presented for why god preferred Abel's sacrifice over Cain's is because Abel's was a blood sacrifice. Many people also claim that Cain didn't give the best of his fields, but the Bible doesn't directly say so. And given the supremacy of the blood sacrifice, there is a significant theological point that it was generally understood that the reason Abel's was preferred is because of the blood. After all, look what happens next: Cain spills Abel's blood.Let's not forget that the reasoning put forward by the Jehovah's Witnesses regarding the taboo against blood transfusions. Let's not forget the rules for keeping kosher and how blood is supposed to be handled. You are not allowed to consume blood.So I think it's fair to say that while perhaps modern Christians might be able to handle a Christ that wasn't killed violently, the early Christians coming from a Jewish culture that had a strong symbolism over the shedding of blood probably wouldn't have accepted it.------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!