A grad student just told me that Julius Caesar brought Christianity to England in 55 BCE; she wanted to know why I said her claims about the date the Anglo-Saxons became Christian were incorrect.
Considering that Caesar was assassinated over four decades before the supposed birthdate of Jesus, it is kinda hard to see how he brought Christianity to England.
Gwen lays her head on the her desk and quietly weeps.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I remember a UK archeology show Called "TIME TEAM" screened worldwide, where they claimed that the Romans bought fish and chips to England.
Nice one Tony Robinson,
It was Columbus that bought the humble potato to Europe, over a thousand years later!
vocaloldfart
Level 8
Nov 5, 2022
0
This was almost painful to read.
MizJ
Level 8
Nov 4, 2022
1
MizJ:
@Gwendolyn2018 It perplexes me how someone can be in grad school and know so little. I would have been ashamed to put my name to a paper like that.
@Gwendolyn2018 smh
What poor education. Does she also think evolution is a hoax and the flood a world-wide event instead of merely one of the many occasions when the Mediterranean sea re-flooded after the strait of Gibraltar unblocked?
Petter
Level 9
Nov 4, 2022
1
In a motel jacuzzi, another renter starts in saying how the Grand Canyon perfectly illustrates the Great Flood. He looks to be in his eighties, so I forgo trying to engage him. Should I have?
Grad student? What field of study and at what college or university? I wonder what her score was on the GRE! 
Jay Leno used to have a segment where he would conduct impromptu interviews and quizzes with the random person on the street, often with young adults. Such fails regarding knowledge on simple questions involving geography, science and history I’ve never seen! The problem is, the every day person on the street sometimes becomes the every day student in the college or university classroom! 
p-nullifidian
Level 8
Nov 4, 2022
1
Jimmy Kimmel still does street interviews. The level of stupid is astounding, but I assume they edit out all the people who actually give the right answers. They aren’t as funny.
@Gwendolyn2018 Perhaps her confusion is based on the fact that Emperor Constantine assumed the throne when he learned of his father‘s death while in what is now known as York. I have seen the statue erected in his honor at Yorkminster, and quite frankly, I’m not impressed. Constantine was a despicable human being.
That said, Constantine was not a Caesar, and did not make Christianity the official religion of the empire until some years later.
Actually if she quoted the date 55 BCE and did not know why it was changed from BC, and what BC meant in he own Christian tradition. You have a second reason to lay your head on the desk.
Fernapple
Level 9
Nov 4, 2022
1
@Gwendolyn2018 Traditional in the UK at least the Medieval era only starts in 1066, 410 t0 1066 being called the dark ages, although that is going out of fashion now. There is however some evidence that there were Roman Christians in Britain, but that they were driven out of the country, England at least, by the pagan Anglo-Saxons after the Romans left, and the country with had then to be reChristianized.
@Gwendolyn2018 Yes Anglo Saxon era is the alternate name we use here too.
@Gwendolyn2018 Perhaps you could tell me something unrelated, but about how history and literature are taught in the US.
Do you ever teach, or do you know, if Henry David Thoreau is still to some degree taught in American schools, and if so, is it mainly as a naturalist/travel writer ? In the UK he is mainly remembered as a social and political philosopher, for Walden and Civil Disobedience, yet I have heard that in American schools he is only taught as a naturalist ? Which seems strange and perhaps a little sinister, given the challenge his social and political views would be to the American establishment, you have to wonder if the bias is not intended.
@Gwendolyn2018 Thank you. This side of the pond he is regarded as one of the American greats of the Transendentalists nearly the equal of Emerson. If your BF is correct, then I don't see that it matters much, it is sad however if he is quoting an urban myth.
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