[ffusco]

To say that Christianity caused the fall of the Roman Empire sound anti-Christian, but it means simply that Christianity wasn't compatible with a Fascist government- which Rome had more or less become at THAT time.

Christianity made people "less patriotic" in the sense that they stopped participating in all manner of state rituals and "Pledges of Allegiance" which were part of the social contract Roman's had participated in for centuries. Also as the rest of the empire became n more urban and prosperous Rome's influence waned. But other great factors were a devalued currency, massive illegal immigration, high taxation, a huge welfare class, a complacent middle class, a foreign standing army and the tyranny of a corrupt government.

[Physicist]

To say that Christianity caused the fall of the Roman Empire sound anti-Christian, but it means simply that Christianity wasn't compatible with a Fascist government- which Rome had more or less become at THAT time.

But the other branch of that same government lasted for another thousand years, and was Christian throughout.

[garbanzo]

There is an unfortunate trend in fall-of-the-roman-empire scenarios that goes something like this:

The Roman empire fell because -

Social conservative: immigration, taxes, acceptance of immorality

libertarian: excessive and increasingly centralized government combined with overtaxation and imperialism

liberal: increasing gap between rich and poor, lack of affordable health care and housing, enviromental destruction

communist: class war

fascist: Jews

dolphins: declining fish stocks

and so on.