I fucking despise religion

[KichigaiNeko]

I don't think you can compare the spread of early Christianity to the spead of early Islam.

Oh course I can, don't be silly

There was some degree of destruction of holy pagan sites and sacred trees and that kind of thing, the occasional full localised scale massacre such as the Isle of Wight.

I find your rhetoric amusing. Words like occasional, some and degree.

Pagan Vikings looted and burned down Christian monastries and such so it was all one way.

Well of course they did, that was where the xtians sotred all their stolen gold...the Norsemen weren't stupid.

But conversion tended to be voluntary and gradual in time over a number generations.

Who has told you this?? Do we have to start with the xtians in Alexandria and their "peaceful" murder of Hypatia and go from there??

Pagan and Christians lived peacefully together for a number of years and when they didn't it wasn't anything much to do with their religion. A lot of pagans tended to keep a shrine to the old pagan gods and a shrine to Christ to hedge their bets. Some pagans were buried with Christian grave goods such as the burial at Suton Hoo. Real history isn't as black and white as you would like to think it is. You didn't have nice happy nature loving hippy pagans who then got roughed up by evil power hungry Christians, it was more a progression. Take a look at Viking era Christ in the Jelling Stone. He gets the full pagan treatment with the interlacings here, the face of a Viking warrior god.

Interesting that this is a Viking piece of art work

Sorry Zone but as far as I have read the xtians in the British Isles stole the then pagan religion lock stock and barrel. The "early xtians" of that island were incompetent in Latin and Greek. And as you say you didn't have nice "hippy dippy xtians" living peacefully with pagans during the same time period, nor were ALL Vikings the "bad Guy" many were just farmers and merchants and the xtians were just as hot for the goods they traded.