Is Islam getting on your nerves too?

[nino_savatte]

Part of the impulse of moving the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople was to provide a new capital without contamination from earlier, pagan worship. With the exception of the brief reign of Julian (traditionally called "the Apostate"), the Byzantine empire was and remained an explicitly Christian empire up till its fall. Religious toleration, in the sense of neutrality of the state towards religious questions, was not part of the general practice of the Byzantine state

I can't take issue with much of this except for the fact that a lot of pagan traditions were absorbed into Xtianity: the veneration of icons for instance. Indeed, what is a saint, if not a god? They are venerated in the same way and they are allegedly 'taken up to heaven'...in much the same way that well loved Emperors were declared gods.