As a Christian who was raised in a very religious family, I was always taught to unquestioningly accept the practices and teachings of the faith. You go to church every Sunday, accept Jesus as God's son, repent your sins, and repeat. This routine doesn't allow for question of belief, especially since it is assumed that God himself is the source of the rules we follow. This is why I was rightfully shocked to learn of Constantine's Council of Nicea. Some Roman leader decided what was acceptable for me to believe and what didn't matter? What?!
There were around 300 bishops that were present at the Council of Nicea and all contributed to the decisions about what Christians as a whole should believe. One section in particular was of great controversy during the session, concerning the words of Arius. Seventeen of the Bishops believed this to be true, but were overruled and Constantine made the final decision to reject the teachings all together. Even though a few years later, Constantine would change his mind and come to believe the Arian teachings that the church had refused. When dispute errupted Constantine was quoted, "This contention has not arisen respecting any important command of the law, nor has any new opinion been introduced with regard to the worship of God; but you both entertain the same sentiments, so that you may join in one communion. It is thought to be not only indecorous, but altogether unlawful, that so numerous a people of God should be governed and directed at your pleasure, while you are thus emulously contending with each other, and quarrelling about small and very trifling matters."
What?! A man who holds the beliefs on an entire religion in his hands, considers these matters to be trivial?! How can we be sure that Constantine did not discard an important part of the Christian faith? It's amazing how easy it is to be blissfully ignorant of how many of the practices and rules of the Christian religion were impacted during one council meeting in 325 C.E. Christians of today need to become more aware of the history of their religion, instead of blindly accepting every practice that they are taught because some of those deep rooted traditions were instated by a leader who did not even consider the matter to have much importance.
To better inform yourself on the history of the Christian belief system:
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I agree with you that blindly accepting everything one is taught is not the basis for one's life long faith. This post shows that ever since the beginning of Christianity there have been controversies among Christians about what to believe. Sometimes the controversies have settled by one person in authority choosing. Other times the controversies leads to a split in the church. By just looking at all of the Christian denominations one can see how many times this has had happened and conflicts continue today. Right now the pope is offering to accept Anglicans into Catholicism when they object to gay clergy and this is leading to a split in the Episcopalian denomination.
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