Originally Posted by armourbearer

The modern equivalent of the cross is the guillotine, noose, firing squad, electric chair, or lethal injection. I find that thought often helps folk to see the absurdity of employing the cross in religious devotions or as a sign of religious identification. Some interesting points are made by Dr. Kitto in his "Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature." He quotes one authority to the effect that crosses used in execution were formed by fastening a cross-beam on a perpendicular piece of wood so as to form a T, not a +. It appears that the cross was used as a religious symbol by ancient nations such as India, Egypt, and Babylon. Alexander Hislop provides some remarkable instances of this in his "Two Babylons."