You know, I don’t know what you all believe and I don’t really care, but you have to admit, beliefs are odd. A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. Do you think when Jesus comes back, he ever wants to see a fucking cross? It’s kind of like going up to Jackie Onassis with a little sniper riffle pin, you know. “How are you Jackie, we’re just thinking of John. We loved him. We loved him. Yea, he was great.”

— Bill Hicks

The crucifix itself isn't the weird part; people use symbols as stand-ins for concepts all the time. They celebrate what his death signifies to them: God giving them a way to escape the punishment he's threatened us with as consequences of his own error. How gracious of him, that he made us so worthless, then gave us a chance to win his approval by having someone else tortured in our stead.

The weird part is that they consider the crucifix a symbol of love. "Let's use a torture device as a symbol of mercy".

Christians are, indeed, a weird cult.

He might be a little confused. There is a possibility he wasn’t hung up on a cross the way we depict, but a more simple post instead. The cross we’re all familiar with might just be another ripoff of pagan symbols, “x” and “+” have always held some significance in religions.

I can also believe that a government that conducts executions would cheap out and use a simple post rather than the effort and carpentry needed to make a cross. Why bother with the “+”.

Can’t find anything definitve, of course religious sites are heavily vested in maintaining the cross as a symbol and history has been clouded with their efforts.