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"The Bible is fiction."

The bible was written a long time ago and was used as a way of controlling people. Ordinary people were scared of this thing known as God because they did not understand death. We still do not understand death but at least we understand life a little better.
God was used to explain the unexplainable but now we understand some of the unexplainable. We no longer need God like our ancesters. All we need is hope...
Human nature is destruction and the only thing that we should hope for is that we do not destroy the beautiful planet on which we live. We do not deserve the gifts we have but maybe one day we will be truely gateful for them...

kevstar wrote:

> Ok fair enough, I was talking about in Turkey with St Nicholas.

St Nick...hang on; that's Santa innit?

Light wrote:
>
> Nope; wasn't outlawed at all. There were a few emperors who wanted
> Christians to swear oaths on the Emperors divinity. When they
> refused, they were dismissed from office (and, under Nero and
> Diocletion, persecuted). But that applied to ANYONE refusing to swear
> such an oath, not just christians.
>
> There was certainly friction between non christians and christians.
> That's because the latter were on the up (socially speaking), and the
> former wanted to eliminate a rival faction. Plus most emperors had
> far more pressing worries than a minor religious sect.
>
> Also, think about it; why would an Emperor suddenly introduce a cult
> as the official state religion if it was widely persecuted and hated?
> Elagabalus tried that a few decades earlier, and it cost him his
> life. Whereas introducing a widely accepted and popular cult
> guarantees popularity.

Ok fair enough, I was talking about in Turkey with St Nicholas.

kevstar wrote:

> It's where Constantine was the first recognised Catholic roman empire
> and tollerated Christianity in about 313AD, before then it was
> apparently outlawed. This was on telly last week in a program called
> the real face of St.Nicholas. More info
> [URL]http://www.darkcoding.net/christianity.py[/URL]

Nope; wasn't outlawed at all. There were a few emperors who wanted Christians to swear oaths on the Emperors divinity. When they refused, they were dismissed from office (and, under Nero and Diocletion, persecuted). But that applied to ANYONE refusing to swear such an oath, not just christians.

There was certainly friction between non christians and christians. That's because the latter were on the up (socially speaking), and the former wanted to eliminate a rival faction. Plus most emperors had far more pressing worries than a minor religious sect.

Also, think about it; why would an Emperor suddenly introduce a cult as the official state religion if it was widely persecuted and hated? Elagabalus tried that a few decades earlier, and it cost him his life. Whereas introducing a widely accepted and popular cult guarantees popularity.

Light wrote:

>
> I suspect the 300 years figure comes from the fact that the Bible
> didn't exist as a book for at least 300 years (nearer 400 I seem to
> recall) after the death of Christ.

It's where Constantine was the first recognised Catholic roman empire and tollerated Christianity in about 313AD, before then it was apparently outlawed. This was on telly last week in a program called the real face of St.Nicholas. More info [URL]http://www.darkcoding.net/christianity.py[/URL]

kevstar wrote:

> Take the Bible, apparently the Romans banned any talk of the bible
> for 300 years+, so to me thats 300 years of Chiniese style whispers
> going on underground.

Nuh-uh. Some christians like to believe that as it fuels their persecution complex and vicarious sense of martyrdom.

What actually happened was that, aside from a couple of periods of persecution (none of which lasted more than 20 years; lets say maybe 40-50 years in total under Nero and Diocletian respectively), christians had total freedom of worship.

I suspect the 300 years figure comes from the fact that the Bible didn't exist as a book for at least 300 years (nearer 400 I seem to recall) after the death of Christ.

I don't think it's the bible that converts most people, it's people themselves. I was made Christian not because I believed in the Bible, but because I was told this is what happened at a time when I was so young I just took it all in as part of my learning. This I feel is how most religious groups opperate, fill there minds with so much crap when there too young to know otherwise, so that when there older they don't want to believe anything else because there so brainwashed they use there faith rather than common sense.

Take the Bible, apparently the Romans banned any talk of the bible for 300 years+, so to me thats 300 years of Chiniese style whispers going on underground. Now if you take there beliefs at the time e.g. when it thunders it's the Gods bieng angry and so on(that could be greek but you get the point). You can then see where such storys like the burning bush comes from. Now I could be wrong but if there is a God why doesn't he just show himself in front of the world as he is the man of peace and love, war is mostly started over religion and he'll be able to tell which faith everyone should follow and that will be the end of the religious wars. And thats when, and only when i'll believe in any religion.

God was just invented so there was a reason to invade other countrys.

Now we have better reasons for war so we don't need god anymore.

we had to go and teach iraq a lesson cause they wouldn't give us more sand for out sand-pits.

There was a god, he's some human race that has planted us here to populate this area of the galaxy, then to join them and fight a war. honestly, its in human nature un all.
People believe in god so that they dont feel hollow and empty and so that they dont feel they might as well die now cause there is just no point in their life time, except to breed..

Considering that no one has actually read the bible in its entirety it could just be pages and pages of incoiherent ramblings. Well either way it is but you never know what Mr King was thinking at the time of writing!

Pachanga wrote:
> crossbob wrote:
> The bible is non-fiction actually.
>
> Its fiction, every one knows Stephen King wrote it

LOL stephen kings a good writer then.