The meaning of life

[Repoman]

The bible is a book of stories. It is as factual as much as i am a god. The only reason that you believe in cristianity is because of the roman empire. The roman empire was crumbling and it was looking for solutions. It promoted cristianity in return for the support of the cristians not because of god. Until then it was a hick religion. If it wasn't for the roman's you would have been sold on another religion. The reason people believe in religion is becuase of the environment you experience. The ultimate weapon that religion has is fear and it has worked perfectly on you especially when you come up with statements like

"Don't worry, you will find out the truth... but by then it will be too late."

It's not to late for you to see religion for what it really is. A Product. They even have the no 1 book seller off all time, the bible. I admire cristianity for their business skills.

By the way that's cool how you have the links to those emperor d/l's thanks.

Long live Emperor

[Anathema]

I'm an agnostic, but those are just BS arguments Repoman. If there is no God or afterlife, Edric would never find out.

Many things in the bible have been proven wrong, but you cannot prove there is no God. Until you admit that, I challenge you to deliver any proof that supports your claim.

I believe a Roman emperor (I don't remember his name) once legalized christianity because he was christian himself. Christianity was already wide spread across Europe before the fall of Rome around 500.

[Edric O]

Oh my, your arrogance shines like the sun!

You know NOTHING about me or my reasons for believing in God. Your last post is nothing but speculation.

Maybe Christianity would have caught on anyway, even without Roman support. Or maybe it wouldn't have. But how can you possibly know what would have happened??

Edit: This is a reply to Repoman.

[Edric O]

The Roman Emperor that legalized (and corrupted) Christianity was Constantine the Great. The christians were becoming an "imperial pain" and previous emperors had failed to eradicate them. So Constantine tried a new approach: If you can't beat them, buy them. Things went downhill from there...

[Anathema]

The Roman empire would have fallen soon anyway- it had suffered to much from moral decay- the good days were over.

[Edric O]

Yes.

The legalization of Christianity only delayed the inevitable.

[Repoman]

Constantine became "christian" to get the christians on side, many historians will confirm this.

Edrico, i know you are smart because you understand a concept that 99%don't. That is humans must move as one people and form a govenment for the entire world. By the way i had my iq tested and i got 147 :P

By the way that patch for emperor is mad, hopefully i can find people who will play me in multiplayer. i don't know how much you were involved in the patch but keep up the good work.

[Edric O]

An IQ of 147?? Are you sure? I though Einstein himself had a little under 150. And the average is 100... Can you point me to the test you took? I'd like to take it myself and see what happens.

Constantine did more harm than good to Christianity, that is true.

You will see (or you won't, because we probably won't live long enough to see it) that when Humanity finally gets united as one people, there will be no more religion wars. That's because terrorists like Bin Laden use religion only as an excuse. Their goals are political, not religious.

Ummmm, what patch are you talking about?

[TMA_1]

"TMA_1, I'm sure that the mebers of "The Church Of Satan" were/are satanists, so they can't be non religious or atheist, satanism is in fact a religion, an atheist dosn't belive in gods/deamons, and so does a non religious, it's wrong to say that an atheist/non religious is only a non christian, there is a difference, a big one."

The Church Of Satan is an athiest group. They use the name Satan because they are against the White Light religions. christianity, judiesm, islam.

They dont believe in anything spiritual and are completely athiest. they believe Satan is the collective humanity rebeling against conformity. Satan is just an example of "myth". If you actually study about cults you will understand. The church of satan doesnt believe in anything supernatural. They just use the term satan to show that they rebel against conformity.

Now there are true Satanists. These guys arent to be messed with. They do believe in the supernatural and have real powers. They are of satan and if you are not protected by Christ than your either nothing or are in a world of hurt.lol

[Repoman]

iqtest.com only takes about 10 minutes and if their statistics are right then the standard deviation is only +-5

I thought i saw your name in the credits involved in that house corrino patch?

Religion quite frankly needs to be taken out of politics full stop and if it doesn't the ramifications will be severe but i think unfortuantly it is inevitable.

[Acriku]

Edric, stop bloating the idea that a high IQ means you are smart. The IQ tests (especially online ones - those are just fakes that want money) are to get a general idea, not something to base anything off of. The IQ Test I took with a psychologist a few years ago was about 139, but I don't base anything off of that. And yet still, I could do better now since I have learned a lot from then.

The only people that might find out about God are the believers, all others either go to hell or just die. I'd rather just die.

You are showing your own close-mindedness and bias.

So, Mr. Intelligence, care to point me to an IQ test so we can see which one of us has the higher IQ?

I believe you are, too.

[ken124578]

People make medicine to gain profit from the revenue that comes in after an amazing new 'cure' or 'wonder drug' has been developed. It would be naive to think that people genuinely want to cure people. Who supplies funding to the scientists that conduct research into medicine? The people that want to make money. (i.e. the large monopolistic filthy money grubbing corporations). Do you really think that people genuinely care about curing people?

and why do they want more money? to help themselves and their family live an long life but there are some exeptions ;)

[TMA_1]

intelligence quotient tests are very subjective Edric. your IQ changes all the time. The only proper time for taking the test is when you are very little. It has nothing to do with how knowledgable you are. My dad has his masters and was accepted into the docterate program at UBC. (university of british columbia) in bioethics. He only has an average IQ. It is silly how annoying and unknowledgable you are sometimes.

[The_Sadukar]

Edric O, Just for your information, the old reoman religon didn't have muach of an afterlife, so the romans didn't need to worry about what happend to them after death, sp htey could just work in teh intrest of the nation. Then came Christianity, and all the other religons for mesopothamia, whit loads of afterlife, when they caught on, the romans began to need to worry about teh afterlife, so the way I see it, all the "afterlife religions" just speeded up the prosses.

but about the one world goverment and serving humanatiy, I'm whit you all the way.

[Edric O]

Did I say anything about my IQ? No. So what's all the fuss about? ??? Btw, TMA, your insults don't help your case.

Repoman, religion *IS* out of politics. And I agree that it should stay that way. As history has shown us, politics has a tendency to corrupt religion.

Sardaukar, the adoption of Christianity as the official religion actually slowed down the process of Roman decay, because having a single religion improved the cohesion of the Empire.

And Constantine was very pleased to be considered the representative of God on Earth... *cough* megalomaniac *cough*

[The_Sadukar]

Then why just don't keep the original roman religion as the official, as it had been always, it was way better.

[TMA_1]

my case doesnt need any help. its just true.

[emprworm]

Well Repo, thanks for the compliments on the website. I do hope we can have a mutually beneficial dialogue and a respectable disagreement here.

In relation to your statement on maths. I agree that time factor is unknown at this point but we can say that it would be greater than 5 billion years due to the evidence relating to the age of earth at least. Given that time is > 5 billion years, the answer is there is statistically no chance that life would not have occured more than once(earth) with z being the number of different environments created by the universes.

i.e

X(lifeforms) > 1 (1 being earth) when z(planets or environments) > 50 billion (i don't how many planets there are) and t(time) > 5 billion ( i think that is how old they estimate earth to be)

[Nyarlathotep]

As said so many times, people have opinions, they hardly change. If one believes in a God, fine. If another doesn't fine as well. Both have their reasons. In respect to what someone believes (or thinks) in, you can't change ones mind (and you shouldn't even try if you'd ask me).

[Repoman]

y not someone convinced them into believing in religion

[emprworm]

not true at all repoman. No one convinced me into religion. I converted as a result of observations I made, moral convictions, and questions I had regarding the universe and life that science cannot answer.

[Anathema]

Then why did you become christian, and not islamic, jewish, or budhist or whatever else?

[Edric O]

That's a no-brainer, Earthnuker. Obviously, not all religions are the same. In fact, they sometimes have IMMENSE differences. Emprworm became a christian because his "observations, moral convictions, and questions he had regarding the universe and life that science cannot answer" fit Christianity, and DO NOT fit Islam, Budhism or whatever...

The same thing applies to me.

Question: Repoman, who convinced you into atheism?

(you see, this goes both ways... :))

[Edric O]

Btw, Sardaukar, by the time Constantine came to power, the old Roman religion was long dead. Hardly anyone believed in the old gods any more. Every province of the Empire had its own new religion. And some religions, like Christianity (or like Diocletian's Sun-cult), were just about everywhere.

[emprworm]

Constantine, as Edric mentioned, did little to do away with the already bankrupt Roman religions. Sure he may have hammered the nail in their coffin, but he certainly did not erode them. What Constantine did that was unique was he made Christianity a legal religion, and not just that, but promote it as the true religion. prior to this, Christianity was confined to the underground and Christians were heavily tortured and persecuted. I guess Satan figured that if he couldnt wipe out Christians through direct force and life in prisons, he'd try to backdoor them instead by appealing to their desires giving them pleasures, fame, and dining the tables of kings.