Quote:Why? Well, becasue there is no reason to believe in them.
Actually, fine xtian emperors made continuing to worship them a crime punishable by death.
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/theodosius.html
Quote:In January 381 Theodosius issued the first of fifteen edicts directed against heretics and pagans. Over the course of the next forteen years, the master of the Roman world, chosen by God, sanctioned the destruction of non-Christian temples and sanctuaries; the burning of heterodox writings; and the exile or execution of recalcitrant polytheists and all who refused to believe, or at least to profess, the truth. Though never entirely eliminated, sectarian Christians lost possession of their churches and were forbidden even to assemble together.
In May 381 Theodosius summoned one hundred and fifty bishops from the eastern provinces to the capital, resolved on the final extirpation of Arianism and every other sectarianism within the Christian camp. The canons issued in July from this First Council of Constantinople (aka Second Ecumenical Council) condemned all unorthodox beliefs as heresy. A particular target were the followers of Macedonius (otherwise known as "semi-Arians"), who balked at the promotion of the Holy Spirit as a third god in the peculiar Catholic trinitarian godhead. For its compliance to the Catholic cause, the see of Constantinople was promoted to "second in honour to Rome, as the New Rome", much to the chagrin of old Rome and its ally, Alexandria.
"There follow in 381, 382, 384, 388, 389, 394, laws against the heretics – Eunomians, Arians, Apollinarians, Macedonians, Manichaeans – confiscating their churches, and handing them over to Catholics, forbidding their assemblies, exiling their bishops and priests, confiscating all the places where their rites were celebrated. The great number of these laws, several of which are repeated, prove that they were not everywhere carried out."
– P. Allard, Christianity and the Roman Empire, p263.
