To me cultural borders just seem like a left-over feature from Civ4 that could not be easily removed.

They serve little purpose in the game, and infact expose the broken way in which cultural conversion of native villages is handled.
Added to this their expansion is tied to the suicidal endeavour of producing liberty bells.:cry:

Cultural borders can keep Europeans away and remove native villages peacefully to allow your expansion.

Liberty Bells are tremendously useful:

- you get political points
- you get Cultural expansion
- you get increased productivity
- you get rebel sentiment for Independence and combat bonuses.

Presumably you are concerned about the King's Army increasing in response to Liberty Bells. Try having Statesmen in just your biggest Settlement at first. You will soon appreciate the effects!

Hey I'm wondering, why is it that later in the game when I put an Elderly Statesmen into a settlement I actually LOSE Rebel Sentiment. I am EXTREMELY confused, is this a bug?

Thanks in advance

Hey I'm wondering, why is it that later in the game when I put an Elderly Statesmen into a settlement I actually LOSE Rebel Sentiment. I am EXTREMELY confused, is this a bug?

It is expressed as a percentage of the current population. By adding another citizen (the statesman) you are increasing the population, thus lowering the overall percentage. For example, if you have a population of 9 and a rebel sentiment of 33%, then add a statesman, you will end up with a population of 10 and sentiment of 30%. Did the rebel sentiment go down? Not really, only as a percentage of the entire population. The same number of citizens wanted independence before as after the change (i.e. 3), but since they represent a smaller portion of the now larger community, the percentage goes down.