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That's what the Bible is. First off, the OT is a collection of stories written down in Babylon during the Captivity. Most of the descriptions of God are wishful thinking along the lines of "our guy is a bigger motherfucker than your guy."

Then we get to the NT. Matthew and Mark were the only guys on the spot. Luke was later, a Greek doctor and scribe who wrote down a lot of stuff Paul told him, who was having a major argument with Peter over Judaic law and also the fact that Peter was just a working class peasant. John didn't write his gospel; they wanted a fourth one so they cobbled together stuff left over and thought "whose name can we put on this? I know, how about the bloke who wrote down the shroom trip".

Then we get to the scribes, who put in stuff, lost stuff, dropped gravy on the roughs and generally carried on regardless.

Then Jerome translated it into Latin. He threw out more stuff.

Then the Bible was translated into English. More than once, including one by Tolkien. Even Shakespeare had a go, leaving jokes and riddles in the Psalms. More cock ups, particularly in punctuation. There's a comma somewhere which completely changes a Gospel, depending if you're a Prod or Taig.

Which means that when a fundie comes to the door and says: "THIS IS THE WORD OF GOD", they're lying.

And how do I know all this?

Many, many priests have told me so!
(all my scars face forward possesses 2.5% of a hyperalloy combat chassis, Sun 22 Mar 2009, 17:57, 3 replies)

I think
you are preaching to the converted here.
(powervator and NONE SHALL PASS, Sun 22 Mar 2009, 18:53, closed)

You're broadly correct...
But i'd go as far to say that Mark was the only one on the spot and calling Luke a 'doctor' oversimplifies the greek meanings of the word.

Also that they 'wanted another one' implies some sort of massively formaized church structure rather than a small 'Johnnine' community that probably produced the Gosepel. The earliest collection of texts like the modern New Testament is about 200 AD, a century after John was written. Of course the 4 main gospels weren't officially canon until 1545 as any fule kno.
( rjmrjm, Sun 22 Mar 2009, 20:21, closed)

Personally...
I love how these disciples had very prim and proper English names. I mean... Luke? Ehm...
(Kitimariana, Mon 23 Mar 2009, 13:05, closed)