Reply #22: I should mention something else

[superconnected]

A lot of people (seems like especially Christians) don't know how the bible was written.

A lot of the NT was actually written and changed in the 6th century. It's belived there was a souce of Jesus sayings during his life, called the Q - german for quelle meaning source(I'm remembering this without reference right now) and from that book of sayings came made up histories of him - mathew, mark, luke and john. It was typical at that time to make up histories of people like ceaser etc. The histories were approved and published. Nothing in the modern collection believed to be quotes in the Q, says Jesus is coming back.

Half the new testament are books written by the apostal Paul who had a Jesus vision and became an apostal 5 years after Jesus death and is responsible for a lot of the spread of Christianity and Christian Churches. That half are letters he wrote the churches he founded. Some of those letters are believed to have been tampered with and changed.

Other books in the NT are believed to be written by someone other than the apostals claiming to have written them as they turned up well after the person died.

Anyway, the point is, anyone tauting it as completely the word of God is either very uneducated about it, or insane. It's thought to have been "inspired" by God, written by man.

And the christmas story - magi etc. was added around the 6th century also... it's far more likely fiction than has any truth to it. Bible scholars argue for it because of metaphorical value.