Sacred texts are unreliable

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Parent debateThis argument is used in the debate Does God exist?.
Argument againstThis argument is an objection to God's existence is revealed in sacred texts.
Keywords: God, Sacred texts[ edit ].

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“The written word is convincing to those unaccustomed to asking questions like: "Who wrote this and when?", "How did they know what to write?", "Did they really mean in their day what we in our time understand them to mean?", "Were they impartial observers, or did they have a commitment that influenced their writings?". Since the 19th century, learned theologians have demonstrated unequivocally that the Gospels are unreliable when it comes to recounting what happened in the history of the real world. All were written long after Jesus' death, and also after Paul's Epistles, which quote virtually none of the alleged facts of Jesus' life. All were then copied and recopied through the telephone game of several generations by fallible scribes who, in any case, had their own religious commitments.”

Richard Dawkins, To put an end to God, Robert Laffont, Paris, 2008.

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