Free Will and the Bible

This topic came up at our almost daily atheists-theists discussion at lunch the other day. If God gave men the free will to choose their paths in life, and the Bible is scribed by men, doesn't it seem at least possible, if not likely, that parts of the history depicted in the Bible were ommitted or changed as men might have "strayed from the path of God?"

The parts of the bible were written by men and the gospels (their inclusion) was voted upon.

[Viraljimmy]

The bible has magical protection, so it only says what god really wants to tell us.

[ArmsMerchant]

^Um, that's a joke, right?

My goodness, one reason why the Bible is so untrustwirthy is precisely because it has been edited and translated and mistranslated many times down the ages.

The most obvious example is the Council of Nicea (whence the "Nicean creed"), where--among other things--the Empress Theodora (You know, Constantine's wife) had all references to reincarnation edited out. (They missed one, however.)

Another fairly obvious example is in the Scripture which--when read in the orginal Greek--rather strongly implies that Jesus survived the crucifiction.

Plus, the gospels which "made it" are by no stretch of the imagination any more valid or authoritative than the dozen or so known gospels which didn't, especially the gospels of Thomas, Judas, and Mary Magdelene.

Anyone who has failed to read them is ill-equipped to discuss the New Testament.

[This message has been edited by ArmsMerchant (edited 01-06-2007).]