I'm very confused

[DooRag]

When I say "history guy", I mean that I put more faith in writers like Jared Diamond, for example, who have shown that the broadest, most simple, and often least obvious explanation, is the correct one.

[RichardHresko]

"Faith" is a word you are using rather liberally without giving any sort of context to. I could say that "clouds" are a precondition of any knowledge and make about as much sense as your last statement.

As far as the history goes, its been made pretty clear who changed the bible, and when, and why they changed it. The bible is the most ingenious political tool in the history of mankind, and I have read it, amongst several other religious texts. They all follow the exact same formula. So, either there are a bunch of gods copying each other, or they were written by men.

Which makes more sense?

Augustine of Hippo was a religious zealot that might have be slightly insane. I wouldn't lean to strongly on his texts.

Also, I want to apologize if I offend anyone. I believe that great wisdom can be gained from all religious texts. As a history guy, though, I'm just throwing in my two cents.

Faith is the trust that one puts into the report of others. It is the precondition for knowledge since something as elementary as language itself depends on faith. A humorous example of what happens when that trust is misplaced is the scene in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" when the fiance is misled as to what a particular phrase in Greek means. Monty Python also did a bit with a Hungarian-English phrase book. I don't think that this definition of faith is anything much beyond the commonplace so I am unsure why it caused a problem.

That being said, I do not have faith in your claims about the corruption of texts and the reasons for them. When you provide some specific information I will be interested in evaluating it. But until that is done the rhetorical question you pose is moot.

The comments about Augustine are baseless as presented. Once again, I would be glad to discuss specifics, when they are provided.