question about the bible

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Greetings all, Im new to the forums(1st post) and fairly new to atheism and Im glad to find a place to discuss my beliefs. Having been raised a christian my whole life I have a few questions. Since announcing my beliefs to my family and friends I have gotten into a lot of debates recently. One thing one of my friends said recently intrigued me. It went along the lines of "the bible was written by many men over the course of years in different areas of the globe. How could they all be wrong about the same god if their scriptures agree with one another and they never met?" Granted, I probably phrased that different than what he did but you should get the genral gist of his question. Basically, how could all the different biblicial authors be decieved in separate areas by the same "god"? To be honest, this question had me at a loss and I have been pondering it for quite some time. Now my question is do you as an atheist believe that the authors of the bible honestly believed they were divinely inspired by god? or were they liars? It has to been one or the other doesnt it? Forgive me, if im missing something but I hope you guys cant point it out. Thanks in advance and I look forward to hearing your thoughts (=