(April 20, 2020 at 2:05 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: Yeah...the scholars. The ones who talk about winged horses and magic carpet rides. I'm unimpressed.
Yes...ofc a religious tradition has a defined period of development. When ideas change and ultimately calcify into what we see then or today. I'm trying to be as generous as I can imagine.
If the magic book worshipers managed to get every jot and tittle the same in every copy, it doesn't matter. The thing that I doubt isn't the ability of editors to enforce style guidelines.
It's the underlying claim.
But from what I understand Muslims claim that Koran was always same without what you call "period of development" and these books that were found were considered to be Koran although they differ from one that exists now.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
