(October 8, 2021 at 11:31 am)ayost Wrote: Again, without something definitive showing me that the gospels cannot be true, I have no reason to doubt what they say is true.
When I was first a believer, I asked myself "why would the gospel writers write this if it wasn't true?". For a while, I used the argument that someone writing about God wouldn't actually be lying, or they would invalidate everything they were writing.
Later, I realized that I was incorrect as to the nature of religious writing and myth. The purpose of the writers has never been to be historians, nor scientists. They are story makers! They have a purpose for their story -- to make the story good so that people will read it, and to espouse their religious views.
The gospels are written as stories. They used an omniscient narrator. They may be based off of earlier texts, but they came after Paul, and Paul seems to have known nothing about what the gospels write about. The writers are not "eye witnesses". The authors likely weren't even alive at the time.
There were many gospels written -- it was an archetype. The gospels disagree about many things, including the nature of Jesus, and what he commands. Why would all these writers do this - they can't all be right! Didn't the "other" writers know they were lying? Well, that is misinterpreting the nature of religious writing. It was never meant to be accurate -- it was meant to evangelize. Writers take existing stories and mold them into the form that best promotes their views.
This is the way of religious stories the world over, in every religion. The stories are legends and myths, intended to entertain and promote a particular set of religious views, or as a societal control.
I highly doubt the gospels were written by eye-witnesses, but even if they were, the idea that "eye witnesses never lie" would mean that Mormonism is absolutely true.
