Maybe this will
...finally...
Originally posted by Nygdan
make people realize that a text can go thru lots of 'error adding' processes.
very good point there Nygdan! It's what I always say when people tell me the bible is the word of God. I can't believe they don't see it was
written by men (not even by witnesses) who wrote it down by hearsaying, or let's call it "oral tradition", after some centuries (new testament) or
millenia (old one) the things happened. After all, only a very few people were literate at this times, so they were free to write what they want,
because nobody could control them. Not to mention all the copies (as justyc pointed out in his/her nice little story) and, after all, the translations
from dead languages in today's. Those centuries in the "dark ages", who knows what they did put in the holy book to justify their doings then? Same
about the Q'ran and a lot of other holy books. I would like people to see those books as stories which can teach you a lot, but not taking them word
by word, for it's man made!
One of the biggest problems in the near future will be saving our knowledge. Scientists already speak about the 20th century as the lost one (in the
future), because a lot of data will be lost for those who will come after us. Why? Because of copying too much and because of too short living media.
Even our books (first of all paperbacks

) will not survive for long, because there's too much acids in the paper. Not to speak of CD's which have
an estimated lifetime of 15 to 20 years (some of mine only live for 0.5 years).
What I want to say is: loss of (original) data because of man made mistakes, errors, faults or bad intentions and because of aging material is not
only a today's problem, but is one ever since. All true believers should consider this (which of course doesn't mean everything is wrong). In the
beginning, there may have been the word. But it was not written.