Who Wrote The Gospels?

[headinhands]

"Matthew contains 606 of Markâ??s 661 verses. Luke contains 320 of Markâ??s 661 verses. Of the 55 verses of Mark which Matthew does not reproduce, Luke reproduces 31; therefore there are only 24 verses in all of Mark not reproduced somewhere in Matthew or Luke."

A good diagram here

*choose

Skip about the bible, that is what I say, even to a beginner.
It is a feast, so pick and choose where to read.
Think if it like a buffet.

How can you "choose" to believe though- it's a bit like "choosing" to fall in love with someone. These things don't just happen because you decide to.

I often just open it, and just read a few verses.

God prompts us throughout our lives in the direction of Him and the bible.

deep they do for me.

Shipping It is not dishonest to speak of my own individual knowledge, my own experiences. You do not have to believe me.

We can choose to reject Him though, or push Him away.

I think there's a difference between controlling and not having a feeling. We all get jealous as adults but we control it, it's not that it's not there when we grow up.

The same way you rejected Allah rabbit.

So you could just pick a different god tomorrow? Cool. That sounds quite fun actually.

caps - "It is not dishonest to speak of my own individual knowledge, my own experiences. You do not have to believe me."

I believe that you have your own knowledge and experiences based on what you have read and heard.

But I would dispute that your perception of the truth is the actual truth, since the actual truth can't be known.

head I find you do not have to pay heed to every fleeting thought.

If you do not pay attention to every fleeting thought, dismiss the ones which you know to be destructive in your life, they go away, they are easily forgotten. Otherwise your negative thoughts can haunt you and make you miserable.

All human knowledge concerns our own perceptions though, Shipping.

It is amazing how much we thought people knew, as human beings, is cultural belief. This is why I have made links to articles showing variance in perceptions and brain physiology, language etc.

head I could if I wanted to, but I don't.

So capsium you make a conscious decision to fall in love with someone?

You've just scored a great home goal there again caps. Surely if you recognise how flawed our beliefs are the most intellectually honest position is rejecting beliefs that have no proof.

Yes, my husband. Met 23 years ago.

head, No because in this position I believe a person is reliant on faith, otherwise they could never make a decision.

Psalm 1

www.devotions.net/bible/19psalm.htm

Exodus 20 v 3

www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+20&version=NRSV

No other Gods before me
or besides me

I am aware that you know all of this already.

But writing out bits of the bible is cool!

"It is amazing how much we thought people knew, as human beings, is cultural belief."

How cars move and how aeroplanes fly is not cultural belief. How babies are made is not cultural belief. That gravity can be demonstrated is not cultural belief. That rainwater erodes soil is not cultural belief.

You might find a person who believes that babies are brought by storks because he read it in a book - but he would simply be wrong.

the most intellectually honest position is rejecting beliefs that have no proof

We've been here before, haven't we? First you tell me how you can prove that you exist, and then if you can do that we'll talk about how you can prove any other belief that you have (like, for example, that other people exist, or the sun (which exists) goes round the earth (which exists).

But I would dispute that your perception of the truth is the actual truth, since the actual truth can't be known

Now that would depend on your epistemelogical framework, or the way you think we know things, and it would depend on your ontology, that is, your underlying assumptions about things existing. One possibility is to say that there is no actual truth apart from our apprehension of it (empiricism); another is to say that there is an actual truth that we cannot know directly but which we know through the way contact between the that truth and us shapes our mind (Kantian realism). There are others.

niminy - it simply isn't that complicated. The Bible was written too long ago for us ever to know the truth about its contents.