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Comment by jwhitlark | Hacker News Reader

...therefore the Bible is infallible...

That is a Christian position, but I don't believe it's the only one, especially outside the US. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_infallibility for discussion.

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That is definitely true. For example there is widely held doubt that Paul wrote 1 and 2 Timothy despite that being the claim in its opening words. The content of the cannon,the books which make up the Bible were horse traded around 400 AD by fallible human beings. Before that there was no accepted Bible. I have a strong Christian faith in which the Bible plays it's part, but it needs to be read thoughtfully.

Serious question: why even call yourself a Christian if you don't believe that God is powerful enough to guarantee that his Word will stand, be known, and is final and authoritative? If we can't believe that minimal fact, how can we believe that Christ died for our sins, that we will be resurrected bodily in glory, that the Lord was conceived by a virgin, or that God parted the Red Sea, or made the world in six days?

"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever" (Is. 40:8).

I don't wish to get into a 2000 year old debate about who is a true Christian. We do better to unite than to fight. I was merely confirming that it is not necessary to consider the Bible to be infallible for it to be valuable. I do not need to call myself a Christian any more than I need to call myself a human. I am one, and luckily you cannot take that away from me.

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