I have tried really hard to find out who Matthew was and all the sources I can come up with say that noone knows. Unless someone can show me a reliable source that explains who he is-I really wouldn't waste your breath arguing over whether he wrote the Gospel or not.

There was an earlier post stating that the NT is written by eyewitnesses- I would like to know who they were. Paul was not an eyewitness by his own admission. Matthew as I have said is an unknown. Luke was supposed to be a friend of Paul's so unless someone can point me to something claiming he had contact with Jesus I assume he may be in the same boat as Paul, while Mark is unknown except for one reference from Papius in 130AD who said he was a interpreter of Peter - hardly definitive.

The Gospel of John is claimed to be written by an eyewitness but the date of the 90's AD is attributed to it because it mentions the expulsion of the Jewish Christians from synagogue life which didn't happen until the late 80's. This is the earliest that John could have been written- not the latest. This gospel is written in the best Greek and interwoven with Greek concepts like the 'logos'. One eye witness? And he didn't write anything until till 60 years+ after the death of Christ? A lot of scholars think it a fake. So far - I haven't researched every person in the NT but these are the main ones.

I also object to the pride that is shown in the amount of written evidence to support mainstream christian beliefs compared to other sources. Mainstream christianity burned rival books and manuscripts -and outlawed them. That is why there are more survivals of mainstream than there is of others. There are no survivals of first century christian manuscripts though. The dates ascribed to the Gospels etc are from a critical analysis of the manuscripts that date from the second and third century.

Aziliz you can't find witnesses, there aren't any. Not one of the books of the bible were written by those ascribed to them, they couldn't write Greek. If you look deeply into the original writings you will note many notations made by the scribes who did the actual writings. These notations have been ignored by the church and lots of them removed. There are copies of the originals in the Vatican and within the Russian orthodox churches, particularly in St Petersburg.

On at least 4 of these parchments, the scribes, (all different people and written at different times and different places), explain that they are recording verbal fictional stories that were becoming popular amongst the population and needed recording for wider use.

At the time, they had no names attributed to them, were copied so they could be sent to other parts of the empire for the amusement of the ruling class. Christianity arose from this, just as star trekies have and was seized upon by some as a new way to control the populance and disrupt the roman empire.

Around 650 they were correlated and only a hand full kept. Many things were changed to align it with the growing Christian power base. There were more than 4500 documents that made up these works as well as other stories aligned to them, Just like popular fiction they produced clones or similar works.

The original story was built around a wacky group that heavily indulged in the use of hemp products, and bathed themselves in holy anointing oil made up of hemp oil and olive oil. The recipe is in genesis, which is where they got the idea of a messiah.

The group, was thrown out of the area, the leader arrested and hung up, bribes allowed taking him down quickly and his wounds treated. He and his women, fled to India where he earlier spent time during his late teens and twenties after being banished for heresy and causing trouble. You can find these accounts in Kashmir as well as other evidence of this, throughout the world.

The Alchemist,

I think we are talking about a different movie here. The one where the hero goes to his death to save civilization (even you).

Christianity is based on FACTS.

If those facts are not to your liking, than too bad. Go and continue to make your own facts and impress your friends with your intellectual wit.

The distortions, scriptural clones and concoctions – even if you were true – will not change the FACTS.

A good example is the current cartoons saga. Many different reports but that doesn’t negate the fact that there were cartoons, they were published, the muslims got upset, etc… this is how history is recorded. The stories are gathered, pictures are taken, reporters comment, editors edit, voila.

History revisionism is were you and your mob come in. Christ was fiction, Mohammed never existed, what holocaust? Stolen generation…get out of here!

Your conclusion: It's all that hemp and rubbing olive oil - get rid of religion and she’ll be write…!

Listen to yourself. You’re just using space on OLO.

But we love you for it. Cheers.

It's a total waste of time trying to convince religious people by the use of facts and logic.
Their's is a BELIEF system, it doesn't require facts and logic!
And for me, it's OK, let them carry on in their beliefs, if it makes them feel good and comforted. If it also helps them to be better human beings, so well and good.
Just don't try to impose them on me! I don't need to blindly believe in a religion to be a good person. I also don't take kindly to threats of eternal damnation. This is not the way to get me on side.
Look at all the trouble being caused around the world as we speak by religious people defending their stupid belief systems.
All religions (and perhaps most ideologies) are as bad as one another.

Some people beleive only what they want to beleive, unfortunatley. Mhoram, and some of the others, simply dont want to beleive what is evident everywhere. SO I will say it again.....

1 corinthians 1:18 -- "for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing"
I know itd be much simpler for you to beleive what you do (or dont, for that matter) believe, if all us christians were fooled into this faith, brainwashed, accepting it blindly on faith, whatever you want to call it. But I think you'll find most of us actually stepped outside of our opinions for a while, and open mindedly did some research, dug up the evidence. Which I certainly did before I accepted this as truth. And now I see God working in my life, amazing answers to prayers and so on.

mhoram.."Trot out your God and bring him to my place one day - he's omniscient, so he'll have the address - I'll give him a hearing then, O yes precious, certainly I will". ..Hee hee, how often have I heard this. Heres a verse for ya...luke 16:31 "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.

Well Genesis, please list this "evidence" as you call it, and see whether we agree that it is in fact evidence.
No good quoting scripture at us, that just doesn't cut it.
It is NOT evidence.
Why do you persist in trying to ram your nonsensical beliefs down people's throats?
Isn't it enough that YOU believe it?
Just get on with your life, try to follow your religion as best you can, but don't try to impose it on other people who have "been there, done that" and woken up to what a load of baloney it all is.
The problem with you religious people is that you can't tolerate anyone that thinks for themselves, and that leads to totalitarianism, not to mention all sorts of atrocities, as we see with the Muslim extremists and their fellow travelers.