EasyTimes,
The text of the Bible was not written from memory 200 years after the events. The fact is we have copies from origin documents and sources written 200 years after the events. The original sources have been lost or fell apart from continual use. The fact is there is no original texts of secular contemporaries to the new Testament writers, and no one challenges secular events of the same period. The challenge is Jesus confronts us because of our unforgiven sin.

However God is not found in mere ink, but in admirable character, pure attitudes and selfless behaviour reflected through human incarnation. The message of Christ is no matter how evil one's past has been it can be forgiven upon repentance and accepting the spirit of Christ into ones life to now reflect the true character of Christ.

The problem with the bible it has been re hashed re written, interpreted into a new languages and “edited” on so many occasions and usually by an interest groups an individual or a select few with out any sort of cross referencing. The bible can not stand up to rigorous scientific testing due to the shabby way it has been put together over the centuries. The fairy tales it tells of people walking on water, turning water into wine and the blind have fish scales fall from their eyes and being able to see again are about as believe able as someone telling you that there are fairy’s at the bottom of the garden.

People believe in god because they want to find meaning in their life and a reason for everything and until something better comes up blokes Jesus and Moh will have many willing followers.

Arjay I am aware of that my point is left alone that cult would have evolved into a new religion, it lasted at least into the 1960,s.
I we think not very deeply we will find other examples, some very big religions seem to have roots in fictional books, man seems to want to believe he is not capable of looking after his own fate.
If Shakespeare could write his books could
he or some one else not write a Bible?
We should not underestimate mans ability's, if we can make our city's we can make anything.

JohnJ one of the tragedies of 'religion' is when we have an image or personal understanding of "God" which differs from the revealed God.

Once our own ideas of Him a) Differ and b) Become settled in our minds, and a real world event goes contrary to that condition, we can have a crisis of faith. But that crisis is in reality with our 'own' version of God, not the God of the Bible.

There is a verse in the New Testament.. where Jesus says

12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

PROBLEM .. without pastoral guidance, (to give the BIG overall picture) you can imagine a naive person running with this verse as follows:

1/ OOOOh.. this is FANtastic...
2/ They come across a poor child with Cancer.
3/ They Pray "Oh Lord.. please HEAL this innocent child"
4/ The child is not healed..but dies within a week.
5/ Potential crisis of faith.

Rather than try to explain the full background to Jesus statement, I suggest a liberal use of Google to see what comes up.

One thing often neglected in seeking to understand the above is the very next verse.

15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

AAAH.. now this is part of the problem. Can we expect the Lord to work through us dramatically while we wallow in sin like a pig in mud?

Then there is the issue of "What we ask..IN His name." well surely 'healing of the sick' is....getting rain for desperate farmers.. bringing WORLD PEACE....errr..etc.. and so it becomes clear that if we take a literal face value meaning for those words without qualification.. we can get into all kinds of trouble.

Easy Times,
What is your meaning for life in the context of this time and universe? Are you saying in this - [quote] "People believe in god because they want to find meaning in their life and a reason for everything and until something better comes up blokes Jesus and Moh will have many willing followers." Are you stating that your life is meaningless and you have no answers. If otherwise you have the answers - then lets hear them!

/continued....

Imagine Paul.. who experienced dramatic miraculous healing of blindness, and also healed others.. if he applied these words to every aspect of his life.. when he was being shipwrecked he would have yelled out 'BE CALM' to the storm.... etc.

EASYTIMES.... I think we can help you on this issue of 'the documents' which you described as having been:

-Re-hashed
-Re-Written
-Interpreted into new languages
-Edited

But if you consider each of those points, they are not neccessarily negative.

1/ Re-Hashed. Well.. a great deal of effort by a great deal of highly qualified people.. scholars, archeologists, linquists etc over along period of time..has gone into ensuring the docuements are as accurate as possible based on the amazing abundance of documentary resources and evidence.

2/ Re-Written..... well refer to point one above. If a document comes to light (maybe even a secular one from the NT period) which sheds more light on the meaning or use of a word than we had up to that time... it can help to 'perfect' the meaning in English or other non Greek languages.

3/ Interpreted into new languages. Yep indeedy :) Jesus is called the 'PIG' of God in some cultures where they have never ever seen a 'sheep' :)

4/ Edited. Refer to point 1 and 2

Finally, the evidence for the reliability of the NT is very very strong. MUCH stronger than for other figures of history of that time.
Please read this...http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/ffbruce/ntdocrli/ntdocont.htm

and if you can find a copy of 'Evidence which demands a verdict' by Josh McDowell... have a read also.
An opposing view is found here.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jeff_lowder/jury/

I've had a look at this, and its pretty 'lightweight' in terms of 'threat' :) but I link it for purposes of balance