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Originally Posted by irateplatypus
the Christian makes (hopefully) few value judgements based on their own preferences and instead holds that sacred scripture is the final authority of man, with God as its sovereign arbiter.
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I've mentioned it before, but I think it's worth bringing up here, that the Bible would hold more credibility in my mind had it not been translated and transcribed again and again, each time losing meaning and sometimes picking up the personal opinion and artistic touch of the translator or writer. Alteration to a "sacred" document were not hard to make when the only ones with access to the texts were the elite few, even if the masses had been literate and able to reproduce the texts.
If I were to assume, for a moment, that the Bible is the word of God, and instructions for His followers, then I would also have to be angry and worried on the behalf of those followers because of the changes made to scriptures over time. I know from my Catholic upbringing that the concept of Papal Infallibility deals with this quietly and efficiently, but I'm not sure how other religions would deal with potential inaccuracies in the latest printing of the word of God. Someone else will have to fill us in on that one.