A 50 year game of telephone.

One reason I am so skeptical of the New Testament gospels is because of just how long it took for the stories of Jesus to be written down. These stories of Jesus went through an oral stage for at least a good 40-60 years. The oldest Gospel, the Gospel of Mark is believed to have been written around 63-85 CE, depending on the scholar. This was around 30-50 years after the year Jesus was believed to have died(~30AD). I wonder how many bible literalists actually remember playing the game of telephone when they were young. Within the small minute it took to get a message around a circle of people, it is highly unlikely the message will retain its original integrity. Now stretch this out to 30-50 years, among thousands of people, all living in an age long before the age of scientific skepticism.

Interestingly, another issue arises out of that last statement. If anyone has followed the skeptics movement, it should be obvious there are plenty of claims that, without scientific skepticism, would be left unchallenged and highly likely to be believed. Even today many of these claims are believed, even though they've been successfully disproved or extremely unlikely. Look at

• faith healers
  
• alien abduction stories
  
• ghost stories
  
• the miracle of the sun in Fatima
  
• the Incorruptibles
  
• countless conspiracy theories
• 2012
• and many more (In fact, if you're interested in learning about these claims, a good starting point is the podcast SKEPTOID, by Brian Dunning)....
  

There are also issues of eyewitness testimony. How many people were sure they saw a projectile hit TWA flight 800, despite the fact that their testimonies disobey basic laws of physics? If so many people believe these things, despite the fact they have been disproved, imagine how many people would believe these outrageous stories without the scientific knowledge needed to objectively asses a given event?

Now we come to the stories of Jesus. All we need to do is look at other historical figures and see how many bogus stories have been written about them. For example,

• Darwin's Deathbed Confession
• George Washington and the cherry tree
• The Hitler Diaries
• Nostradamus
• etc...

Now I understand these examples are over 50 years old, but we have recorded accounts of these people from the times they lived. The point is, without these accounts dating from the time of their actual lives, who knows how many of these bogus stories may have been believed with the same certainty of the belief given to the stories of Jesus.

Now it's no secret what could have motivated these followers of Jesus in the early first century BC. The Roman occupation of Jerusalem was brutal. Some accounts of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate show there were daily crucifixion tallies of over 100 people. In the face of Roman oppression, the hope for the return of the Jewish Messiah had to be strong.

Now don't get me wrong. This is no evidence against the validity of the old testament as historical truth. This is merely speculation. However, this shows just how likely it would be for stories like the Gospels to have arisen given the historical conditions, whether or not they had any factual basis. This is nothing more than a reason to remain skeptical of any non-collaborated "historical texts" such as the gospels.