What are you talking about, and who is this Bill? This thread is about C.S. Lewis.

You sound like all the other money-grubbing preachers out there. You say you believe in a god who supposedly could poof the whole universe out of nothing, and yet this god always seems to need money. Why does an all-powerful god who can do anything need money? I think it’s you who needs money. What a scam.

While the evangelicals (who are the most frequent people to appear on this board in an attenpt to “save” us) argue for the infallibiliy of their text, my understanding is that the Catholic Chruch’s position is that they accept the imperfection of their text and so insist that the apostolic tradition must accompany it for proper understanding. I find this position a bit more consistent, but it still does not get around the whole problem. For Catholicism, then, the apostolic tradition must be infallible.or the whole thing still falls apart. We still have the “telephone” problem. In the absence of copies carved in stone, printing presses, or xerox machines, we are relying on each generation to correctly transmit information to the next, either orally, or by hand copying it, neither of which is very reliable.

Of course, I suppose your god could just tell the pope which interpretation is 100% correct. But he could also just tell the pope which ancient text is the correct one. Or hey, since we are talking about an omnipotent god here, he could just poof the original manusctipts into the Vatican Library! That would neatly solve the whole accuracy of transmission problem. I’m not holding my breath on that one.

Yes, copies of copies might be the case in the complete texts of the Gospels, I agree. The originals were written on scrolls or codices of papyrus. The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans alone would have required a scroll about four yards long. As these papyri were sent from one community to another, one could hardly expect this fragile material to come down to us. But we do possess a number of fragments of such papyri, mostly found in Egyptian tombs, over 120 have actually come to light and new ones are not infrequently discovered.

A comparison of these venerable fragments with later manuscripts enables us to establish a common relationship which is highly important as evidence of the solidity of the Christian texts as we have them. About the third century it probably became customary to transfer these writings on to parchment to preserve them from destruction. Bound into volumes these parchments took on appearance something like our present books. These codices, in particular the Codex Vaticanus and the Codes Sinaiticus are the most important bases of our knowledge of the New Testament.

Let us consider the number of manuscripts involved. If we posess only one copy of a book by an author there is nothing to tell us whether the book is imperfect or incorrect. Only by comparison with others can light be cast. All the ancient writers are known to us through a small number of imperfect manuscripts, in the case of the New Testament, we have almost an unimaginable number of manuscripts.
A comparison of these copies is highly instructive. It goes without saying that being made by so many different hands a number of faults have crept in, sometimes even intentional ones. Frequently a copyist has modified the spelling, misplaced a word or added an explanation of his own, or forgotten a phrase. If these “variants” are added to the number of manuscripts we have a swarm of them. The number has been put as high as 250,000. Yet, and this is the essential fact, the “variants” do not amount to an eighth part of the total, and the “substantial variants” are barely a thousandth part.

The task of the critic in establishing a definitive text was to choose among the variants those which were the oldest and most consistent. It can be confidently stated that no other text has come down to us from antiquity in such exemplary condition.
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I follow the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, instituted by Christ, given divine protection by the Holy Spirit, and guaranteed indefectibility regarding Orthodoxy.
Any pastor can say anything, it does not matter, there are 40,000 protestant denominations. My point is I do not follow what some pastor says and the manuscripts we have show no evidence of significant corruption from the originals. I believe in the integrity of the Gospels because the Church guarantees so.

Also, I think you seem to try to answer the question of God scientifically. I remember an anecdote, forgot all the details, but it was asked if you could prove God scientifically, and the man replied if he could prove atoms theologically? They are completely different methods of analysis, both involving logic. The scientific method cannot be used for all things, particularly God. But look at the evidence and the most logical conclusion t what we have is the Christian interpretation of Christ.