I realize that is not a direct answer to the question, but as I neither say there is no god or that Jesus never existed, I would share this (reached after 20 years of reading, observing, and pondering).
1. If there is a god, he certainly is not the one
represented in the bible
2. Even if Jesus were not the son of god or a real person,
many of the things he said ring true
It was a few years after being out and looking at things with a
wider viewpoint, I asked myself, are there any original manuscripts of the
bible, Hebrew and/or Christian?
I researched and
there it was the WTS admitting that there were not, even the Christian part.
Here are some WTS statements I found and after:
First side step (or circular reasoning) by WTS:
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1990528?q=%22original+manuscripts%22&p=par
True, we do not have the Bible writers’ original manuscripts. But we really should
not expect to have those manuscripts. Why? Because of the materials on which they were
written, a certain ancient Jewish custom, and the history of the times since
the writing....True, in
the hot, dry climate of Egypt, many papyrus manuscripts have survived for
thousands of years. But that is exceptional.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1001070241?q=original+manuscripts&p=sen
Today, however, no
manuscripts of the “New Testament” from the first century C.E. are
available for us to examine. So no one can check the original Greek manuscripts of the “New Testament” to see whether the Bible writers
used the Tetragrammaton…
(but then)
True, it would be exciting to find the actual
document that Moses or Isaiah wrote. But
we really do not need the originals. The important thing is not the document
but its contents. And
miraculously, despite the passing of many turbulent centuries and much
copying and recopying, we can be
confident that the Bible still
contains the information found in those ancient original manuscripts. Hence, this Scriptural statement has proved true: “All
flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like a blossom of grass; the grass
becomes withered, and the flower falls off,
but the saying of Jehovah endures forever.”—1 Peter 1:24, 25.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1997723?q=%22original+manuscripts%22+have&p=par
Even
though original Bible manuscripts were not preserved, how is it true that
God’s word is “alive”?
Jehovah did not preserve
the original
manuscripts in which his ancient
penmen wrote those prophecies. But his “word,” his declared purpose, has proved to be a living
word. That purpose moves irresistibly forward, and as it does, the inner
thoughts and motivations of people whose lives are touched by it become
manifest. (Hebrews 4:12) Furthermore, the historical record
shows that the preservation and the
translation of the inspired Scriptures themselves have been by divine providence.
(Yes, while Jehovah may have preserved his “saying” forever, he could
not preserve his name even by divine providence. So why should we be “confident”? BTW the bible says that “by divine providence”
Jesus’ followers became known as (wait, wait) as Christians (not Jehovah’s
witnesses, not even any where in the Christian scriptures but only as Jesus’
witnesses, i.e., witnesses of Jesus.)
