How can you identify the word of God without critical assessment of God?

not many people here are likely to be familiar with the oahspe (indeed, i had to wiki it) so let me rephrase the question using examples more generally at hand: say the book of mormon.now, i can point out some historical problems with it, but i can do the same with the bible too. neither is quite as old as it claims to be. but what's to say that joseph smith was not a divinely inspired prophet?once we hammer out this slightly more obvious example, perhaps we can go on to stuff like the apocrypha and pseudepigraphica -- stuff written around the time of the bible, some of it referenced by the bible itself... and what makes those not the word of god, when the bible is?

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well, yes, of course. i think what we're getting at is how people come to their conclusions on what to believe in, and what not to believe in.

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not to join the pile on, but your response is tautological. of course it's by choice -- we're asking how those choices are made. what process is used? what factors are taken into account, if any?

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er, i'm talking past you i think. yes -- what i'd like to know is each person's independent process, not the "right" one. how do you decide? "i don't" is a perfectly valid response.Edited by arachnophilia, : typo

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