Regarding:
"I would love to see some passages from "alternative gospels," ...I'd be interested to know what other qualities they share."
That would be quite a study! LOTS of work in that...
David Moyer Posted: I am a Christian Engineer/Scientist and I have no problem with conflicts between the facts of science (as opposed to some hypotheses of science) and the teachings of scripture. I know literally dozens of other engineers and people with doctorates in technical fields including medicine, veterinary medicine, biology, etc. who also see no conflict. I was once a staunch evolutionist and I could easily teach a high school or community college course on evolution. There are some aspects of evolutionary theory/hypotheses with which I have no quarrel. But nearly the entire field is a matter of hypotheses with very little of it proven by the scientific method, because so little of it is falsifiable. It certainly does not deserve to be classified as a theory- that is a hypothesis that has been tests by real scientific methods so often that almost no one can devise another test that might disprove it. Remember, that scientific hypotheses are not proven, but rather
Comments
Might help to know what we are dismissing out of hand.
Jesus said "Love your brother as you love your own soul. Protect him as you protect the pupil of your eye."
Jesus said "If two can make peace between themselves in a single house, they can say to am mountain 'Move!' and it will move."
Jesus said "Be one of those who is just passing through." (My paraphrase of saying 42)
On pg 56 the authors explain the brevity of the Gospel according to Thomas:
"The Gospel of Thomas is a sayings list containing no stories of miracles, no virgin birth narrative, no discussion of Jesus' crucifixion, no mention of the resurrection. "
This suggests to me precisely why it was left out of the canon.