> The Doctors of the Church (a period of early writers from the first 300 years or so of Christianity), when they unanimously agree on an issue, are considered

> The Doctors of the Church (a period of early writers from the first 300 years or so of Christianity), when they unanimously agree on an issue, are considered to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and almost certainly infallible. This seems like a type of survivorship bias: The relatively-few ancient manuscripts we have are largely those that were preserved by those who canonized what they regarded as "proper" doctrine. (Example: Paul's epistles included complaints that people were deviating from what he regarded as the "true" gospel. See Gal. 1.6-11.) Tangentially, here's a piece from 2004, applying a litigator's perspective about documentary evidence and witness testimony: https://www.questioningchristian.org/2004/10/why_i_cant_acce.html https://www.questioningchristian.org/2004/10/why_i_cant_acce... [self-cite]