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From Anchorstone:

"Or, how about this?-

"Another time, Marsh's men, knowing that Cope was spying on them, deliberately mixed the skull of one creature with teeth from another and left them for Cope to find and describe as a new species."

It should be quite obvious by now that our "knowledge" of dinosaurs isn't based on the most solid evidence. Most bones are found in jumbled piles, with many, many different animals being represented. As we said earlier, nearly complete specimens are extremely rare, which leaves us at the complete mercy of the person "reconstructing" the skeleton.

For example, when Gideon Mantell drew his reconstruction of the skeleton of the Iguanodon, he placed the "spike-like" object on the nose, similar to the rhinoceros horn. Later, this was proved to be wrong, but the misconception persisted for many years. They have since placed this "spike" as the thumb, but who knows- this could one day change, too.

How many times has the Bible been "reconstructed" by translation, omission of books, inclusion of others, etc.?

Paleontology and bibliology are two different sciences, so it would be unwise to try to make any comparisons. But I do believe in the premise that fossils and skeletons have been manipulated in sad attempts to prove macro evolution. There is some evidence as such (Ref: The Case for a Creator, Strobel, page 59).

As for the Bible, I believe there are, and have been, agents throughout history that have tried to twist, and even change biblical truth. The Apostle Paul marveled that the church at Galatia so early had clung to a false gospel; so it was happening the early church in the first century (Gal 1:6-7). I don’t think those attempts have stopped. Satan, doesn’t stop.

But I underscore that we have a direct promise from God that He will preserve His Word forever. So the question is not how many times we can count reconstruction, inferior manuscripts, or whatever. The question is: Did God preserve His Word?

He said he did. Ps 12:6-7, Ps 119:152, Ps 119:89, Mt 24:35, 1 Pe:23.

The second question is: Can we dust for fingerprints across history to piece it together?

I say yes. There are many good authors on the subject. My favorite is “Final Authority”, by Dr William P Grady. Key in on the Hebrew Masoretic and the Greek Received Text.

God Bless.