On a similar note, the old testament had a historical purpose - to unite disparate tribes and create a national identity against the threat posed by the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires.

The new testament is just a collections of writings and letters. We have no idea who wrote them, they lied on the cover saying the texts are written by the apostles. And by a pretty arbitrary process, a bunch of priests picked their favorite writings and made them into a cannon.

If the same thing happened today, nobody would believe them outside maybe a fringe cult.

While I agree this is a shit thing to do, I am looking forward to the influx of cheap hardware.