The Apocrypha (Deuterocanonical) is not inspired of God

I am well acquainted with the topic of the deuterocanonical books, but I have not had a good chance to discuss or debate it before with a knowledgeable non-Catholic. I will quickly clarify a slight misunderstanding I saw in the comments. The Catholic Church teaches, and so a good Catholic should believe, that the books of the bible are the inspired Word of God. This means that every message and truth which the authors of the bible are trying to convey is free of error. Catholics apply this belief of inspiration to the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament. I assume that the structure of the debate will be as follows: R1: Acceptance and Con's opening arguments R2: Pro's opening arguments and rebuttals R3: Final rebuttals and concluding arguments Now, since my opponent has requested that I begin the round with the reasons that I accept the deuterocanonical books, I shall do just that. Contention 1: They were there since the beginning Point 1 – The deuterocanonical books were present in the bible when it was made. It was at the council of Rome was where the books of the bible were assembled, and the Church decided which books were inspired, and which were not. The deuterocanonical books were present at this time and were not added later. "This is a myth that always comes up but is simple to answer. At the Council of Rome in 382, the Church decided upon a canon of 46 Old Testament books and 27 in the New Testament. This decision was ratified by the councils at Hippo (393), Carthage (397, 419), II Nicea (787), Florence (1442), and Trent (1546). " . http://www.catholic.com... Point 2 – The Dead Sea scrolls contained books of the deuterocanonical books. This goes to show that even the Jewish people used these books around the time when the Church would have been forming. "Fragments of three deuterocanonical books have been found among the Dead sea scrolls found at Qumran. Sirach, whose Hebrew text was already known from the Cairo Geniza, has been found in two scrolls (2QSir or 2Q18, 11QPs_a or 11Q5) in Hebrew. Another Hebrew scroll of Sirach has been found in Masada (MasSir). [7] The Book of Tobit has been found in Qumran in four scrolls written in Aramaic and in one written in Hebrew. [7] The Letter of Jeremiah (or Baruch chapter 6) has been found in cave 7 (7Q5) in Greek. " . http://deuterocanonical-books.co.tv... Conclusion: If the deuterocanonical canonical books were in the bible and accepted by Christians for twelve centuries or so, then there is no reason to suddenly regard them as not a true part of the bible. Contention 2: The hierarchy of the Church is required to determine what is inspired and what is not. Point 1: Catholics are able to believe in the inspiration of the entire bible because they have an organized Church hierarchy given authority by Christ that can make authoritative statements on what is inspired and what is not inspired. The Church has declared that the deuterocanonical books are truly inspired by God, so Catholics have a compelling reason to believe this. Point 2: Non-Catholic Christians do not have a Church hierarchy which has authority directly from Christ to determine which books of the bible are or are not inspired. There is no mechanism for a Protestant to determine that the deuterocanonical books are not inspired. Conclusion: Unless my opponent can produce an acceptable mechanism for determining which books of the bible are inspired, and which are not, then we must go with the method which has been used since the bible was first made (i. e. the authoritative statement of the Catholic Church). I am interested to hear what arguments my opponent will present, and I look forward to having an intelligent and productive debate on the deuterocanonical books of the bible.