So often when someone wants to disparage Apostolic Tradition or even scripture itself they will give the example of the Telephone Game as a sort of self-evident proof.
As a proof it is rather silly. When a message does get distorted at the end of the chain – we know it got distorted from a comparison to the original message. This type of correction occurs also in real life which is why there are some amazing examples of history passed down from generation to generation that was never written down, but verifiable none-the-less. Plus the idea of whispering something in someone’s ear is an example of the passing down of tradition is even sillier. The early Church did not have a hard time distinguishing between scripture and tradition passed down and the various distortions of it that occurred via the various heresies. The faith had spread to enough points that it was not possible to pass on something as Apostolic Tradition or Scripture that wasn’t – at least not for long. Unlike the telephone game, correction and repeated information are important aspects.
