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From: atterlep@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Cardinal Ximenez)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: The arrogance of Christians
Message-ID: <Apr.15.00.58.02.1993.28864@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 15 Apr 93 04:58:03 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Organization: National Association for the Disorganized
Lines: 35
Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

mhsu@lonestar.utsa.edu (Melinda . Hsu   ) writes:

>I'd like to share my thoughts on this topic of "arrogance of
>Christians" and look forward to any responses.  In my
>encounters with Christians, I find myself dismayed by their
>belief that their faith is total truth.  According to them,
>their beliefs come from the Bible and the bible is the word of
>God and God is truth - thus they know the truth.  This stance
>makes it difficult to discuss other faiths with them and my own
>hesitations about Christianity because they see no other way.
>Their way is the 'truth.'

>But I see their faith arising from a willful choice to believe
>a particular way.  That choice is part faith and part reason,
>but it seems to me a choice.

  >[I'm sort of mystified about how a Christian might respond to this.]

  I'll start with a parable.
 
  A Christian woman hires a carpenter to build her a birdhouse.  When he comes
over, they begin talking about religion.  "So you believe that you understand
God?" he asks.  "Yes, I do," she replies.  "Then have him build you the 
birdhouse."

  I don't think that Melinda is complaining about the basis of Christian 
belief.  However, there is a tendency among Christians to say, "I have all the 
answers because God gave them to me."  This is simply not the case.
  I believe that the Bible is inerrant.  However, our HUMAN interpretations of
the Bible are necessarily in error, because we are human and imperfect.  We
have to remember that we ALL make mistakes in faith, and that because we are
human we have an imperfect understanding of the mind and will of God.  To
claim, as so many people do, that the existence of the Bible allows us to
determine the answers to all questions is to claim that we humans can fully
understand God's will.  This is hubris.
