re the arrogance of christians in article apr athos rutgers edu mhsu lonestar utsa edu melinda hsu writes 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 my discussions with some christians remind me of schoolyard discussions when i was in grade school a kid would say all policemen are jerks i d ask how do you know because my daddy told me so how do you know you re daddy is right he says he s always right well the argument usually stops right there in the end aren t we all just kids groping for the truth if so do we have the authority to declare all other beliefs besides our own as false i find this argument very strange though not unfamiliar an analogy someone used a while back can perhaps illustrate it say for example there are people living on a volcanic island and a group of geologists determine that a volcano is imminent they warn the people on the island that they are in danger and should leave a group of people on the island is given the task of warning others of the danger they believe the danger is real but others may not does that mean that the first group are necessarily arrogant in warning others of the danger does it mean that they are saying that their beliefs are correct and all others are false some might indeed react to opposition with arrogance and behave in an arrogant manner but that is a personal idiocyncracy it does not necessarily mean that they are all arrogant steve hayes department of missiology editorial department univ of south africa p o box pretoria south africa internet hayesstw risc unisa ac za steve hayes p f n z fidonet org stephen hayes f n z fidonet org
