re certainty and arrogance in article apr athos rutgers edu kilroy gboro rowan edu dr nancy s sweetie writes dean velasco quoted a letter from james m stowell president of moody bible institute we affirm the absolutes of scripture not because we are arrogant moralists but because we believe in god who is truth who has revealed his truth in his word and therefore we hold as precious the strategic importance of those absolutes there has been a lot of discussion but so far nobody seems to have hit on exactly what the criticism of arrogance is aimed at lots of stuff deleted this is where the arrogance of christians arises many people believe that their own personal research can give them absolute certainty about the doctrines of christianity they are implicitly claiming that they are infallible and that there is no possibility of mistake claiming that you cannot have made a mistake and that your thinking has led you to a flawless conclusion is pretty arrogant i agree with what darren has to say here but would like to add a personal observation what i see as arrogance and the problem i have with it is not a sense of personal certainty but a lack of respect for others who come to differing conclusions clearly this is not just christian vs non christian there is a whole spectrum of belief systems within christianity i do not tend to argue with others about matters of personal faith because like aesthetics it is not demonstable by objective means choosing what to believe and rely on are important areas of personal sovereignty what bothers me is when others suggest that in these matters of faith their specific beliefs are not only true to them but are absolute and should be binding on others it follows from this that god must give everyone the same revelation of truth and thus anyone who comes to a different conclusion is intentionally choosing the wrong path this is the arrogance i see a lack of respect for the honest conclusions of others on matters which are between them and god even a personal certainty leaves room for the beliefs of others it is universalizing those matters of personal faith coupled by a proud notion that one s relationship with god is superior to other s that leads to arrogance in my honest and nonuniversal opinion darren f provine kilroy gboro rowan edu at the core of all well founded belief lies belief that is unfounded ludwig wittgenstein comments criticism welcome ken alvin ucsu colorado edu it is certainly reasonable to ask for some humility about our own ability to know the truth there are also different paths in some areas of practice but i d like to see more clarification about what you mean when you reject the idea of saying their specific beliefs are not only true to them but are absolute and should be binding on others if something is true it is true for everyone assuming that the belief is something about god history etc of course something of the form i believe that it s best for me not to xxx could be true for some people and not others i have suggested in the past that god may be less concerned about doctrinal agreement than many people are but that doesn t mean i doubt that there is a difference between true and false nor that i think there is no benefit in finding out what is true clh
