Open Blogging

Shawn says:

I guess I will take a stab at it. I find life is full of paradoxes. Sometimes happiness and sadness, suspicion and surprise, ingenuity and idiocy are wrapped in the same package or moment. For example, the other day when I read your post “Why did the Pope choose Leo as his name.” I was elated by the sheer amount of engagement but saddened at the content of those responses. Before anyone stones me let me explain myself.

In all actuality it was great discussion about Biblically inerrancy and whether or not it poisons the well of both belief and praxis. It was surprising to see such robust explanations of what faith and theology can mean without a hard-line stance on inerrancy. Despite the surprise I must admit that I still have some suspicion as to whether or not the end result of rejecting inerrancy is the abandonment of the faith. At the same time I suspect that abandonment I fear is in matters of breaking away from collective thought or group think.

I guess I should get to my point. As I read the brief post and article I was enlightened that concerns about existential threats to humanity are part of theology and theological explorations of the highest orders of the visible church. Then I astounded at how easily one man’s idiotic trigger, a human name, can co-opt an entire post to miss the actually point of the post. The post was not about inerrancy. Neither was the article. The trigger was N.T. Wright and the responses never discussed the existential threat we all face in AI. I hope we can revive that discussion at some point.

TH says:

Shawn:

” Despite the surprise I must admit that I still have some suspicion as to whether or not the end result of rejecting inerrancy is the abandonment of the faith.”

The problem is putting faith in what some religious institution tells one is the truth and only way is not the same as putting one’s faith in God alone.

In Ex 32:27 Moses says, “Thus says the God of Israel…”

Moses, in his anger, attributes directly to God a command to kill his fellow people. The problem it is not recorded that God said anything even close to that to Moses. Even Jewish Rabbis over the centuries have struggled with what Moses said and had others do.

How does “inerrancy” fit into this and did God tell Moses to do this or did Moses command the murder of 3000 people?

It’s all about asking the question, like the famous saying, “I do believe, help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24). It’s okay to question God and that too is biblical, the greatest leaders in the bible do it.

Is the creation story real, was there a flood, did Noah actually build an Ark, … and shades of heresy did Jesus really rise from the dead?

One has to decide for themselves and stop just joining the crowd.