![]() ![]() Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide the grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous or offensive. ![]() It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them. ![]() ¶ Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts - not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors’. ![]() A person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. 2008Ī faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. One of the most frequent statements I heard was that 'Every person has to define right and wrong for him- or herself.' I always responded to the speakers by asking, 'Is there anyone in the world right now doing things you believe they should stop doing no matter what they personally believe about the correctness of their behavior?' They would invariable say, 'Yes, of course.' Then I would ask, 'doesn't that mean that you do believe there is some kind of moral reality that is 'there' that is not defined by us, that must be abided by regardless of what a person feels or thinks?' Almost always, the response to that question was silence, either a thoughtful or a grumpy one.Illogic Primer Quotes Clippings Books and Bibliography Paper Trails Links Film Tim Keller on Doubt and Doubting Doubts The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Dutton: Feb 2008), pp. Hundreds of people stayed for the give-and-take discussions. Does anyone really believe that? For many years after each of the morning and evening Sunday services I remained in the auditorium for another hour to field questions. The popular concept that we should each determine our own morality is based on the belief that the spiritual realm is nothing at all like the rest of the world. That is because at the heart of the Biblical idea of marriage is the covenant. But the Bible sees GOD as the supreme good - not the individual or the family - and that gives us a view of marriage that intimately unites feelings AND duty, passion AND promise. By contrast, contemporary Western societies make the individual's happiness the ultimate value, and so marriage becomes primarily an experience of romantic fulfillment. Traditional societies made the family the ultimate value in life, and so marriage was a mere transaction that helped your family's interest. It is possible to see marriage as merely a social transaction, a way of doing your duty to family, tribe and society. But in talking this way, there is a danger of falling into the opposite error that characterized many ancient and traditional societies. That means that love is more fundamentally action than emotion. In sharp contrast with our culture, the Bible teaches that the essence of marriage is a sacrificial commitment to the good of the other. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |