(May 28, 2013 at 3:59 pm)whateverist Wrote:(May 28, 2013 at 2:09 pm)Statler Waldorf Wrote: But yes, Christians believe scripture is an infallible authority.
Whether or not the bible is an infallible authority, can you think of any other instances of infallible authorities? I'm just wondering if the category is meaningful apart from the claims attributed to holy books.
Even if someone is in prime position to have seen an event, can we be sure there is no alternative event which could have given rise to what was seen? For that matter, can we be sure that someone in the position to provide authoritative witness to an event will have no motive to give false witness?
I can make sense of someone being an expert witness, who can speak with a great deal of knowledge on a subject. But "infallible"? I don't see how you can be sure of that. Of course I understand that you don't really care how the bible is able to provide infallibly authoritative answers. You're just very certain that it does. However your certainty doesn't assure me that the category "infallible authority" is not in fact an empty set as I suspect.
I think the problem is that everyone doesn't and cannot see it the same way. in an open forum, it cannot therefore be authoritative. But it can if both sides are prepared to assume that it is for the sake of the argument.
It is of course also a fallacy to exclude something because it us unique.