Jeffonthenet Wrote:People definitely have the right to choose their religious beliefs. However, if you are saying that simply the statement: there is only one way to God, through Jesus Christ, is arrogant, then it seems to me that so is the statement: "there is only one medicine that can cure such and such disease."
If the latter statement (there is only one medicine…) is true, it is definitely not arrogant. And, so it seems to me, it is with the former statement. ("there is only one way to God…")
Unfortunately for you, your comparison here actually underscores my point. The reason we can say that there is only one medicine to cure such a disease is because it has been scientifically tested and verified. There is no belief in the medicine necessary, because we have knowledge, gained from the scientific method, that the cure works. Your religion, however, cannot be verified, so it must be believed in. It's when you give other people advice using your beliefs but peddling them as truth that arrogance comes in.
Quote:So its potentiality of being arrogant is dependent on its truth value. Therefore, it seems to me that you would have to claim that there is not only one way to God in order to show that such a statement is arrogant. However, that presupposes that Christianity is false and so is sort of like arguing in a circle.
Incorrect, the validity of your beliefs has no bearing on arrogance. What matters, however, is what you can prove. You cannot prove that there is a god and he is the Christian god, so when you go around peddling it as truth, that is arrogant.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell