A moral and ethical question for theists

[Longhorn]

I'm fully aware that you're regurgitating whatever your church has taught you. What I'm telling you is that regardless of the source of your information, your statement is contradictory.


To say that the bible is inerrant but not infallible is to say, "The bible contains no mistakes, but it could contain mistakes." That statement is inherently contradictory. It does not make sense. Those two things cannot be simultaneously true.

I see what you're saying, so let me try to clear it up. 

I should have said that the inerrancy of the bible has not been fully defined as far as what the exact extent of it is, and I think that's where we're running into problems here. Consider the following paragraph from Catholic Answers which explains this:

"Although inerrancy isn’t limited to religious truths which pertain to salvation but may include non-religious assertions by the biblical authors, this doesn’t mean Scripture is an inspired textbook of science or history. Inerrancy extends to what the biblical writers intend to teach, not necessarily to what they assume or presuppose or what isn’t integral to what they assert. In order to distinguish these things, scholars must examine the kind of writing or literary genre the biblical writers employ."

So it's important to look at what the underlying principles are as the whole message of the bible, and that's the inerrancy of it, not necessarily each quote literally. (though a catholic may still believe that if he/she so wishes without going against church teaching, though I personally believe much of it was written symbolically/allegorically/metaphorically. A Catholic is free to believe in either.)

source: http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/i...-salvation

Correct! 

See my post 46 for what I hope offers you both some clarification.

It doesn't.

Inerrant = not containing errors.
Bible contains errors, ergo it is not inerrant.

'The underlying message' has nothing to do with it. Either it contains no errors, or it contains errors, 'the message' notwithstanding.