Re: Skepticism - its uses and abuses

Ian wrote:
>
>But it's clear that my "skepticism" over my asthma clearly helped me
>(scientific skepticism).  The problem is that scientific skepticism and
>religious skepticism tend to go hand in hand.
>

Along these lines, we can see why creationist appear to have
found themselves sliding on the slippery slope, where one
slip sends them decending into the pit of atheism.

Creationists want to prove God by their inverted "science",
ID appears to largely want to prove God by probabilities,
and Vernon seems convinced he can prove God by numbers
and code in an old book.

I begin to really agree that there is nothing new under
the sun. Abraham had righteousness imputed to him for
his faith, not for the facts he knew. Like us, he suffered
from fear and doubt. There was not enough of that "evidence"
for him to trust God either sometimes. So it would seem, if God
left Abraham in doubt, surely we will also be left with
at least similar measures of doubt.

The harder issue, and what gets us into disputes here,
is how to decide what to trust. Some, understandably,
want all scripture to have all foundation in fact,
others, understandably, feel comfortable if what is
said is true. Still others lie in the middle somewhere.

It is always written "through the eyes of faith", and
maybe this is all we have. It seems God wants us to make
the choice. We all have to decide when it gets tough,
and most of us who have lived any time as a Christian
know it's not easy.

By Grace alone we proceed,
Wayne
Received on Sun Dec 11 19:37:49 2005