Now that we’ve dealt with the problem of evil, we’ll take a look at the rest of the challenges to Christianity posed in the April 1 post. One thing that you will find is that these challenges pale in comparison to the first, and are much easier to refute.
So, the second challenge goes… There are so many different religions with so many different people who sincerely believe them, how can just one religion claim to “corner the market on truth?” It is often expressed as arrogance that Christians think that they are right and everyone else it wrong.
First, Christians no more think that other religions are false than non-Christians think that Christianity is false. Judaism, Islam, and atheism all say that Jesus was not raised from the dead. We say that He was. OK, what follows from that? That we are arrogant? It’s silly.
There was a time when the world was convinced that the world was flat. A minority of people proposed that it was a sphere—an audacious claim at the time. There were sincere people on both sides. But what follows from that? That the shape of the earth cannot be known? Or that it has no shape at all? Of course not.
The number and sincerity of people who believe something have no bearing on the truth of the thing. You have to go back to the justification for the belief to learn anything about its validity.
First, I would concede that many Christians are arrogant. Then again, so are many non-Christians. So what follows from that? Nothing.
Second, on “cornering the market” – if two people are going to take opposite sides, both can’t be right. They could both be wrong, but they can’t both be right. So if you’re right, you’re not cornering the market – you’re just the only one shopping. The other people are just wandering around saying, “I’m sure there’s a market around here somewhere…”
But to the main point – I would say that a true adherence to the Christian faith as presented in the Bible remarkably not arrogant. Paul makes it clear that our faith is only as valid as the Resurrection: “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” (I Cor 15:14)
The dictionary definition of arrogant is:
Overbearing self-worth? Superiority toward others? Again, some Christians may act that way, but they do so to the disgrace of Christ. Our charge is “in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil 2:3).
Christians are enjoined from boasting except in one fact: “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Gal 6:14)
So the objection is really not about arrogance – it’s about confidence. Why is our confidence in Christ held up as a doctrine of arrogance? Or a better question might be, why don’t adherents of other religions have similar grounds for confidence?
There’s a saying (I think it comes from somewhere in Texas 🙂 ) that “it ain’t braggin’ if it’s true.” I wouldn’t take that to heart, but it does bring the matter to its ultimate point: is it true?
Yes, arrogance, much like tolerance, has been redefined in today’s postmodern/PC culture. You may have any religious viewpoint you like as long as you don’t think it’s actually true. Because then you are saying that other people are wrong, which is oppressive (yet another redefined term) because you are arrogant enough to say that someone else is wrong.
It would seem that this argument as it is used in America doesn’t carry with it the Eastern concept of reality itself being relative- depending on a person’s persception. I think Eric is right that it is the by-product of the relativism that we see expressed in the West.
I find it useful to appeal to Creation to help someone gain perspective on this issue. Islam claims that we were created from a clot of human blood (already in existence?), evolution would say that we evolved from an animal of some sort, and Christianity claims that we were created from dust in the image of God. All of these claims cannot be true at the same time. Somehow we actually got here. Is it arrogant to choose one based on the merits of its arguments?
I think a lot has to do with our western/PC sense of entitlement. Ideas like, “I went to college, now give me a job. I paid my taxes, now make me safe. I married you, now be all I want. I didn’t kill anyone, now let me into Heaven.”
Who are you to go around taking away what people are entitled to?
Somewhat related, I heard Oz Guinness on the Hank Hannegraph Show last night. He was saying how different Americans are in that you can’t have a decent argument without people taking personal offense in differing ideas.