can christians admit they may be wrong?

Question

would the world be a better place if everyone with religious and non-religious beliefs followed oliver cromwells advice

"Think it possible that you may be mistaken"

does the christian religion disable its adherants from admitting they may be wrong? I know that as an atheist i find it very easy to admit i may be wrong.

Answer 1

There are Christians who admit to that possibility, but overall it's not good for a religion to have adherents who admit that they may be wrong in their beliefs. What matters to a religion is to have as many adherents as possible, retaining the core beliefs with only slight variations (those variations are important, though, as they're necessary to the evolution of the belief system).

Oh, since we seem to be running up a tally here, let me say that I am an atheist, and I admit to the possibility that there may be a god (that is, that I'm wrong about this).

So far we've had some admissions of fallibility from both sides, but unless I missed it, the only claims to being infallible came from believers. Any atheists out there who claim to know for certain that there isn't any god?

Answer 2

There are a few open minded Christians, who admit that some of what they believe could be beyond their capacity to have faith in.

But the general view of Christianity is heavily clouded by the vocal, right wing, closed - minded crowd who can't believe in anything other than What They Have Been Brainwashed Into Believing.

So if there are open minded, tolerant Christians in the world, they are a resource to be cherished, because they are so very few, and their words of aceptance are so rarely overheard among the din of the cries of "You're All Going To Hell" from the Religious Reich mindless foghorns.

Answer 3

Christians and others can and do admit they are wrong about things but they can't easily admit they might be wrong about their religious beliefs. Normally if someone thinks their religious beliefs are wrong they are no longer of that belief. Why purposely stay in a religion you think is wrong? they might pretend to stay because of guilt or what their family will say, but in their hearts they would be looking for something else. Does this make sense?

Answer 4

I understand the point of view of this quote, but fundamentally speaking, if a Christian were to admit that he or she may be wrong then he or she would violate everything that he or she believes in. For faith in a being that we cannot possibly comprehend is what defines our religious belief.

Answer 5

There is no universal RIGHT or WRONG. Those are just relative concepts we invented to judge those who do not share the ideologies of our immediate community or the like-minded. In reality, what is wrong for one person might be right for another due to different life experiences.

Another problem with such concepts is that any "truth" you accept is based on some concepts that are taken for granted. But those concepts can be broken down to the point where nothing seems certain anymore. You just have to accept them as is in order to find a base on which communication with others can be built.

All Christians believe in God, but I bet you wont find 2 Christians that have the exact same idea of what God really is. They might all believe in the concepts given in the Bible like omnipotent, loving, just, etc, but each person has his/her own understanding of what those terms mean. In the end, they believe in the God that represents their personal values and ideologies, not a universal God. And yet they are all "right" in their own way.

Answer 6

If everyone had an open mind the world must surely be a better place, anyone who follows any religion blindly and zealously is a fool, religion has more to do with power and control than it does with faith, humans twist and re-interpret things to suit their needs, the church in England was originally controlled by Rome and the pope, and the church had a lot of power, to persecute and control, but then oh look the king wasn't happy and re-wrote the rules so that he had the power to control and persecute. The bible has been re-interpreted, revised, bits cut out, etc by successive popes, not a word actually written by Jesus himself, how can anyone follow something written 2000 years ago. Have your own personal beliefs, don't inflict them on anyone else.!

Answer 7

Good advice. I, as a non-theist, remain open to the possibility that there may in fact be a god out there (agnosticism). However until such time as there is sufficient evidence to support this claim, i will remain skeptical of it's truth value.

If religious folk could do the same oh what a wonderful world this could be.

In my experience i have found that deeply religious people have trouble grasping the idea of hypothetical situations... Perhaps this is why they rely so deeply on their beliefs.

Answer 8

Well, since faith is the essense of things hoped for....I guess you could say yes. We can be wrong. But, the way I look at faith is that I lived a long time without it and things were really a mess. Now that I believe my life has some purpose to it. I reason, therefore, that, for me, to have faith is better than not. But, I may be wrong as this is based on my own life's journey and perspective.

Answer 9

on a daily bases i must admit my wrongs. faith is the substance of things not seen . I'm not religious i do not live a christian life to go to heaven i do so because i am bought with the blood of Christ . and i will go to heaven on Christ account and his account only when the father looks at me he see,s Christ his blood covers my wrong . saved by grace + nothing = salvation ! we can choose to believe or we can choose not to believe . and by the way how many christian are cutting heads off on TV in the name of Christ? but were always getting the bad rap just for standing for rite . and don't worry a day is coming that there will be a world (for a short while ) without god and man will get what he thinks he wants.

Answer 10

I absolutely started out as a raised Christian thinking, "This stuff could be wrong". And then one day it happened. God came to me. I know it was because my mother prays alot and was always tight with religion. After that day that God talked to me I couldn't go back to the old me. It's impossible to go back to who you were once you change in certain ways. For me it wasn't just a religious awakening. It was the actual God who came to me. But I probably can't convince you just with words alone. You have to at least put on the batman suit in order to begin knowing what it might be like to be batman.