I would hate to think everyone except agnostics could be considered arrogant for claiming to know the truth about the god hypothesis when most people believe differently, but how about it? Is it arrogant to believe you are special enough to know the truth, when so few do?
2007-01-14 02:43:56 · 17 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
It is not necessarily arrogant to state one knows the truth of things.
The Bible says (many times) that God wishes us to know the truth.
For example 1 Timothy 2:3-4
"This is fine and acceptable in the sight of our God, whose will is that all sorts of men should ....come to an accurate knowledge of truth."
The attitude one develops AFTER learning of truth is another story.
If someone is truly following Christ's example, they will remain humble, meek and approachable.
Knowing the truth of things is not an excuse to be haughty.
2007-01-14 02:53:13 · answer #1 · answered by Uncle Thesis 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I think everyone has a small slice of the answer. I also think that people's beliefs are fragile enough that anything threatening to them is labeled wrong automatically.
I think that's presumptuous so I personally think the answer to your question is:
Yes
And yes, I include myself rather than assuming that I'm right. Maybe someone out there DOES know the ultimate truth - no I don't mean prophets from major religions, but a real person, flesh and blood, alive in the here and now. Then the questions become how do we know who that person is? What is the ultimate truth? Would your current belief system be able to handle an ultimate truth diametrically opposed? (what would a Christian do if for arguments sake satanism turned out to be the ultimate truth for instance)
I think everyone BUT that person would be unable to handle whatever the ultimate truth is. Hence the problem with religion. Yet that is certainly not what anyone wants to hear is it?
Chef Bob - no that's not arrogance. If that analogy is true (indeed if the question is 1+1=? - of course the answer is obviously 2), what's arrogant is to assume that 1+1=? is in fact the right question to begin with.
Rather, when someone comes up with the answer of 3, they are wrong, rarely do we consider that maybe the question is really 1+2=? or perhaps 4-1=? or maybe (4x-x)/x=?
You are correct - if the question is 1+1=?, you are right and have no reason to apologize. On the other hand, how do we know what the right questions is? I think we have to be just as certain about the 'question' as we do the 'answer'. Nobody considers the equation metaphorically speaking because we are too busy trying to find the solution or arguing about it once we have found it.... unable to see the forest because of the trees.
I'm mixing metaphors I realize and I apologize for that, but if God is infinite, you have to acknowledge that 'equations' involving 'infinity' are notoriously difficult to 'solve'.
Sorry, but that's the truth too.
Excellent analogy by the way, I hope you don't mind my using it to expand the debate.
2007-01-14 02:55:56 · answer #2 · answered by Justin 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Yes, it is the ultimate display of arrogance to look down on others. Self-righteousness and a smug sense of superiority is not only delusional by often dangerous. More people have been killed in the name of god than for any other reason. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Jesus all about being a forgiving, humble spirit? I often think Christianity is an excuse to commit atrocities against mankind with a smile upon your face. Hypocrisy at it's finest.
2007-01-14 02:57:37 · answer #3 · answered by nunya 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Is it arrogant to believe you won't fall up in to the sky at any second because you understand gravity and know from experience what happens when you walk around?
There is a difference between a conclusion reached with rational reasoning and logic and one derived from a magic book which you're told has to be correct and take it all on blind faith. Still, I wouldn't say I know God doesn't exist - I'd just find him a bit malicious to go so far out of his way to try prove he doesn't. I'd say the chance of God existing is about 0.00001% - and that's a deist god. As Einstein himself said, the idea of a personal god as the theists believe in is naive.
Its arrogant to believe we're the reason the universe was created - atheists accept we evolved by accident (evolution is not random though), that the world was not made for us, that we're not at the centre of the solar system, or the galaxy, or the universe. Nothing could be more humble than accepting there is no God. Humility is what humanity needs to learn if we're going to survive in the long term.
2007-01-14 02:47:20 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 2⤋
no, it is not.
that there is no God is Satan's great LIE,
meant to decieve the world and steal souls from God.
if I know 1+1=2, am I arrogant to
claim I know it is true?
God is not a hypothesis.
God is the Almighty Living God of the universe and beyond.
just because many choose rather to believe Satan and do not believe God does exist does
not mean that God does not exist.
it simply means they do not believe it.....yet.
you can deny God all you want.
it only means that God will deny you come Judgement Day.
sorry, but that is the Truth.
2007-01-14 02:56:34 · answer #5 · answered by Chef Bob 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Naw, i do not trust we are in the midst of the cosmos, as I settle for the concept that there is not any favored position is area. and that i don't believe of guy's sole purpose is to fertilize daises, that is only what occurs even as a residing element ceases to stay. i do not trust issues in accordance with how they make me sense. I settle for issues that are demonstrably genuine. Oh certain, it would sense magnificent understanding there's a loving entity more suitable efficient than we are able to imagine that loves us and could teach that love by using granting us eternal existence. notwithstanding, it truly is demonstrably genuine that Earth is a particularly small speck revolving round a accepted fashionable human being in a noticeably quiet community of an easy galaxy. it is also demonstrably genuine that useless issues do provide nutrition for residing issues, to that volume they are "meant" to be fertilizer. you're welcome to trust there's a useful employer in the back of all of this, i ought to disagree as that would not look the case.
2016-10-31 01:59:59 · answer #6 · answered by doti 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The problem is that those who question truth such as yourself, don't bother to find out if what the other is telling them is actually the truth. Such as Phillip with the eunuch whom Phillip heard reading aloud from the book of Isaiah, Phillip asked him if he knew what he was reading. and the eunuch replied "Really, how could I ever do so, unless someone guided me?" Acts 8: 31 What you believe to be arrogance, is actually knowledge.
2007-01-14 02:56:24 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
It isn't arrogant to believe that I know the ultimate truth for ME. I cannot decide on that truth for you, my children, my husband, or anyone else, but I know it for myself. That's not arrogance.. it's called faith.
2007-01-14 02:59:34 · answer #8 · answered by themom 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Buddhism thinks so. There is no such monster as "ultimate truth" in a universe that is constantly changing, impermanent and everything of it, within it, even emotions and concepts require causes and conditions to arise.
_()_
2007-01-14 04:01:31 · answer #9 · answered by vinslave 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As a Buddhist I set aside ideas of ultimate truth as being of secondary importance and I focus on applying practical philosophy to this life. Beliefs in theological dogma aren't arrogant just of limited relevance and only the misguided focus on them.
2007-01-14 02:48:50 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋