A very penetrating thinker has observed, "When you hear anyone say 'Away with creeds,' you know that what he really means is 'take mine.'" Everyone has a creed. There is not a single exception. And we live according to what we really believe. How foolish then the prejudice against doctrine. Much of it is based upon ignorance.
2007-09-01 14:41:10 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I agree with preachy. All have creeds. In the case of the anti-creed bunch, their "creeds" consist of their personal beliefs based on their personal interpretation of Scripture, and their personal experience.
Then there is us Confessional Christians that have the three Ecumenical ones; Nicene, Apostles, and Athenatian.
Even atheists have a creed of non-belief.
Mark
2007-09-01 15:27:15 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
This becomes one of those chicken and egg arguments. Whose doctrine is right and whose is wrong? I think RC provides the very case in point - a lovely sweeping generalisation without much penetrating thought that can be used to unseat any potential objections.
What doctrines are you referring to specifically?
By the way, the Nicene, Apostles and Athanasian Creeds are statements of orthodox Christian belief, not Ecumenical branches of christianity.
As for atheism, I suspect the only real 'creed' is the belief in empirical evidence and, without proof to the contrary, a rejection of the supernatural claims of religion. A critical atheist should always be open to evidence that may contradict his belief; this is the key difference between doctrine, which cannot tolerate contradiction, and atheism which will be open to it when the appropriate evidence is advanced.
2007-09-01 15:29:28 · answer #2 · answered by chris m 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The entire New Testament is doctrine, and fighting against false doctrines. Those that hate doctrine, therefore hate the New Testament.
2007-09-01 14:50:35 · answer #3 · answered by CJ 6 · 3⤊ 3⤋