Thought of the Day 06.18.09

“The Bible is a socially regressive text that demeans women, restricts pleasure, and teaches all sorts of offensive things. We are far too advanced a culture to embrace something so primitive.” How would you respond?

Well, assuming that the person is properly understanding the Bible, the issue is actually pretty simple. The speaker is starting from the premise that God will always agree with him. Thus, any text which doesn’t endorse his opinions cannot be from God. In effect, this means his god will always be what skeptics claim our God is: a human invention.

Here’s another possibility. People are flawed and, therefore, often hold flawed opinions. But God is perfect and thus will often disagree with us. Moreover, if we are to have a relationship with Him, He absolutely must be able to refute us. Otherwise, He is neither God nor even our mere equal, but such a complete subordinate that we might better call Him our slave. For my part, I prefer a God Who is sufficiently greater than I am that He can correct me when I’m wrong.