The Bible says that it is the very word of God. You may say, “That’s fine. The Bible can claim whatever it wants about itself, but I’m not going to take the Bible at its word.”
And being skeptical like this can actually be a good thing. We shouldn’t take anything anyone tells us and then just swallow it whole. But to be fair we also need to be skeptical about skepticism.
If skepticism says we shouldn’t take anything at face value and just believe its claims, then we need to apply the same criteria to skepticism itself. If we are not skeptical of skepticism then we are not true skeptics.
Skepticism can be a great tool on the journey to truth, but it is a terrible destination.
So when it comes to the Bible, you can start off skeptical, but you can’t just dismiss it out of hand because you think its better to be skeptical.
Just wanted to say how much I enjoy following your blog! Thanks for continuing to put out thought provoking posts.
I agree it makes since to scrutinize the objections to belief in something with the same scrutiny applied to the belief under consideration.
I’m curious about your overall view towards apologetics as well since I value your perspective. My own opinion is we need to have some balance in being prepared to give an answer for the hope that we have (which also implies living like we actually have hope!) but also realize we are not going to argue anyone into the Kingdom. Who has ever been saved by every one of their objections being answered? Anyway, I’m not disagreeing at all with this post, but probing for thoughts on attitude/perspective/mindset for entering apologetical conversations with unbelievers.
This is one reason I am skeptical of skepicism:
http://thoughtfulfaith.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/doubting-skepticism/
TLDR: We have an obligation to believe what is true, not only to reject what is false.