Friday, October 3, 2008

A couple questions...

So these last couple chapters seem to just keep stirring up questions for me, so for my entry, I thought I'd just throw out a couple for us to think about.

One that continually comes up for me is where we draw the line between not being ignorant or naive and accepting truths through faith. Obviously, there are some things that we feel are important enough to think through, and even fight over. Churches split over many issues that aren't critical to our core faith. I'm not downplaying any issues, but I think we could all agree that some issues aren't worth splitting over. So where do we draw that line? When do we reach the point where it's okay not to have a good response to a skeptic, but still be okay with that? When we're discussing an issue in class, how much God intervenes, for example, when can we respond to a challenge of our view by simply saying that we take it on faith?

This question is especially difficult for me to think about because I can't seem to find any satisfactory response. Maybe it depends on the issue. Maybe it depends on each person's own personality and preference. Maybe each person will have their own answer for themselves. I think this is perhaps why this question is so hard to wrestle with, because there isn't one answer. Because the answer will vary with the person trying to decide for themselves how to respond.

Another question had to do with a comment made in chapter five. Lewis explains the doctrine of the Fall by saying that according to that doctrine, “man is now a horror to God and to himself and a creature ill-adapted to the universe not because God made him so but because he has made himself so by the abuse of his free will.” (p.588 in my book) And it's the last part of that which makes me wonder. Does the idea of free will allow for an abuse of it? Is it possible to abuse one's free will? If you're making a choice, that's using your free will and the use of it seems to be all that's required for it to be used correctly. I hope that makes sense, it kind of makes a circle on itself, so if not I'm sorry.

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