The Bible Is Not Infallible

[cmotherofpirl]

THE BIBLE IS NOT INFALLIBLE

Evangelicals and Fundamentalists commonly say the Bible is infallible. I wish they'd stop. It's a
misconstrual of the word.

"Fallible" means able to make a mistake or able to teach error. "Infallible" means the opposite:
the inability to make a mistake or to teach error.

When we use these words, we use them regarding an active agent--that is, we use them about someone
making a decision that either may or may not be erroneous (in which case that someone is fallible)
or that definitely cannot be erroneous (in which case that someone is infallible).

Put another way, the active agent is alive and capable of making decisions. A human being is an
active agent. Normally human beings are fallible. In a few instances (the pope when speaking ex
cathedra, the bishops united with the pope when speaking through an ecumenical council) human beings
may act infallibly.

But a rock never is infallible. Nor is it fallible. It is neither because it makes no decision
about anything. Ditto for a plant. No sunflower ever made the right decision--or the wrong decision;
in fact, no sunflower ever made any decision, properly speaking.

The same can be said of a book. No book, not even the Bible, is capable of making a decision. Thus
it would be wrong to say that the Bible is infallible or fallible--such terms shouldn't be used
about it or about any other book.

The proper term to use, when we are saying that the Bible contains no error, is "inerrant." The
Church teaches that everything the Bible asserts (properly understood, of course) is true and
therefore without error.

"Inerrant" would not be the word to use about, say, the pope. A pope may act infallibly in
carefully prescribed circumstances, but he is not inerrant. To say that he is inerrant is to say that he
contains no error, but every pope does.

So far as I know, John Paul II is not a mathematical whiz. Like the rest of us, he no doubt
harbors misconceptions about certain elements of mathematics. Put another way, he probably holds to some
mathematical errors. That by itself demonstrates that he is not inerrant.

[Crusader_4]

I read that article as well thought it was a great one...tell you what lots of arguments could be solved if people would only know defintions eh!

[Archbishop 10-K]

I was not aware that anyone referred to the Bible as "infallible." I have always used the word "inerrant."

[Paladin D]

[quote name='Archbishop 10-K' date='Jun 16 2004, 12:40 AM'] I was not aware that anyone referred to the Bible as "infallible." I have always used the word "inerrant." [/quote]
Many non-Catholic Christians call the Bible [b]"infallible"[/b].

[phatcatholic]

i was about to cry "HERESY!"............but now it all makes sense

hehe, u tricked us

[yiannii]

[quote name='phatcatholic' date='Jun 16 2004, 07:25 PM'] i was about to cry "HERESY!"............but now it all makes sense

hehe, u tricked us [/quote]
HAHAHAHA same here

[1337 k4th0l1x0r]

you know what they say: 30,000 denominations can't be wrong