There were several quotes that I wanted to share, all related to inerrancy, and so I decided to collect them all here. I’ll let you decide whether I saved the best for last.
First, Fred Clark wrote:
The doctrine of “inerrancy” is often referred to as a “high view of scripture.” It is not.
It’s a low-down dirty trick to play on the Bible and on anyone who tries to read it. Inerrancy is not a victimless crime. It chases some people away from the Bible and prevents others from reading it intelligently.
I respect that this idea comes from a place of respect, but that is not where it leads. It leads to a profound disrespect for the Bible, and for those who seek to read it honestly. And, ultimately, it always shifts from being a claim about the Bible itself to being a claim about the person making that claim. After all, what good is an inerrant, infallible text without an inerrant, infallible reader, exponent and enforcer?
That is not respecting the Bible, despite its proponents asserting that anyone who does not practice such chicanery has a “low view of Scripture.” The “low view of Scripture” is one that robs each individual part of the Bible of its individual voice in order to service the untenable ideology of biblical inerrancy.
Finally, in the Facebook group “Unfundamentalist Christians” commenter Roland Pagano wrote:
I have long wondered if it would be a refutation of inerrancy if someone were to light a candle and put it under a bushel basket.
See too Fred Clark’s post on a “new, improved Bible” which is also relevant to this topic.
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