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For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

This question is a bit philosophical.

It has been told so many times that we cannot fully understand God. We know our knowledge is so limited. And we have also stumbled upon problems in the Bible that we know not the answers to, like the problem of evil for example. We never get the whole picture of anything ever since we are not omniscient.

With all of those things considered, what gives us (flawed human beings) the right to even believe in anything? To teach anyone even anything at all? We might misinterpret things. And is it right to teach anyone something we might misinterpret when it comes to a matter of life and death? Why not teach them possibilities instead so they can choose them for themselves? Why not let us say that "we don't know", that things are not ever sure, that we don't fully believe in anything because we are not capable to know anything at all?

William
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    Welcome William! You are right that this question is very philosophical – there is a whole branch of Christian philosophy called epistemology dedicated to attempting to answer questions like this one. And, as expected, there are many different ways of attempting to formulate answers, even among Christians. Because this is a Q&A site, and not a discussion site, such open-ended questions aren't a great fit. But if are interested in the way(s) that a particular tradition (Catholicism, Calvinism, etc.) has attempted to answer this, we may be able to reopen this. – Nathaniel is protesting Mar 01 '18 at 19:59
  • @Nathaniel I was just writing an answer to this. I think it is quite answerable. – luchonacho Mar 01 '18 at 20:00
  • @luchonacho I'm sure it's answerable from a Catholic perspective. But would that perspective be shared by all self-identifying Christian groups? – Nathaniel is protesting Mar 01 '18 at 20:04
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    @Nathaniel I attempted to do so. I fully respect doctrinal differences. Check my answer. – luchonacho Mar 01 '18 at 20:11
  • @luchonacho I appreciate your careful approach, but I fear that it would be more of an exception among the answers that would appear here. It would be much better for the question to specify a philosophical or doctrinal tradition... such as Thomistic/Catholic, or Reformed epistemology (e.g., Alvin Platinga). But feel free to raise this on meta and see what the community thinks. – Nathaniel is protesting Mar 01 '18 at 22:34
  • @Nathaniel In Christianity we want to search for the truth we yet fully grasped. What constitutes an open-ended question? Does "too many answers" define an open-endedness? What question doesn't have many answers? What is the limit number for the possibilities of answer before the question becomes open-ended?

    What kind of question doesn't have many answers? Even "who" questions can have many answers. For example "Who killed Cain?" might have multiple answers: "Cain", "God" even "Himself"?

    It is hard to avoid asking open ended questions because theology is open to interpretations.

    – William Mar 02 '18 at 04:04
  • @Nathaniel so I would like to encourage you to open the gate and let us form theories from chaos. Like we always do. – William Mar 02 '18 at 04:07
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    @William An open-ended question is one where there is no objective criteria for determining who is correct. If you want a discussion there are plenty of other websites out there. –  Mar 02 '18 at 04:16
  • @4castle well, that's kind of one of the points of my question. What is the objective criteria for determining who is correct? Our flawed interpretations are the criteria? The general consensus? We want to measure the truth by the general consensuses of some groups? If you really have the answer to that, then my question can be answered, objectively. – William Mar 02 '18 at 04:21
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    @William Questions designed to determine the Truth are specifically off-topic on this site. This site is no place for people's holy wars. Historical facts are generally objective, as well as asking about the beliefs of specific Christian groups. –  Mar 02 '18 at 04:28
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    4castle is exactly right. That's why I've asked you to specify a particular group/tradition whose point of view you are interested in. For more on this, see We can't handle the truth. – Nathaniel is protesting Mar 02 '18 at 13:35
  • @Nathaniel so in other words, if I want to know what is the general view about this, I need to ask the same question to every single denomination? – William Mar 13 '18 at 05:14
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    Not every single denomination, but it's perfectly reasonable to ask the same question for multiple traditions. For broader traditions, in which there is or may be some disagreement, you can ask for an overview of approaches within that tradition. – Nathaniel is protesting Mar 13 '18 at 13:16

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