If I am honest and you are honest with yourself, we both know that when it comes to certain things, we (I) cannot trust ourselves. I've had my belief system rocked too many times to trust my own evaluation of "things." Of course there are times when I get it right, but it's always because my beliefs paralleled what God's Word teaches. I used to be a dispensationalist because growing up, that's what the church taught and I never studied the matter on my own. When I did, I could clearly see that God's word didn't teach this in the least. My belief system was rocked. I couldn't trust my own belief on this subject ultimately because my belief wasn't based on anything other than what I'd heard other people say on the subject.
Its true that anyone can make mistakes. Mistakes are required for learning, for updating your beliefs about the world. Trusting yourself doesn't mean believing you're always right. It means running all incoming information thru your own judgement, asking yourself, "does this make sense to me based on what I currently believe?". If it doesn't, reject or at least hold in suspicion the information. Don't accept it just because some supposed authority figure with a big hat on TV told you. Maybe new information comes in later than corroborates it, maybe not. In any case, if you never update your beliefs about something, you have chosen to stop learning about that thing.
The truth is not afraid to be questioned and doesn't need to be supported by censorship.
If I am honest and you are honest with yourself, we both know that when it comes to certain things, we (I) cannot trust ourselves. I've had my belief system rocked too many times to trust my own evaluation of "things." Of course there are times when I get it right, but it's always because my beliefs paralleled what God's Word teaches. I used to be a dispensationalist because growing up, that's what the church taught and I never studied the matter on my own. When I did, I could clearly see that God's word didn't teach this in the least. My belief system was rocked. I couldn't trust my own belief on this subject ultimately because my belief wasn't based on anything other than what I'd heard other people say on the subject.
Its true that anyone can make mistakes. Mistakes are required for learning, for updating your beliefs about the world. Trusting yourself doesn't mean believing you're always right. It means running all incoming information thru your own judgement, asking yourself, "does this make sense to me based on what I currently believe?". If it doesn't, reject or at least hold in suspicion the information. Don't accept it just because some supposed authority figure with a big hat on TV told you. Maybe new information comes in later than corroborates it, maybe not. In any case, if you never update your beliefs about something, you have chosen to stop learning about that thing.
The truth is not afraid to be questioned and doesn't need to be supported by censorship.