Certainty and expertise

Once again, Dr McGrath hits the spot with this post.

It really is what draws me to the Quakers' self-reliance when it comes to questions of faith.

We cannot look to the professed certainties of others to compensate for our own lack of conviction.

It is in fact remarkable that Quakers agree about anything. My own faith derives from the existence of core values of "love in action" associated with whatever the individual derives from their own "light". Improbable agreement plucked from the jaws of diversity.

To be able to live with this level of uncertainty may be intolerable to some but, in Addition to what Dr McGrath says about the true expert who knows his/her limitations, versus the certainty conferred by ignorance, any level of vagueness is surely preferrable to a certainty which would have us going forth to reek havoc against Christians, Moslems, or Jews, or anyone else we might identify as a pariah.