{"id":7166,"date":"2023-05-15T03:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T03:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7166"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:33:10","slug":"certainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7166","title":{"rendered":"CERTAINTY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It seems to me that people speak on most topics as if they have absolute certainty. We tend to believe that we are 100% right about everything, even when our statements are quite clearly opinions, speculations, or matters of taste.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the common practice among preachers as well, isn&#8217;t it?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few years ago I was sitting in the back of a junior high Bible class in which a student asked the teacher, &#8220;Can women be preachers?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The teacher did not even hesitate, but answered with great confidence, &#8220;The Bible says women aren&#8217;t allowed to preach.&#8221; From the teacher&#8217;s perspective, that was all that needed to be said about that!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Really? It&#8217;s that simple, is it?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have a lot of respect for anyone in the midst of theological debates who not only recognizes the other side&#8217;s arguments, but can also accurately describe their opponents&#8217; strongest evidence. And even more respect for those who speak in terms of probability rather than certainty.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But my question is this: Won&#8217;t the preacher who holds forth all things with absolute certainty find greater favor with the audience? Aren&#8217;t we much more comfortable with those who hold their opinions with confidence and certainty?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It seems to me that people speak on most topics as if they have absolute certainty. We tend to believe that we are 100% right about everything, even when our statements are quite clearly opinions, speculations, or matters of taste. This is the common practice among preachers as well, isn&#8217;t it?\u00a0 A few years ago [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7167,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7166\/revisions\/7167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}