scriptural infallibility in world religions

[nathanielfirst]

hello, I am wondering which religions call their scriptures 'a complete guide to reality'/'inerrant or infallible' or 'revealed by god as guarunteed of truth' - other than the Jewish and Christian?

I know hindus say the vedas are infallible, no?

 

[Smoke]

I enjoy reading whatever Buddhist texts I can get my hands on, and think it's a generally profitable exercise, but I take it as axiomatic that "scriptural infallibility" is a contradiction in terms.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Not all Christians and Jews think the Bible is infalliable and inerrant, just inspired. Yes, Muslims think the Koran is infalliable, but again, not all Muslims either.

 

[Boethiah]

It depends on who wrote the scripture. If the individual who wrote the scripture was infallible, well, what kind of infallible? Spiritually infallible or the general idea of infallibility? Spiritual infallibility to me means that the person is of God and speaks the word of God, but isn't literally absolutely infallible on every subject. Infallibility in general means just right about everything.

It comes down to the individual. I believe Baha'u'llah was a Manifestation of God and was spiritually infallible, but I am unsure that he could be right about every little thing ever. His texts are spiritually infallible, but I don't think that he could be absolutely right on every single matter. He was the Manifestation of God, but He was also a man. to have the full human experience, He had to be able to make some error.

So, I suppose it boils down to what one personally believes. It changes from group to group. I think the official Baha'i view is that He was completely infallible, but I am not sure. Some Muslims believe the Qur'an to be completely infallible, some don't. Etc, etc.

 

[ByeRaagi Rayaprolu]

nice thread...here's something on our beliefs in d infallibility of our own/others' scriptures/religions :
As a hindu ( which means only "Indian") and as a recent re-convert to my "Eternal Duty" (Sanaatana Dharma), i believe that, in first place, all religions are the paths leading knowingly or unknowingly, explicitly or implicitly, sooner or later, to our common summum bonum of life viz..realizing 'oneness' among the triad : "All This", "That/God" and 'I''. Nothing but this oneness-relation is 'The Truth'/ 'The Ultimate Reality', which is at-a-time manifest as all these three "apparently different" phenomenological as well as 'real'/'objective' categories.

[ To understand what is this "Maayaa"("Origin of The Five"), one shud be thorough with both Modern physics ( 4m Heisenberg & Einstein to Fritzof Capra) as well as with the basics of Tantra & Vedanta/Mahaayaana philosophies...]

In order to safe gaurd the mysteriuosly patterned/ordered behaviour of this 100% random, chaotic and unpredictable Macrocosmic & Microcosmic reality (which in fact shapes and governs our petty day to day life where in the objects appear dumb slaves of Causality, perfectly obeying Newton's laws of motion), we all need to contribute to the Eternal Order or to its Safe-Keepers ( The Lords and His/Her Holy-Servants/demi gods) by performing the unique socio-cultural practices precribed to each of our tribes by our respective ancestors/prophets..Thumb rules in determining what is for/against the Sacred Cosmic order can simply be obtained in extreme-Utilitarianism (extended to all life-forms, knowing that there's no non-life in this entire Cosmos) and Kantian categorical imperatives put together. 'Coz Oneness of The(Cosmic)Spirit,The Truth, is, by its very nature, nothing but BLISS..so, it's contrary, Sorrow/Unsatisfactoriness(Buddha's "DuhKha") must be the consequence and 'the hallmark' of all Spiritual Falsehood..(That's why some people hastily convert away from "false" gods seeing that his/her worship alone couldn't alleviate their DuhKha)..So, while firmly believing and practising the blissful rites of ur most possibly remote ancestor's religion, u must always try n innovate to harmonize it (retaining every beautiful accept of it) even more with the Bliss of the Cosmic-Spirit, as It keeps on throwing new challenges to us ( only due to its eternal process of "bRmhaNa"(evolving & multiplying) in to as many varieties as possible ) in the form of "Alienation"..i.e. we shud always be striving to perceive the oneness in whichever alien culture/religion/object encounters us...then, in d process, we can clearly understand the apparent differences and their origin so that we may safely uproot those differences, without even changing any of our outward practices, atleast in our own hearts..then we can share/teach the underlying oneness to others who are still suffering from a similar religious/cultural alienation. atleast let's avoid giving any individual pain/sorrow in the name of God/The Ultimate reality which is pure 'sat-Chit-Ananda'( ofcourse, punishing the tresspassers for the sake of societal reform/retribution/deterrance is a different,secular, issue).

so, comrades, "the real One-ness underlying the apparent many-ness" is the only infallible truth and all scriptures, or the parts of them, which lead us to this are infallible and all the rest are either preparatory or premature and they deserve further evolution ( but not destruction)

let's STOP CONVERTING, and if possible, HELP US UPROOT all forms of ALIENATION from our minds.
This cannot be done by magnifying the differences and even before discussing them we shud know the underlying oneness first..only then we will have a moral-right as well as intellectual eligibility(&true ability) to discuss the differences. Only after we find any difference to be irreconcilable, i.e. only after all our efforts to harmonize them (i.e. to find their common origin and journey, their bifurcation/departure, and the point of their possible reconcilation) have gone waste, should we start telling people why we couldn't accept that particular alien/culture..this, of course, is in no way CONVERTING people in to ur faith..this's only an explanation that u ought to give to a pluralistic COSMOS ( not just to ur country or to ur society), about why u cannot respect/love so and so religion/culture that u hate/criticize..

sorry folks...may be this is not the right place and may be i got the entire thing wrong..plzzz help by criticizing.

 

[Riverwolf]

hello, I am wondering which religions call their scriptures 'a complete guide to reality'/'inerrant or infallible' or 'revealed by god as guarunteed of truth' - other than the Jewish and Christian?

I know hindus say the vedas are infallible, no?

Yes, for the most part. I, personally, don't call the Vedas 100% inerrant, as there are definitely many specific problems in the wording itself.

But I wouldn't say the current state + understanding of the Vedas right now is perfect for all of mankind.

Other than that, you have the Qur'an in Islam, which many Muslims believe is the final teaching of God, and therefore perfect for all men. However, I don't think other religions think of their respective Scriptures as infallible.

 

[DavyCrocket2003]

hello, I am wondering which religions call their scriptures 'a complete guide to reality'/'inerrant or infallible' or 'revealed by god as guarunteed of truth' - other than the Jewish and Christian?

I know hindus say the vedas are infallible, no?

Hi, what's up? Hey, I'm curious why you're asking this. It is an interesting question and I think the reasoning behind it would be interesting to hear.

Anyway, I am a unique Christian. I believe in the Bible, The Book of Mormon, and other scriptures. I think the Bible has some pretty bad errors in it, due to humans, but it is pretty useful. I don't believe there is anything that could be said to be "infallible." But most LDS people believe what Joseph Smith taught about The Book of Mormon:

I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.

 

[Ariella]

@ Boethiah

You know that we see Bahá'u'lláh as the perfect mirror of the sun who is God? So, He is the reflection of God, He is God's word. So, please be careful with your statements about Him. He can't have made faults! What He says in his book is the word of God! It's infallible.

However, also the books of Abdu'l-bahá are infallibe.

 

[Boethiah]

@ Boethiah

You know that we see Bahá'u'lláh as the perfect mirror of the sun who is God? So, He is the reflection of God, He is God's word. So, please be careful with your statements about Him. He can't have made faults! What He says in his book is the word of God! It's infallible.

However, also the books of Abdu'l-bahá are infallibe.

I am not speaking on the books themselves. I believe they are the infallible words of God. Rather, I am speaking on the complete infallibility of the Manifestations. To call them simple "infallible" is to deny them of their human nature. It negates the fact that they were human beings and it devalues them. Baha'u'llah taught the word of God, but He was also a human being. The mirror analogy. While Baha'u'llah was a mirror reflecting the sun's rays, He was also a mirror. He had the light of God shining in perfection, but the mirror itself was not divine. Could Baha'u'llah have made a mistake or two in His day to day life? Yes.

Perhaps my post was not clear in this regard. I can see how it would come off where I would not believe that the Texts themselves are not infallible. On the contrary, I believe they are. I just see the mixture of humanity and divinity in the Manifestations.

 

[Arav]

In Shwetambar Jainism we have that Agams which we take to be the teachings of Mahavir. the Digambars say that there were 11 agams but all of them were lost aftter the death of Acharya Shree Badhrabahu Swami. He was the last Shrut Kevali, meaning that he was the last person to know all of the Agams by memory. But the Shwetambers say that just because he died, that does not mean that everything was lost. What we do have we believe to be from Mahavir, we have no need to rewrite anything or mix up anything. And because Bhagwan Mahavir is a Tirthankar, he knows all perfectly. Therefore we follow him and his scripture. Now, to we take the scripture to be infallable? I personally say that there are many things in the Jain faith that are meant to be taken literally and other things that are have hidden message and are meant to be interpreted. Also, according to Anekantevada, the truth is relative.

I know its a vague answer, but that is how I see it. I dont feel that Jainism sits around and argues about scripture like that, wondering if its infallible or not. We just take what Mahavir said and apply it to our lives and if we experance peace, then we know something about it is right!