Manifestations of Pride: Being

Unteachable
In his book “I don’t have enough faith to be an Atheist” Norm Geisler
illustrates an example of a professor the manifest pride. Mr. Geisler writes,

“On the first day of that class, this professor gave the class the task of giving
presentations based on chapters in Ayer's book Logic, Truth, and Language. I
volunteered to do the chapter titled "The Principle of Empirical Verifiability." Now
keep in mind, this principle was the very foundation of Logical Positivism and thus
of the entire course.

At the beginning of the next class, the professor said, "Mr. Geisler, we'll hear from
you first. Keep it to no more than twenty minutes so we can have ample time for
discussion."

Well, since I was using the lightning-fast Road Runner tactic, I had absolutely no
trouble with the time constraints. I stood up and simply said, "The principle of
empirical verifiability states that there are only two kinds of meaningful
propositions: 1) those that are true by definition and 2) those that are empirically
verifiable. Since the principle of empirical verifiability itself is neither true by
definition nor empirically verifiable, it cannot be meaningful."

That was it, and I sat down.

There was a stunned silence in the room. Most of the students could see the Coyote
dangling in midair. They recognized that the principle of empirical verifiability
could not be meaningful based on its own standard. It self-destructed in midair! In
just the second class period, the foundation of that entire class had been destroyed!
What was the professor going to talk about for the next fourteen weeks?

I'll tell you what he was going to talk about. Instead of admitting that his class and
his entire philosophical outlook was self-defeating and thus false, the professor
suppressed that truth, hemmed and hawed, and then went on to suspect that I was
behind everything that went wrong for him the rest of the semester. His allegiance
to the principle of empirical verifiability—despite its obvious fatal flaw—was
clearly a matter of the will, not of the mind.”

April 10, 2010 DwellingWithGod.com By Jay Gheen

 Many professors, scientists, even preachers manifest this kind of pride; they
believe they are superior perhaps from their position or status. They seem to have
their mind set on what they believe to be true. They respect no one and do not want
to learn something different or anything new.

The Pharisees had this problem as well. In the Gospel of John, Jesus heals a
blind man. After the healing the Pharisees started to question the blind man on how
he gained his sight. He confirmed it was Jesus who done the healing. After further
questioning his parents to admit that he was born blind they again asked how he
gained his sight. The man answered that he has already told them the answer. (John
9:13-34)

The Pharisees simply couldn’t handle something new that is being done,
they thought they were superior to all and they knew it all. Pride was deep rooted
in their heart because of their position or status as a Pharisee.

Sometimes ministers have this same problem. Many sometimes are taught a
doctrine or bought up in a denomination and persist that it is superior and the truth.
Pride grabs a hold of their heart because they may not want to admit they are
wrong or change their view.

The longer one believes they are superior or correct on a subject the harder it
is to demolish the pride. Evolution scientist has this problem as well. Many
scientists spend their entire lives in a lie deeply rooted in their false theory that
they can’t accept anything contrary to evolution. So they keep accepting a lie and
in the end it will lead them to destruction.

“Listen
to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.”
Proverbs 19:20
References:

Crossway Book & Bible; 2004; I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist; Turek & Geisler

Focus Publishing, Inc. 2002; The Exemplary Husband; Stuart Scott

April 10, 2010 DwellingWithGod.com By Jay Gheen