Infallibility of God

Overview

The infallibility of God is a key concept in most or all monotheistic religions. It is generally used to justify religious doctrine, with the claim that such doctrine was either spoken directly by God or else written by a person under divine influence. Claims of inaccuracy in transcription are generally addressed by arguments that God, being omnipotent and omnipresent, is able to ensure that His words are accurately copied, translated, and understood at all times. God Himself states in such doctrine that He is infallible and omnipotent, which is how we know that he is able to do this.

All such religious doctrine thereby ultimately rests on an argument from authority – the doctrine is true because God says it is – plus the circular argument that we know the doctrine comes from God because the doctrine says so.