Abstract: n the prologue, I commented that in Buddhism grasping onto one’s own views, or vision of the world, as being uniquely true and supe- rior to all others is regarded as a fundamental delusion. The preceding
chapters have sought to demonstrate that such dogmatism is as common today among scientific materialists as it is among religious believers, East and West. Christian belief in the unique truths of the faith is rooted in history. Devout Christians believe that the words of the Apostles, as re- corded in the New Testament, were blessed by the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the hand of God is believed to have been guiding the Synod of Hippo in 393, when a council of Christian bishops listed and approved a canon of sacred scripture, recognized since that time as the New Testament. Many believe in the infallibility of subsequent ecumenical councils, an article of faith that was first systematically discussed by Theodore Abu-Qurrah in the ninth century. Belief in the divine guidance of the Roman Catholic Church was expressed once again in 1870, when the First Vatican Council endorsed papal infallibility as a dogmatic revelation of a Truth about the Papal Magisterium. The First Vatican Council concluded its decision with the declaration: “So then, should anyone, which God forbid, have the te- merity to reject this definition of ours: let him be anathema.”
