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Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Bible "is without error or fault in all its teaching";[1] or, at least, that "Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact".[2]
The belief in Biblical inerrancy is of particular significance within parts of evangelicalism, where it is formulated in the "Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy". Inerrancy has been much more of an issue in American evangelicalism than in British evangelicalism:[3] according to Stephen R. Holmes, it "plays almost no role in British evangelical life".[4][globalize] Some groups equate inerrancy with biblical infallibility or with the necessary clarity of scripture; others do not.[5][6]
The Catholic Church also holds a limited belief in biblical inerrancy[7] for the original writings in the original language including the Deuterocanonicals, particularly in relating to the goal of salvation: that "since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of our salvation."[8] However, descriptions of natural phenomena are not to be taken as inspired and inerrant scientific assertions, but reflect the language and contemporary understanding of the writers.
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