I have not read the book, but I would like to reply to what you wrote. I
think that one can go too far in being "humble" about facts and knowledge
to the point of extreme relativism about truth and knowledge. Should I
humbly confess that someone might be right when they disagree that if
they should jump off of the Empire State building that the great
probability, almost certainty, will be that they will go down and die
rather than float upwards and fly? Am I not being humble when I affirm the
law of non-contradiction in logic, or that I exist? Should I be accused
of being arrogant when I warn someone that the liquid that he is about to
drink is sulfuric acid when he believes it is lemonaid? Is it arrogance
on my part when Jesus claims to be the only way to God the Father, for me to
assert that if I have very good reasons for believing that Jesus is God
and thus should know what He is talking about?
When it comes to spiritual things, as a Christian who believes that what
the Bible affirms if true and reliable (based upon reason and evidences),
I do not need to search out the clear doctrines of the Christian faith
like the deity of Jesus and the exclusivity of salvation via his atoning
death; it is written down for me by direct revelation. Knowledge of
nature, on the other hand, is not written down for me in toto by someone.
However, this is not to say that we do not need to "dig" for spiritual
truth from the Scriptures when that truth is not clearly laid out in the
same way that we must "dig" for truth about the world of nature when it is
not apparent to our senses. However, certain things are clear in the
Scriptures and affirmed by all Christians in the same way that certain
facts of nature are evident to all, such as that one exists and that
objects fall when dropped. If someone denies these things, then they are
either in ignorance or are exercising their will to develop
self-contradictory or nonsensical philosophies. I do not believe that we
should try to obtain complete, and especially redemptive, knowledge of God
from studying nature nor from our own mental speculations, but from direct
revelation from God. This may not be "humble", but it seems to me to be
rational and epistemically honest.
Jeff