Tag Archive: atheism
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Saint Augustine on Science and Scripture
1600 years later, the man still has a point
Via Pib’s Home on the Web …
Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he hold to as being certain from reason and experience.
Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn.
The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men.
If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason?
Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion.
Video: Reverend Zero
Praise Nothing
Video: Atheists’ Fear - The Banana Proof
The Holy Fruit
For a moment it seems like he’s going to do something rude with that banana.
This is amazingly dumb.
Video: Religion Bashing
A plea for moderation.
There must be a way to discuss the failings of religion without descending to this.
There are definitely many hypocrites out there. But the fact that a large number of people have decided to change their religion suggests to me that they spend some time thinking about it as opposed to just swallowing whatever their parents have handed down to them.
And given that a generation ago, just about nobody declared themselves atheist, it would seem that this generation of non-believers is as guilty of “changing their minds.” Generally we like it that people think. Or at least attempt to.
While I don’t agree that every outspoken atheist is a foaming at the mouth militant fascist, I do have some sympathy for this guy (Chris Hedges) …
OK there is something whiney about Hedges and ranting about how you don’t like other people ranting is not going to boost your book sales. And calling the lot of them militant fascist is hardly accurate. Hitchins’ military proclivities aside, the atheists are generally peace-loving if somewhat smug.
But there has got to be a better way to bring people to a rationalist view than name calling. Not everyone who follows religion is a hypocrite getting fat off the gullibility of others. For the most part, the people being insulted are sincere and well intentioned.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s really worth being a buzz-kill after all.
