unfortunately this country is increasingly leaning towards martin luther’s take on reason:
“Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.”
― Martin LutherThat is not a great quote to use fyi (I mean this one here by Martin Luther - whereas the one from Carl Sagan is fantastic imho:-).
I have heard an analogy in that it is like saying that the Mind is one’s greatest adversary to a child learning how to swim - true, but when quoted out of the surrounding context (in this case iirc it was Reason alone, unaided by Faith - or something to that effect but I could be misremembering so don’t take this part as… well… gospel, pun intended:-) really comes off super poorly. Similarly with wanting to exercise - “Mind” here does not mean merely “mind” as in mental faculties, just as “Reason” != “reason”.
Also the quote is disputed as even coming from Martin Luther himself rather than one of his students.
More at https://randalrauser.com/2011/10/quote-others-the-way-you-would-have-them-quote-you/ in case it helps.
Now a quote of my own (by me, from right this second): if we want to rise above the teeming unwashed masses and truly use Reason, then we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard (than those we accuse of not doing such). It’s just a thought: do as you will with it.
That’s a terrible counter argument. “Oh maybe he meant something different, you might not know the context surrounding how he plainly said it in 8 different ways you just quoted”
Is this what Christian academia is like? How pathetic.
