‘Reason is the Devil’s whore’
This famous quote comes from Martin Luther the reformer. Interestingly, infidels have long used this quote out of context to show that religion and Christianity are contrary to reason, but this is actually not Luther’s meaning, nor is he rejecting reason, but rather, reason divorced from revelation and faith.
Quote of the Day – necessity, tyrants, and repealing Obamacare
Is Obama facilitating change or forcing it? Here's today's quote.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. ~ William Pitt
In our recent political history, this might be applied to some of the actions of GW Bush, such as the war on Iraq, wiretapping, suspending habeas corpus for Gitmo detainees, etc.
It could also be applied to the Obama Administration, in the way that they forced through their various enormous spending bills, as well as their upcoming "carbon offsets" (a.k.a as 'cap and trade') legislation. Trust me, it will be urgent and necessary.
As we have seen in the Obama administration, you don't need time to read or openly debate legislation, you just need time to manipulate a majority vote.
Quote of the Day – Revival and anguish
The video below is interesting, though a little hard core for me – it both appeals and repulses. But I like this quote:
All true passion comes out of anguish.
Quote of the Day #025: Unity at all costs?
It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error.
Quote of the Day #024: Christianity and the Mystery Religions
I came across this while reading today (yes, it was pleasure reading ;):
The NT, moreover, was written almost esclusively by Jews, whose "strict monotheism and traditional intolerance of syncretism" would have militated strongly against any wholesale borrowing from pagain cults.
But the fundamental difference is the historical basis of the Christian faith over against the mythological character of the mystery religions. The deities they proclaimed were no more than "nebulous figures of an imagineary past," whereas the Jesus of the apostolic kerygma has a historical person who had lived and died only a very few years before the first NT documents were written.
The mystery religions essentially celebrate a dying nature god who then, like the coming of spring, is revived or reborn. There is all the difference in the world between this and the resurrection "on the third day" of a historical figure to whose resurrection appearances many could testify from personal experience.
It is significant, moreover, that the references to a three-day gap between death and revival that we find in regard to Attis (possibly Adonis according to one account) and Osiris cannot be dated earlier than the second century A.D., while the tradition about the resurrection of Christ on the third day, as recorded in 1 Corinthians 15, can be traced back to well before the middle of the first century.
So, if borrowings were made from one religion to another, it is tolerably clear which way they went.
See also Did Christianity Borrow from the Mystery Religions?
Quote of the Day #023: loquatious ignorance
From Marcus Tullius Cicero, on W vs. Obama? (courtesy of Church of the Masses):
"I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity."
Quote of the Day #022: Evolutionists like religious hypocrites
"Evolutionists have done to science what hypocrites have done to
religion. They leap through the so-called paleontological record like a
Disney cartoon kangaroo, making statements that have more to do with an
overripe imagination rather than with true science. They are
unregulated speculators with ridiculous theories that are leaving the
minds of today’s youth bankrupt, and they need to be held to some sort
of intellectual accountability. I’m just one incompetent idiot that’s
trying to do that."
Quote of the Day #009 – Religion and Science
"Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes."
– Pope John Paul II
False absolutes and idolatries like scientism (science is the only valid way of knowing), evolutionism (‘it’s real science, I swear! As sure as gravity’), feticide (‘it’s just a blob of cells, and it is better to kill it than to allow it to suffer’), eugenics (‘we’re just helping Darwinism along, it’s for the good of the species’), slavery (‘of course they are less evolved!’), sexual permissiveness (‘people can’t be expected or encouraged to abstain, it’s against nature’ or ‘just because we can never produce progeny doesn’t mean that it’s unnatural’), etc.
Superstitions and errors like … [anti-religionists and thinkers (somewhat mutually exclusive groups), have a field day]
Politicians say the darndest things
Here are some of my favorite quotes about politics, by politicians or somehow vaguely connected to politics only in the deep recesses of my brain.
My favorite atheist quotes
Just to show that I can listen to and appreciate a good quip even if I disagree with the sentiment, here are my favorite atheist (or "agnosticish") quotes from Quotes of the Day.
Quote of the Day #005 – Pacifism
"Love your enemies" is not a complete philosophy in itself – it must be balanced with "protect the weak" and "do justice."
- danielg
Quote of the Day #004 – Security or opportunity?
Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem more afraid of life than death.
–
James F. Byrnes
Quote of the Day #003 – Luther and “Vile Dirt”
"Your book is, in my opinion, so contemptible and worthless that I feel great pity for you for having defiled your beautiful and skilled manner of speaking with such vile dirt….To those who have drunk from the Spirit of the teaching of my books, we have given in abundance and more than enough, and they easily despise your arguments….Hence, you see, I lost all desire to answer you, not because I was busy, or because it would have been a difficult task, nor on account of your great eloquence, nor for fear of you, but simply because of disgust, indignation and contempt, which, if I say so, express my judgment of your diatribe."
- Luther, responding to Erasmus‘ Freedom of the Will, in his counter-argument, The Bondage of the Will.
Quote of the Day #002 – Love the sinner?
"Love the sinner, hate the sin." – Ghandi (+ Augustine + ???)
This aphorism is probably a mix of two well known quotes:
- "Hate the sin and not the sinner" (Mohandas Gandhi’s 1929 autobiography)
- St. Augustine’s letter 211 (c. 424) contains the phrase Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum, which translates roughly as "With love for mankind and hatred of sins."
Quote of the Day #001 – Atheists giving thanks
"The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank."
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti, artist (1828-1882)
HT: Neatorama
