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Tuesday, October 09, 2007

The Wisdom of Youth

“Reason is 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 Luther could scarcely have worded it better. For the greater part of my life, I held a faith that I believed was unified with reason. I was a devout Christian in every sense of the word, living a life for Christ and striving to place him (or at least my perception of him) at the center of all my endeavors. I was a regular Apostle Paul in regards to my fiery defense of the Word, taking every opportunity to engage in debate with the skeptic and show him the error of his ways



I'd expect this from someone in their 30's or above - but "the greater part of my life?" Friend, you are all of 17 years of age.

By the way, you have no idea what Luther was talking about, do you?

It would help your case if you wouldn't rest quotes out of context.

HT: James Swan who does a good job responding, so I need not go any further.

7 comments:

  1. The atheist forumlation of quote mining goes something like this:

    Quoting Charles Darwin out of context = bad

    Quoting Luther/Calvin out of context = sure, why not

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  2. I guess for your next trick, you'll next claim that Luther was one of history's greatest champions of reason...

    Oh, by the way...

    "It would help your case if you wouldn't rest quotes out of context."

    Did you mean "wrest"?

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  3. By the way, I have to point out that even if Luther did say this exactly as the skeptics claim (i.e., even if we ignore the context for the sake of argument) we're still left with a big: so what?

    Luther isn't God. Luther isn't the pope for Protestants. Luther's opinions don't carry any more weight than any other person's opinions.

    So why would his quote be damaging to the Christian worldview, even if it wasn't being so egregiously taken out of context?

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  4. 1. Luther is not my rule of faith.

    2. Since I'm Reformed I reject the Lutheran concept of double truth.

    3. Bernie can't recognize a pun, so I'll spell it out.

    Atheists like Caleb are trying to "rest" Christianity/Christians' statements by "wresting" them out of context.

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  5. I love it when the opposition's main point is your misuse of a homonym. That's right up there with spelling corrections...

    And no one ever claimed Luther was one of history's greatest champions of reason. We just refute the meaning of the Luther quote attributed to him by the young debunker. The context dismantles the atheist's assertion.

    Besides, who wants to say with a straight face that Luther didn't use reason? I suppose his voluminous works are reason-free?

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  6. Besides, who wants to say with a straight face that Luther didn't use reason? I suppose his voluminous works are reason-free?

    Indeed. It was scholastic theology that ticked Luther off.

    But, a lot of Lutherans pick up the mantra, "We follow the Bible, not reason... you calvinists follow reason."

    ...to which I respond, "err..aren't you engaged in reasoning when you say this?

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  7. "Atheists like Caleb are trying to 'rest' Christianity/Christians' statements by 'wresting' them out of context."

    Beautiful pun! I can't believe I missed it - I made the same mistake as Bernie when I read it.

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