Friday, May 23, 2008
The Loser Letters, part 2
in which the author talks about problems atheists (or anyone else, for that matter) has when they claim that "Reason" is on their side. We all need to recognize that reason is only a tool, not a worldview. Reason works with the raw material you give it: the assumptions, observations about the world. Nazi's took the unprovable assumption that there were lives not worth living and applied reason to it to create gas chambers. (Interesting that they began with crippled and retarded children, isn't it?) Anyone who thinks that religious people do not use Reason has not read C. S. Lewis, Thomas Aquinas, Isaac Newton, Augustine, or St. Paul. Science, also, is a tool, a highly successful method for uncovering natural mechanisms and relationships. It has very little use outside of nature, however, and makes a lousy deity.
Addition: A quote from John Wesley, founder of Methodism:
“Passion and prejudice govern the world; only under the name of reason”
Addition: A quote from John Wesley, founder of Methodism:
“Passion and prejudice govern the world; only under the name of reason”
