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submitted 6 months ago by nifty@lemmy.world to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] solsangraal@lemmy.zip 49 points 6 months ago

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 Luther

[-] OpenStars@piefed.social 8 points 6 months ago

That 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.

[-] mc900ftJesus@lemy.lol 33 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

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.

[-] xthexder@l.sw0.com 11 points 6 months ago

It's certainly an argument I've heard a lot when talking about inconsistencies in the Bible. Usually it's blamed on translation, missing context, or exaggerated retellings. It was written by many different people who weren't necessarily talking to each other after all. I have a hard time taking any of it seriously.

[-] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 months ago

But not this bit of the bible. There can't be any translation errors, missing context or exaggeration on this bit specifically because we like this bit.