After the great example of St. Thomas, the principle stands - that we must either not argue with a man at all, or we must argue on his grounds and not on ours.
Book: St. Thomas Aquinas
This I say is the first and deadly error, which appears on every level of life and is equally deadly on all, turning religion into a self-caressing luxury and love into auto-eroticism.
Book: Surprised by Joy (1955)
[…] This wasn’t fate. For every soul of this deluded population who believed in faith’s cosmic clockwork, they neglect to see the wear and tear beneath the surface, the teeth that grind into the cogs, the damage that faith causes so many in its selfish journey toward just one, favorable, consequence.
Movie: Franklyn
I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory.
Book: Psalm 73: versus 22 -24 (New King James Bible)
Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried. (G. K. Chesterton)
Speech: The Harvard Veritas Forum (1992)
An un surrendered autonomy will not shake off the specter of doubt.
Speech: The Harvard Veritas Forum (1992)
Kierkegaard considers faith to be the most important of all human potentials, because he believes that an individual can only reach complete selfhood through faith.
Book: Kierkegaard
Existence is the child that is born of the infinite and the finite, the eternal and the temporal, and is therefore a constant striving. Kierkegaard claims that through the passion of faith it is possible to achieve a ‘happy relationship’ between human reason and paradox; but the rational mind has an imperialistic quality to it that resists any recognition or acknowledgment of its own limits.
It is for this reason that the rational mind finds the paradox of faith so offensive - faith threatens its position of ‘absolute power’ because at the same time that it rejects faith outright, there exists in the mind a shred of doubt. If this doubt is justified, then the rational mind can no longer lay claim to its supremacy, for something incomprehensible and far more powerful transcends it. What is interesting is that offense, like faith - is not rational.
It is for this reason that the rational mind finds the paradox of faith so offensive - faith threatens its position of ‘absolute power’ because at the same time that it rejects faith outright, there exists in the mind a shred of doubt. If this doubt is justified, then the rational mind can no longer lay claim to its supremacy, for something incomprehensible and far more powerful transcends it. What is interesting is that offense, like faith - is not rational.
Book: Kierkegaard
Existence is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite, and the existing individual is both finite and infinite.
Book: Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard’s definition of truth is the objective uncertainty, held fast through appropriation with the most passionate inwardness, is the truth, the highest truth there is for an existing person.
The definition of truth stated above is a paraphrasing of faith. Without risk, no faith. Faith is the contradiction between the infinite passion of inwardness and the objective uncertainty. If I am able to apprehend God objectively, I do not have faith; but because I cannot do this, I must have faith. If I want to keep myself in faith, I must continually see to it that I hold fast the objective uncertainty, see to it that in the objective uncertainty I am ‘out on 70,000 fathoms of water’ and still have faith.
The definition of truth stated above is a paraphrasing of faith. Without risk, no faith. Faith is the contradiction between the infinite passion of inwardness and the objective uncertainty. If I am able to apprehend God objectively, I do not have faith; but because I cannot do this, I must have faith. If I want to keep myself in faith, I must continually see to it that I hold fast the objective uncertainty, see to it that in the objective uncertainty I am ‘out on 70,000 fathoms of water’ and still have faith.
Book: Kierkegaard
No vital Christianity is possible unless at least three aspects of it are developed. These are the inner life of devotion, the outer life of service, and the intellectual life of rationality.
Faith is powerful enough to immunize people against all appeals to pity, to forgiveness, to decent human feelings. It even immunizes them against fear, if they honestly believe that a martyr’s death will send them straight to heaven. What a weapon! Religious faith deserves a chapter to itself in the annals of war technology, on an even footing with the longbow, the warhorse, the tank, and the hydrogen bomb.
The fact that any sort of religious faith was so disdained at Harvard and so important to the poor - not just in Haiti but elsewhere, too - made me even more convinced that faith must be something good.
Book: “Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World” by Tracy Kidder
Where does this come from? This 3 into the 1 joke format? It’s been the bedrock of our humor for many years. 3 blokes go into a pub. 3 into the 1. 3 into the 1. 3 things go into 1 thing and then humor—with a cur.
It’s always the same. It’s very similar to the holy trinity of the Christian faith. I’m sure you’re very aware of that. The god-head: the 3 gods go into a god. Maybe that subconsciously we’ve picked that up over the years. It’s embedded in our comedy consciousness. 3 gods go into a god. You get somebody to explain the trinity to you. They’ll say, “Well God—he’s God, Jesus is God as well, and the holy spirit is err…[gibberish]”
What? He’s the fecking spirit of the Lord who impregnates Mary, then gets a bit up himself, and is reduced to light clerical duties. Let’s examine that in joke form: 3 male divine natures go into a cosmic essence giving and receiving love—but not in a gay bishop way—to which the whole of Islam goes, “What?”
It’s always the same. It’s very similar to the holy trinity of the Christian faith. I’m sure you’re very aware of that. The god-head: the 3 gods go into a god. Maybe that subconsciously we’ve picked that up over the years. It’s embedded in our comedy consciousness. 3 gods go into a god. You get somebody to explain the trinity to you. They’ll say, “Well God—he’s God, Jesus is God as well, and the holy spirit is err…[gibberish]”
What? He’s the fecking spirit of the Lord who impregnates Mary, then gets a bit up himself, and is reduced to light clerical duties. Let’s examine that in joke form: 3 male divine natures go into a cosmic essence giving and receiving love—but not in a gay bishop way—to which the whole of Islam goes, “What?”
Comedy routine: “Part Troll”
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.
Sometimes you have to worship the god you have, not the god you want.
TV: “The Daily Show”, This Week in God
A habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree of certainty which the evidence warrants, would, if it became general, cure most of the ills from which the world is suffering.
Book: “Why I Am Not a Christian, and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, 1957 (p. vi)
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Book: “Bible”, Hebrews 11:6
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Book: “Bible”, Hebrews 11:1
When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it’s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly.
There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.
Book: Dune - from “Collected Sayings of Muad’Dib” by the Princess Irulan
Let your thoughts be psalms, your prayers incense, and your breath praise.
From Bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
It says something about our times that we rarely use the word sinful, except to describe a really good desert.
People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.
We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
Two errors: To exclude reason and to exclude all but reason.
It is absurd to complain that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn itself into everything.