Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662), French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli. Pascal also wrote in defense of the scientific method.
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully
as when they do it from religious conviction."
~ Blaise Pascal
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Comments: 38
Goodnight my friend, but please stop by my Spotlights tomorrow and click on my soon to be posted "Homecoming of a Blinded Lady".
While trying not to be an apologetic, I will say; it's not God's fault, or, to expand further out, it's not Allah's fault and it's certainly isn't evolution's fault. The fault on this issue, lies with man.
Still, Gerald - my friend - my spirit, my soul is pleased with my Christian belief. They are also pleased that I have friends who beliefs are non-Christian.
And I know what you mean about name-dropping. I dropped your name the other morning in a cafe but alas, it didn't get me a discount, an extra donut or even free coffee. It might have, however, been the reason for the waitresses smile?
The blame lies entirely with man--that was never in question. Far too many people who claim to be Christian are simply liars. While trying to live my life according to the principles expressed by Jesus, I refuse to call myself "Christian" merely because I refuse to be lumped together with the multitude of liars who claim to be so. I have no doubt that there are multitudes of people who are sincere in trying to live up to Christian principles, but there are way, way too many who use the label "Christian" to hide their very "un-Christian" actions behind. Claiming to be Christian without living up to Christian principles might fool impressionable people, but it by no means will fool God.
Have a good day.
“Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”
~ Blaise Pascal
I reject the reasoning behind the "wager" for many reasons. One is that it commits the fallacy of assuming in its premises, certain characteristics about the very god the argument is intended to prove. It ignores the possibility that God might still reward skeptical thinking unbelievers and punish credulous believers. Acts 24:15 promises that even unrighteous persons will get a resurrection and first Corinthians 10:12 says, ". . . let him that thinks he is standing beware that he does not fall."
Also, I do not believe that God is a vengeful, malevolent, pedantic bully.
“Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved,
what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false?
If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.
Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.”
~ Blaise Pascal
Now, this quote I am more likely to remember, simply because it makes absolutely no sense to me:
“Had Cleopatra's nose been shorter, the whole
face of the world would have been different.”
~ Blaise Pascal
Gerald, I started out as a very cynical doubter, so I required convincing :-D
~ Blaise Pascal
I never knew about that one, but I love it :-D
I'm not sure however that her nose was what had so bewitched Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius. One author said that she was the one who perfected the exploitation of the effect that a beautiful woman dressed in wet clothing has on males.
It doesn't require an particularly perceptive observer to have noticed that only tyrants desire for their subjects to abandon dignity and self-respect and to grovel at his feet, so I find it difficult to reconcile the idea of a perfect Creator-God with the desire for His/Her worshippers to humiliate themselves in such a manner. ~ Gerald Brewster
Pride has reared its ugly head in my congregation several times. And yes, the success of our congregation, though it is a good thing, is often the reason. We started out as a group of 12 persons meeting on my veranda. Now we have grown to 70, with as much as 100 persons attending the meetings. Our elders are always on convention programs, as a result pride develops and causes problems.
Fortunately, we have so far seen it it removed every time. Either the person changes or circumstances develop that makes the person go elsewhere.
Not totally selfless of her though, she wasn't using that part of it (too much large rocks, too steep) and when the building was completed, she never had to take a bus any more to get to the meetings; she simply walked through the gate of the fence bordering the two properties :-D