Today's quote comes from Howard Phillips Lovecraft best known for his Cthuhlu series HP Lovecraft books ask us to consider the world around us a realize that we've barely scratched the surface.
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
I agree with Lovecraft that most of us live on a island of ignorance most people are happy to do so and live their entire lives not caring. So while I think this black sea of infinity is temporary I do think that we are the stewards of it and that exploring it will only reveal more of God's nature and I see no harm in that.
I think it's sad indeed that Lovecraft didn't realize that this placid island is only temporary and that beyond it there is an eternity waiting for us that is so much better.
Showing posts with label Reason. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reason. Show all posts
Monday, November 17, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Agents against Error
Today's quote comes from one of our Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson.
"Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error."
As I said in my first post, to blindly follow tradition or to flee tradition into a unsure future are both terrible errors. To combat those errors we must use our reason, to many people I know reason is the enemy because as evangelicals we rely not on reason alone but faith also. Some have taken this to an extreme and said that faith is too secular and we shouldn't be relying on it at all. I think this is a mistake and I decry the trend I see among evangelicals to abandon the study of science and philosophy. Free inquiry of those ideas are what keep us from making the same errors generation after generation.
"Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error."
As I said in my first post, to blindly follow tradition or to flee tradition into a unsure future are both terrible errors. To combat those errors we must use our reason, to many people I know reason is the enemy because as evangelicals we rely not on reason alone but faith also. Some have taken this to an extreme and said that faith is too secular and we shouldn't be relying on it at all. I think this is a mistake and I decry the trend I see among evangelicals to abandon the study of science and philosophy. Free inquiry of those ideas are what keep us from making the same errors generation after generation.
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