proof by failure of imagination
In programming languages today, someone had to answer this question: Prove the contention on page 40 that when a CLU iterator terminates, …
Thomas More, with Respect to Utopia: Wistful Daydreamer or Whimsical Writer of Fiction?
Alistair Fox considers Utopia to be Thomas More’s playground for fleshing out ideas that would not have come to fruition in his life. This proposed purpose of Utopia is evident in how More describes the Utopians, their religion, and their way of life, which all reflect aspects of More’s life. Fox observes that More injects into the Utopian people these similarities with himself: interests in gardening and music and a dislike of material wealth. The Utopian religion resembles More’s own Christianity, and the apparent secret to happiness in Utopia lies in furthering your education, which fits with More’s scholastic nature.
“You have made time itself…”
This quotation is from Augustine’s Confessions and specifically from chapter 11, pp. 229. Augustine’s idea is that time is an illusion because past and future do not ever really exist. They are nothing tangible and we can do nothing with them. There is only the never-ending present through which we flow, although that is slightly incorrect as well as it seems to imply that that present is coming from somewhere on its way to somewhere else, which it is not, as it only exists for a moment before it becomes what we call the past, which, according to Augustine, does not exist.
“We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth…”
The author of this quotation is Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and this was taken from his Oration on the Dignity of Man. Pico’s work surrounded the idea that man is God’s greatest creation and should rightly be celebrated. His ideas seem very radical because they are so different from what Augustine and others believed. The whole feeling of Pico’s work is much more optimistic about the state of the individual man, especially in relation with that man’s trek toward God.
“I answer that the existence of God can be proved in five ways.”
The author of this quotation is Thomas Aquinas and this is from his answer to objections one and two of the third …
God’s Existence by Rational Argument
The existence of God can be rationally proven, and Thomas Aquinas does a better job of this than Anselm. Aquinas uses strictly …
Accounts of Religious Conversion
The accounts of Antony’s and Augustine’s lives were both written with a focus on religious aspects. Beyond this, there is little similarity …
Two Problems with Christianity, as Discussed by Celsus
Currently in the United States, it can be difficult to hear any solid arguments against Christianity. To find some well-written polemic against …