Christian Quotation of the Day

April 3, 2003

It often happens that one who is not a Christian hath some
knowledge, derived from the evidence of his senses, about the
earth, about the heavens, about the elements of this world,
about the movements and revolutions, or about the size and
distance of the stars, about certain eclipses of the sun and
moon, about the course of the years and the seasons, about the
nature of animals, plants, and minerals... Now it is an
unseemly and mischievous thing, and greatly to be avoided, that
a Christian man speaking on such matters, as if according to
the authority of the Christian Scriptures, should talk so
foolishly that the unbeliever on hearing him and observing the
extravagance of his error, should hardly be able to refrain
from laughter. And the great mischief is not so much that the
man himself is laughed at for his errors, but that our authors
are believed, by many people without the Church, to have taught
such things, and so are condemned as unlearned and cast aside,
to the great loss of those for whose salvation we are so much
concerned.

For when they find one belonging to the Christian body
falling into error on a subject with which they themselves are
thoroughly conversant, and when they see him moreover enforcing
his groundless opinion by the authority of our Sacred Book, how
are they likely to put trust in these Books about the
resurrection of the dead, and the hope of eternal life, and the
kingdom of heaven, having already come to regard then as
fallacious about those things they had themselves learned from
observation, or from unquestionable evidences? And indeed it
were not easy to tell what trouble and sorrow some rash and
presumptuous men bring upon their prudent brethren, who, when
they are charged with a perverse and false opinion by those who
do not accept the authority of our Books, attempt to put
forward these same Holy Books in defense of that which they
have lightly and. falsely asserted, sometimes even quoting from
memory what they think will suit their purposes, and putting
forth many words without well understanding either what they
say, or what they are talking about.
... St. Augustine (345-430), On Genesis