| | Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, and this knowledge
he holds as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and
dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning
of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means
to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance
in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant
individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our
sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose
salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as
unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves
know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are
they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the
dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their
pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from
experience and the light of reason?
- St. Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram libri duodecim | |
|
