The Polarizing of Faith and Reason In A Few Quotes
In the so-called “Enlightenment” the classical view of the world was DIVIDED. Two main movements formed which fed off of each other, leaving us with the intense debate we have today:
Fideism (Faith)
“Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.” ― Martin Luther
Empiricism (Science)
(and similar “post metaphysical” theories)
“If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.” — David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge (1894), section 12, part 3, 165
This is what we had before
Scholasticism
(Above two integrated via teleology/purpose being viewed as a science)
“Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.”…. “[I]t is to be borne in mind, in regard to the philosophical sciences, that the inferior sciences neither prove their principles nor dispute with those who deny them, but leave this to a higher science; whereas the highest of them, viz. metaphysics, can dispute with one who denies its principles, if only the opponent will make some concession; but if he concede nothing, it can have no dispute with him, though it can answer his objections. ― Thomas Aquinas
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