all 11 comments

[–]JasonCarswell 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Mais, monsieur, en étant persuadés par la foi, des choses qui paraissent absurdes à notre intelligence, c'est-à-dire, en croyant ce que nous ne croyons pas, gardons-nous de faire ce sacrifice de notre raison dans la conduite de la vie. Il y a eu des gens qui ont dit autrefois: Vous croyez des choses incompréhensibles, contradictoires, impossibles, parce que nous vous l'avons ordonné; faites donc des choses injustes parce que nous vous l'ordonnons. Ces gens-là raisonnaient à merveille. Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste. Si vous n'opposez point aux ordres de croire l'impossible l'intelligence que Dieu a mise dans votre esprit, vous ne devez point opposer aux ordres de malfaire la justice que Dieu a mise dans votre coeur. Une faculté de votre âme étant une fois tyrannisée, toutes les autres facultés doivent l'être également. Et c'est là ce qui a produit tous les crimes religieux dont la terre a été inondée.

~ Questions sur les miracles (1765)

Once your faith, sir, persuades you to believe what your intelligence declares to be absurd, beware lest you likewise sacrifice your reason in the conduct of your life. In days gone by, there were people who said to us: "You believe in incomprehensible, contradictory and impossible things because we have commanded you to; now then, commit unjust acts because we likewise order you to do so." Nothing could be more convincing. Certainly anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices. If you do not use the intelligence with which God endowed your mind to resist believing impossibilities, you will not be able to use the sense of injustice which God planted in your heart to resist a command to do evil. Once a single faculty of your soul has been tyrannized, all the other faculties will submit to the same fate. This has been the cause of all the religious crimes that have flooded the earth.

~ Translation from Norman Lewis Torrey: Les Philosophes. The Philosophers of the Enlightenment and Modern Democracy. Capricorn Books, 1961, pp. 277-8

Widely used paraphrase: "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities".

~ https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire

[–]Node 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

If you do not use the intelligence with which God endowed your mind to resist believing impossibilities, you will not be able to use the sense of injustice which God planted in your heart to resist a command to do evil.

I was going to state it more simply as: If someone has control over you, they can make you do or believe various things.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Like the great Gruen Transfer TV series about advertising - "the art of persuasion".

[–]Brewdabier 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

And America does it well.

[–]skeech 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

if you dont like america, why so much effort to speak dirt about u.s.?

take your son and get the fk out.

[–]Zorp 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

You get the fuck out asshole

[–]skeech 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Another coward throwaway account.

[–]skeech 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

This logic should be applied to those degenerates that convince children that they are transgender.

those animals should serve hard time and break rocks.

hard labor.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Good timing. I can utilize this.