Posted on 07/20/2015 4:48:44 PM PDT by avenir
595—Mahomet was without authority. His reasons, then, should have been very strong, having only their own force. What does he say, then, that we must believe him?
596—The Psalms are chanted throughout the whole world.
Who renders testimony to Mahomet? Himself. Jesus Christ desires His own testimony to be as nothing.
The quality of witnesses necessitates their existence always and everywhere; and he, miserable creature, is alone.
597—Against Mahomet.--The Koran is not more of Mahomet than the Gospel is of Saint Matthew, for it is cited by many authors from age to age. Even its very enemies, Celsus and Porphyry, never denied it.
The Koran says Saint Matthew was an honest man. Therefore Mahomet was a false prophet for calling honest men wicked, or for not agreeing with what they have said of Jesus Christ.
598—It is not by that which is obscure in Mahomet, and which may be interpreted in a mysterious sense, that I would have him judged, but by what is clear, as his paradise and the rest. In that he is ridiculous. And since what is clear is ridiculous, it is not right to take his obscurities for mysteries.
It is not the same with the Scripture. I agree that there are in it obscurities as strange as those of Mahomet; but there are admirably clear passages, and the prophecies are manifestly fulfilled. The cases are, therefore, not on a par. We must not confound and put on one level things which only resemble each other in their obscurity, and not in the clearness, which requires us to reverence the obscurities.
599—The difference between Jesus Christ and Mahomet.--Mahomet was not foretold; Jesus Christ was foretold.
Mahomet slew; Jesus Christ caused His own to be slain.
Mahomet forbade reading; the Apostles ordered reading.
In fact, the two are so opposed that, if Mahomet took the way to succeed from a worldly point of view, Jesus Christ, from the same point of view, took the way to perish. And instead of concluding that, since Mahomet succeeded, Jesus Christ might well have succeeded, we ought to say that, since Mahomet succeeded, Jesus Christ should have failed.
600—Any man can do what Mahomet has done; for he performed no miracles, he was not foretold. No man can do what Christ has done.
Looking through his thoughts today I found these on Mahomet and thought they were brilliant and applicable as ever.
Thank you for posting this. I hadn’t read Pascal before. I certainly will now.
Mrs. AV
Thank you.
In the age of total absence of Political Correctness the assessment of that malignant killer culture masquerading as a religion, is merciless...
My pleasure. A Google search could lead you to a more navigable site with chapter divisions (I was in a time crunch and grabbed first source I found).
My pleasure. A Google search could lead you to a more navigable site with chapter divisions (I was in a time crunch and grabbed first source I found).
I love older sources for that clarity.
Wheeee dogie. That boy could cipher.
Does Pascal have anything to say about Mahomet, Illinois?
thanks
Great post. I am in Abu Dhabi for a couple of weeks on business. Don’t normally work this side of the world but had a last minute issue that I am filling in for someone. I plan on going to Mass at St Joseph’s here this week. Will post some feedback. Abu Dhabi is an interesting mixture of western and Moslem culture.
For those wanting a good introduction to Pascal’s Pensees I strongly recommend Peter Kreeft’s “Christianity for Modern Pagans”. It is a commentary on the apologetic portions of Pensees, which is the majority of the work. One must understand that the Pensees is a notebook collection of Pascal’s writing fragments - he died before he could organize it into an coherent work. Thus, it is difficult to follow and read. Kreeft’s work organizes the apologetic fragments into a consistent whole and offers commentary on everything. Strongly recommended.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check it out.
Bookmark - thanks for the education.
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