[blowfish]

"The good Christian should beware of mathematicians and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of Hell." -- St. Augustine

Do you actually enter these things with a straight face?

[Fester Chugabrew]

Ask St. Augustine. He wrote it, not I.

[Thatcherite]

While I'm back I'll point out that Fester is using that Augustine quote about "mathematicians" to undermine Augustine. He wants to do that because Augustine's words about the conflict between reason and faith have such powerful resonance even today.

What Fester is perhaps unaware of is that the word "mathematician" is somewhat lost in translation. Reading the passage for comprehension and context Augustine is not talking about people who study the science of numbers; he is talking about astrologers, who in that day were called by the same word, mathematicians.