October 27

True religion cannot be contrary to reason.

1

Do not believe that with respect to religion one cannot trust reason. The faith in the power of reason lies at the foundation of any other faith. It is impossible to believe in God if we diminish the importance of the very faculty which we use to learn about God. If, after a fair and unbiased use of our best faculties, a creed seems to us contradictory or in disagreement with the principal truths which we find doubtless, we must surely forbear from believing those teachings. I am more convinced that my rational nature comes from God than the fact that some book is an expression of his will.

— Channing

2

Even if God, as an object of our faith, is beyond our comprehension, even if we cannot encompass him within our reason, it does not follow that we must think less of the workings of reason or consider it harmful.

Although the objects of faith are doubtlessly located outside the circle of our reason, above it, reason is still so important in relation to them that we cannot possibly do without it.

— Fyodor Strakhov

3

He is still naive, like an adult child, who can seriously believe that some time ago some non-human beings explained to our human race the purpose of the universe and their lives. There are no revelations other than the thoughts of wise men, even though they are subject to delusions. They speak of the whole of the human experience and often take the form of wonderful allegories and myths, at which point they are called revelations. And that is why it seems that it makes no difference whether or not we should rely on our own thoughts or those of others, because thoughts that are passed down to us as revelations are still only human thoughts. And yet—people are naturally more inclined to rely on the heads of others, as though they possess superhuman sources of thought, rather than on their own. That said, if we consider people’s intellectual disparity then, perhaps, the thoughts of one person may really seem like supernatural revelations to another.

— Schopenhauer

4

By surrendering a child’s mind to be processed by the clergy, they are trying to make it impossible from the earliest childhood not only to speak and share the truth, but even to contemplate and discover it, which will press the rut so deep for future thoughts to move along that in most cases they will be set and settled for the rest of one’s life.

— Schopenhauer

5

Light is still light even if the blind cannot see it.

6

While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become children of light.

— John 12:36

To discover the truth, do not suppress your reason as false teachers preach, but on the contrary: purify it, exert it, use it to test every proposition.