This is one of their [the Christians'] rules. Let no man that is learned, wise, or prudent come among us: but if they be unlearned, or a child, or an idiot, let him freely come. So they openly declare that none but the ignorant, and those devoid of understanding, slaves, women, and children, are fit disciples for the God they worship.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the exclusion of learned individuals from religious discourse, suggesting that ignorance is favored over wisdom.
Aulus Cornelius Celsus highlights a paradox within certain religious practices, where the wisdom and knowledge of learned individuals are dismissed in favor of those deemed less intelligent or uneducated. This raises questions about the nature of belief and the value placed on understanding versus blind faith. Celsus critiques the idea that only the ignorant and vulnerable are valued in religious contexts, suggesting a troubling stance on intellectual engagement within the community of believers.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discourse on the role of education in religion during a philosophy class.
Live in rooms full of light. Avoid heavy food. Be moderate in the drinking of wine. Take massage, baths, exercise, and gymnastics. Fight insomnia with gentle rocking or the sound of running water. Change surroundings and take long journeys. Strictly avoid frightening ideas. Indulge in cheerful conversation and amusements. Listen to music.
My films are expressive of a culture that has had the possibility of attaining material fulfillment while at the same time finding itself unable to accomplish the simple business of conducting human lives. We have been sold a bill of goods as a substitute for life. What is needed is reassurance in human emotions; a re-evaluation of our emotional capacities.
It may be decades until we know what living in a state of constant distraction will do to us.
How strange that excision – female circumcision, with several languages using the same term for both kinds of mutilation – of little girls should revolt the westerner but excite no disapproval when it is performed on little boys. Consensus on the point seems absolute. But ask your interlocutor to think about the validity of this surgical procedure, which consists of removing a healthy part of a nonconsenting child’s body on nonmedical grounds – the legal definition of… mutilation.
My first wish is, to see this plague of mankind banished from the earth, and the sons and daughters of this world employed in more pleasing and innocent amusements, than in preparing implements, and exercising them, for the destruction of mankind.
World events are the work of individuals whose motives are often frivolous, even casual.
All things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted.
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