[History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science by John William Draper]@TWC D-Link book
History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science

CHAPTER VIII
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Pyrrho bids us reflect on the necessity of suspending our judgment of things, since we have no criterion of truth; so deep a distrust did he impart to his followers, that they were in the habit of saying, "We assert nothing; no, not even that we assert nothing." Epicurus taught his disciples that truth can never be determined by reason.

Arcesilaus, denying both intellectual and sensuous knowledge, publicly avowed that he knew nothing, not even his own ignorance! The general conclusion to which Greek philosophy came was this--that, in view of the contradiction of the evidence of the senses, we cannot distinguish the true from the false; and such is the imperfection of reason, that we cannot affirm the correctness of any philosophical deduction.
It might be supposed that a revelation from God to man would come with such force and clearness as to settle all uncertainties and overwhelm all opposition.

A Greek philosopher, less despairing than others, had ventured to affirm that the coexistence of two forms of faith, both claiming to be revealed by the omnipotent God, proves that neither of them is true.

But let us remember that it is difficult for men to come to the same conclusion as regards even material and visible things, unless they stand at the same point of view.

If discord and distrust were the condition of philosophy three hundred years before the birth of Christ, discord and distrust were the condition of religion three hundred years after his death.


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