18 of 20 in Section VIII THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CHRI...325 of 448 in work
Will Over Intellect
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author posits that God prioritizes the transformation of the human will over the intellect, as total intellectual clarity would prevent the necessary humbling of pride.

...ncerted? 578 God (and the Apostles), foreseeing that the seeds of pride would make heresies spring up, and being unwilling to give them occasion to arise from correct expressions, has put in Scripture and the prayers of the Church contrary words and sentences to produce their fruit in time. So in morals He gives charity, which produces fruits contrary to lust. 579 Nature has some perfections to show that she is the image of God, and some defects to show that she is only His image. 580
God prefers rather to incline the will than the intellect. Perfect clearness would be of use to the intellect, and would harm the will. To humble pride.
581 We make an idol of truth itself; for truth apart from charity is not God, but His image and idol, which we must neither love nor worship; and still less must we love or worship its opposite, namely, falsehood. I can easily love total darkness; but if God keeps me in a state of semi-darkness, such partial darkness displeases me, and, because I do not see therein the advantage of total darkness, it is unpleasant to me. This is a fault, and a sign that I make for myself an idol of darkness...
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19 of 20 in Section VIII THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CHRI...326 of 448 in work
Truth Without Charity
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

Pascal warns against making an idol of truth or darkness apart from God's will, asserting that one must worship the divine order itself rather than personal preferences for clarity or obscurity.

...m correct expressions, has put in Scripture and the prayers of the Church contrary words and sentences to produce their fruit in time. So in morals He gives charity, which produces fruits contrary to lust. 579 Nature has some perfections to show that she is the image of God, and some defects to show that she is only His image. 580 God prefers rather to incline the will than the intellect. Perfect clearness would be of use to the intellect, and would harm the will. To humble pride. 581
We make an idol of truth itself; for truth apart from charity is not God, but His image and idol, which we must neither love nor worship; and still less must we love or worship its opposite, namely, falsehood. I can easily love total darkness; but if God keeps me in a state of semi-darkness, such partial darkness displeases me, and, because I do not see therein the advantage of total darkness, it is unpleasant to me. This is a fault, and a sign that I make for myself an idol of darkness, apart from the order of God. Now only His order must be worshipped.
582 The feeble-minded are people who know the truth, but only affirm it so far as consistent with their own interest. But, apart from that, they renounce it. 583 The world exists for the exercise of mercy and judgment, not as if men were placed in it out of the hands of God, but as hostile to God; and to them He grants by grace sufficient light, that they may return to Him, if they desire to seek and follow Him; and also that they may be punished, if they refuse to seek or follow Him. 5...
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20 of 20 in Section VIII THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CHRI...327 of 448 in work
The Necessary Obscurity
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author argues that God is intentionally partially hidden to ensure man recognizes both his own corruption and the hope of a remedy, as knowing one without the other leads to despair or pride.

...im; and also that they may be punished, if they refuse to seek or follow Him. 584 That God has willed to hide Himself.--If there were only one religion, God would indeed be manifest. The same would be the case, if there were no martyrs but in our religion. God being thus hidden, every religion which does not affirm that God is hidden, is not true; and every religion which does not give the reason of it, is not instructive. Our religion does, all this: Vere tu es Deus absconditus. 585
If there were no obscurity, man would not be sensible of his corruption; if there were no light, man would not hope for a remedy. Thus, it is not only fair, but advantageous to us, that God be partly hidden and partly revealed; since it is equally dangerous to man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness, and to know his own wretchedness without knowing God.
586 This religion, so great in miracles, saints, blameless Fathers, learned and great witnesses, martyrs, established kings as David, and Isaiah, a prince of the blood, and so great in science, after having displayed all her miracles and all her wisdom, rejects all this, and declares that she has neither wisdom nor signs, but only the cross and foolishness. For those, who, by these signs and that wisdom, have deserved your belief, and who have proved to you their character, declare to you t...
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1 of 14 in Section IX PERPETUITY328 of 448 in work
Now entering Section IX PERPETUITY
Blindness and Enlightenment
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

Pascal expresses a preference for historical accounts backed by the sacrifice of witnesses, suggesting that apparent obscurities in history should be met with a diligent search for clarity.

...o far is this from being a reason for believing that it is not the true one, that, on the contrary, it makes us see that it is so. 589 Men must be sincere in all religions; true heathens, true Jews, true Christians. 590 J. C. Heathens __|__ Mahomet \ / Ignorance of God. 591 The falseness of other religions.--They have no witnesses. Jews have. God defies other religions to produce such signs: Isaiah xliii, 9; xliv, 8. 592 History of China.[213]-
I believe only the histories, whose witnesses got themselves killed. [Which is the more credible of the two, Moses or China?] It is not a question of seeing this summarily. I tell you there is in it something to blind, and something to enlighten. By this one word I destroy all your reasoning. "But China obscures," say you; and I answer, "China obscures, but there is clearness to be found; seek it." Thus all that you say makes for one of the views, and not at all against the other.
So this serves, and does no harm. We must then see this in detail; we must put the papers on the table. 593 Against the history of China. The historians of Mexico, the five suns,[214] of which the last is only eight hundred years old. The difference between a book accepted by a nation, and one which makes a nation. 594 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? 595 The P...
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2 of 14 in Section IX PERPETUITY329 of 448 in work
Clarity's Decisive Test
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author contrasts the 'ridiculous' clarity of other religions with the 'admirable' clarity of Scripture, arguing that the latter's fulfilled prophecies justify its remaining obscurities.

...witnesses necessitates their existence always and everywhere; and he, miserable creature, is alone. 596 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.[216] Therefore Mahomet was a false prophet for calling honest men wicked, or for not agreeing with what they have said of Jesus Christ. 597
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…
598 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...
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