“A man may be a heretic in the truth; and if he believe things only because his pastor says so, or the Assembly so determines, without knowing other reason, though his belief be true, yet the very truth he holds becomes his heresy.”
John Milton wrote this in his
Areopagitica. He was talking about the chance that books classified
as 'heretics' couldn't be published under the decree issued by the
English government at that time.Thus he said what he thought about
heresy. Perhaps later I will discuss about this, I mean, in another
post, but for now I'd like to note how he stressed the importance of
reason in men, based mainly on that quote.
A man's heresy – in this case his
failure to have true faith or conviction– does not depend only on
what he believes in, but why he believes it. If somebody believes in
something just because 'his pastor says so', therefore based on what
people say to be true, then the basis of his believe is wrong,
regardless the veracity of what he believes in.
By this statement he stressed that men
must use their reason to determine the right or wrong, instead of
blindly believe in what they are taught to be right. In Areopagitica,
he also quoted the Bible itself, that says:
“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”
It is not wrong to question what
someone believes in. It is not a sin to doubt your religion. On the
contrary, when you have proved “all things”, you will have
stronger conviction on what you believe in.
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