more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
I believe because it is absurd ('Credo quia absurdum est').
Gist of Idea
I believe because it is absurd
Source
Tertullian (works [c.200]), quoted by Robert Fogelin - Walking the Tightrope of Reason n4.2
Book Ref
Fogelin,Robert: 'Walking the Tightrope of Reason' [OUP 2004], p.181
A Reaction
This seems to be a rather desperate remark, in response to what must have been rather good hostile arguments. No one would abandon the support of reason if it was easy to acquire. You can't deny its engaging romantic defiance, though.
Related Idea
Idea 20269 'I believe because it is absurd' - but how about 'I believe because I am absurd' [Nietzsche]
| 8158 | Do not seek to know Brahman by arguments, for arguments are idle and vain [Anon (Upan)] |
| 7997 | Only by love can men see me, know me, and come to me, says Krishna [Anon (Bhag)] |
| 17593 | Always be ready to give reasons for your beliefs [Peter] |
| 6610 | I believe because it is absurd [Tertullian] |
| 6609 | With respect to religion, reason is a blind whore [Luther] |
| 22088 | Faith is like a dancer's leap, going up to God, but also back to earth [Kierkegaard, by Carlisle] |
| 7584 | Without risk there is no faith [Kierkegaard] |
| 7583 | Faith is the highest passion in the sphere of human subjectivity [Kierkegaard] |
| 2919 | 'Faith' means not wanting to know what is true [Nietzsche] |
| 20269 | 'I believe because it is absurd' - but how about 'I believe because I am absurd' [Nietzsche] |
| 7596 | Faith is not just belief in propositions, but also putting trust in them [Armstrong,K] |
| 4727 | The chief problem for fideists is other fideists who hold contrary ideas [O'Grady] |