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2 ideas
| 16714 | The state should kill blasphemous heretics [Erasmus] |
| Full Idea: It is necessary for the preservation of the state to kill heretics that are blasphemous and seditious. | |
| From: Desiderius Erasmus (works [1506]), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 20.2 | |
| A reaction: He was much more tolerant of heretics who kept quiet. |
| 5209 | The 'truths' expressed by theists are not literally significant [Ayer] |
| Full Idea: There cannot be any transcendent truths of religion, for the sentences which the theist uses to express such 'truths' are not literally significant. | |
| From: A.J. Ayer (Language,Truth and Logic [1936], Ch.6) | |
| A reaction: Ayer claims that only tautologies or empirically verifiable statements have literal significance. I say speculations, wild theories and fantasies are perfectly meaningful. Nevertheless, the words of many hymns and prayers look like empty rhetoric. |