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| Every Error is Not a Sin. An Examination of the Opinion of the Academic Philosophers, that to Avoid Error We Should in All Cases Suspend Belief.
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Chapter 20.—Every Error is Not a Sin. An Examination
of the Opinion of the Academic Philosophers, that to Avoid Error We
Should in All Cases Suspend Belief.
I am not sure whether mistakes such
as the following,—when one forms a good opinion of a bad man, not
knowing what sort of man he is; or when, instead of the ordinary
perceptions through the bodily senses, other appearances of a
similar kind present themselves, which we perceive in the spirit,
but think we perceive in the body, or perceive in the body, but
think we perceive in the spirit (such a mistake as the Apostle
Peter made when the angel suddenly freed him from his chains and
imprisonment, and he thought he saw a vision1113
); or when, in the case of sensible
objects themselves, we mistake rough for smooth, or bitter for
sweet, or think that putrid matter has a good smell; or when we
mistake the passing of a carriage for thunder; or mistake one man
for another, the two being very much alike, as often happens in the
case of twins (hence our great poet calls it “a mistake pleasing
to parents”1114
),—whether these, and other
mistakes of this kind, ought to be called sins. Nor do I now
undertake to solve a very knotty question, which perplexed those
very acute thinkers, the Academic philosophers: whether a wise man
ought to give his assent to anything, seeing that he may fall into
error by assenting to falsehood: for all things, as they assert,
are either unknown or uncertain. Now I wrote three volumes shortly
after my conversion, to remove out of my way the objections which
lie, as it were, on the very threshold of faith. And assuredly it
was necessary at the very outset to remove this utter despair of
reaching truth, which seems to be strengthened by the arguments of
these philosophers. Now in their eyes every error is regarded as a
sin, and they think that error can only be avoided by entirely
suspending belief. For they say that the man who assents to what is
uncertain falls into error; and they strive by the most acute, but
most audacious arguments, to show that, even though a man’s
opinion should by chance be true, yet that there is no certainty of
its truth, owing to the impossibility of distinguishing truth from
falsehood. But with us, “the just shall live by faith.”1115
Now, if
assent be taken away, faith goes too; for without assent there can
be no belief. And there are truths, whether we know them or not,
which must be believed if we would attain to a happy life, that is,
to eternal life. But I am not sure whether one ought to argue with
men who not only do not know that there is an eternal life before
them, but do not know whether they are living at the present
moment; nay, say that they do not know what it is impossible they
can be ignorant of. For it is impossible that any one should be
ignorant that he is alive, seeing that if he be not alive it is
impossible for him to be ignorant; for not knowledge merely, but
ignorance too, can be an attribute only of the living. But,
forsooth, they think that by not acknowledging that they are alive
they avoid error, when even their very error proves that they are
alive, since one who is not alive cannot err. As, then, it is not
only true, but certain, that we are alive, so there are many other
things both true and certain; and God forbid that it should ever be
called wisdom, and not the height of folly, to refuse assent to
these.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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