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The_Savior_from_Spiritual_Error_and_50_Principles, page : 63
impair their belief in the intelligence of the man who made the denial and,
what is worse, in his religion, inasmuch as he considers that it rests on such
denials.
Moreover, there is a type of mistake into which students of logic are liable to
fall. They draw up a list of the conditions to be fulfilled by demonstration,
which are known without fail to produce certainty. When, however, they come
at length to treat „of religious questions, not merely are they unable to satisfy
these conditions, but they admit an extreme degree of relaxation (sc. of their
standards of proof). Frequently, too, the student who admires logic and sees
its clarity, imagines that the infidel doctrines attributed to the philosophers are
supported by similar demonstrations, and hastens into unbelief before
reaching the theological (or metaphysical) sciences. Thus this drawback too
leads to unbelief.
3. NATURAL SCIENCE OR PHYSICS. This is the investigation of the sphere
of the heavens together with the heavenly bodies, and of what is beneath the
heavens, both simple bodies like water, air, earth, fire, and composite bodies
like animals, plants and minerals, and also of the causes of their changes,
what is worse, in his religion, inasmuch as he considers that it rests on such
denials.
Moreover, there is a type of mistake into which students of logic are liable to
fall. They draw up a list of the conditions to be fulfilled by demonstration,
which are known without fail to produce certainty. When, however, they come
at length to treat „of religious questions, not merely are they unable to satisfy
these conditions, but they admit an extreme degree of relaxation (sc. of their
standards of proof). Frequently, too, the student who admires logic and sees
its clarity, imagines that the infidel doctrines attributed to the philosophers are
supported by similar demonstrations, and hastens into unbelief before
reaching the theological (or metaphysical) sciences. Thus this drawback too
leads to unbelief.
3. NATURAL SCIENCE OR PHYSICS. This is the investigation of the sphere
of the heavens together with the heavenly bodies, and of what is beneath the
heavens, both simple bodies like water, air, earth, fire, and composite bodies
like animals, plants and minerals, and also of the causes of their changes,