INTRODUCTION
Blaise Pascal was of no doubt the most influential, if not the most influential philosopher and thinker of the modern age. Pascal is know as a genius worldwide and and a wizard with numbers and inventions. Much like the most influential philosophers of the Christian faith, St. Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, most every if not every Christian apologist will harken back to Pascal. With his genius in understanding the human (metaphorical) heart, he pushes people in all the right place they need to be pushed so that they may come to faith. This paper is intended to give a glimpse into the life of Blaise Pascal, some of his writings, some of his contemporaries, and finally Pascal’s legacy in the Christian faith and his legacy
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With the Wager, Pascal seemingly laid the groundwork for apologetics ever since. Pascal set a line of reasoning a person as close to they can to Christianity, but they have to wager the last part on their own. We as Christians can’t do that for them and ultimately it is left up to the Holy Spirit to do the rest. Now every apologist today will tell you that exact same thing, of course their are some exceptions of people who think they can rason people to
God without the Holy Spirit. Pascal also shows people today what it means to know a person and speak to the person on a level that only a handful of people can. This became an influential way of relating to people in efforts to spread the Gospel to other of different ideals and religion. Pascal also was impactful in showing the perseverance of having a heart for a certian person or group of people. In his later life, Pascal wrote with the intention of sharing his thoughts with pagans and atheists so they may see the true
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In mathematics, Pascal’s triangle is taught everywhere throughout schools. He also started probability theory that many if not all mathematicians today use. Pascal even changed science by his experiments on atmospheric pressure and later had units of pressure named after him for his study. Pascal also, has a law in physics named after him. His inventions were just as impactful. Pascal created one of the first digital calculators. Pascal also invented the core principles of the roulette machine when study a perpetual motion theory.
CONCLUSION Blaise Pascal was one of the most influential people in the history of Christianity and even the world. Without his works the world would either be slowed down technologically or halted significantly, and Christianity today may look very different. No one can argue that Pascal was not an impactful person on the world. This is why it is such a shame that he died at a young age and we don’t get anymore of his writings. Certainly, Pascal was a true genius in all senses of the
The authors Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey's essay is credible because they both have knowledge and experience regarding the topic and researched various parts of the topic using reliable sources. Along with this essay, Charles Colson has written thirty books which have received much praise among the Christian community. He has also received many awards including the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1993, the Presidential Citizen's Medal
"EXPLORING THEOLOGY 1 & 2." EXPLORING THEOLOGY 1 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2014.
Blaise Pascal was born on 19 June 1623 in Clermont Ferrand. He was a French mathematician, physicists, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher. He was a child prodigy that was educated by his father. After a horrific accident, Pascal’s father was homebound. He and his sister were taken care of by a group called Jansenists and later converted to Jansenism. Later in 1650, the great philosopher decided to abandon his favorite pursuits of study religion. In one of his Pensees he referred to the abandonment as “contemplate the greatness and the misery of man”.
Martin Luther is considered one of the most instrumental individuals in Christian history for his role in the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation that severed the powerful religious, political, and social grip the Catholic Church had upon European society (1). Luther did not set out to be a revolutionary, but simply questioned the church 's marketing of indulgences that offered the buyer or their deceased loved one absolution from the penalty of sin (2). Luther’s famous “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” or “95 Theses” argued against the sale of indulgences, but Luther also ultimately disagreed with many of the fundamental religious philosophies of the medieval Catholic Church. The religious ideas of Martin Luther differed from late medieval Catholicism on key elements of theology: spiritual authority, justification of sin, free will, and the sacraments.
He too believed that it was important to teach students how to critically look at philosophy. He quotes in The City of God that “...the minds of their enemies have been alarmed by the multitude of the Christians…”(Augustine, and Paul Halsall). His radical ideas, swept across the Christian community in Western Civilization.
Within mainstream society it seems as if there is not a great deal of emphasis on the contributions made by theologians in society, as well as contributions by theologians to religious thought. Particularly in Christendom, ecclesiastical assemblies are so consumed with vain ideas of worship, and content on hearing biblical messages that capitulate to their personal desires, that theological studies are often neglected. Yet the contributions theologians have made in society, and the impact these contributions have had on religious assemblies have been pivotal in guiding religious discourse on subjects such as ethics, morality, and social transformation. It is for this reason, that in this essay an attempt will be made to analyze three essays from three world-renowned theologians of the 20th century. The theologians are Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Walter Wink, all of which have produced the essays used for this analysis, and have written works that have completely challenged status quo religion, and changed the landscape of Christendom forever.
Although their methods and reasoning contrasted one another, both philosophers methodically argued to come to a solid, irrefutable proof of God, which was a subject of great uncertainty and skepticism. Through Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous and Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes and Berkeley paved the way towards an age of confidence and faith in the truth of God’s perfect existence actively influencing the lives of
W. Andrew Hoffecker. Building a Christian World View, vol. 1: God, man, and Knowledge. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., Phillipsburg, New Jersey : 1986. William S. Babcock. The Ethics of St. Augustine: JRE Studies in Religion, no. 3.
It is said that when history looks upon the life of an individual when their time has passed; it is not the dates on the tombstone that define the man but the dash in between. Such was the case in the life of theologian, philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal. Pascal was born on the 19th of June 1623, in Clermont-Ferrand France and died at the age of 39 of tuberculosis on the 19th August 1662 in Paris, but the bulk of his career, his success and life achievement began in his early years. As a young boy, Pascal’s lost his mother and soon afterward his father moved the family, Blaise and his two sisters to Paris. Pascal’s father, Étienne Pascal was a mathematician himself and taught Pascal Latin and Greek, which at the time was considered
A Christian apologetic method is a verbal defense of the biblical worldview. A proof is giving a reason for why we believe. This paper will address the philosophical question of God’s existence from the moral argument. The presuppositional apologetic method of Reformed thinkers Cornelius Van Til and John Frame will be the framework. Topics covered here could undoubtedly be developed in more depth, but that would be getting ahead, here is the big picture.
In 1517 the Roman Catholic Church started the sale of Indulgences. An indulgence was a “ticket to heaven” sold by the Catholic Church. The Church was in search of funds to continue the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (Gritsch 9), and used the profits made from the indulgences to aid the building (Gritsch 9). The sale of these “easy routes to salvation” (Tingle 16) contradicted Luther’s deeply rooted belief, that individuals needed to secure the remission of God through repentance on their own by studying the Bible. The use of the indulgences enraged Luther. The profit form the indulgences were
Through Martin Luther’s intense discourse, he created a new sect of Christianity. He composed books, allowing people to pursue their thoughts. His fierce words permitted numerous individuals in Europe to understand what the church was really about and not how they saw it. Despite the fact that Martin Luther rebelled against the church, he was a talented speaker who extended Christianity by composing the 95 Thesis.
Despite Calvin’s social and personal efforts that lead him to success, his theology remains influential into modern times. The 95 Theses, composed by Luther was written when Calvin was at the age 8. This acted as a base for his beliefs because it acted as influence for his studies and teachings wh...
Etienne Pascal was very concerned about his son becoming an educated man. This is why he decided to teach his son on his own. He brought a young Blaise to lectures and other gatherings. He decided Blaise would not study math until age 15. When he made this decision he took all the math books out of the family home; however, this did not stop a curious Pascal. At age twelve, he started to work on geometry by himself. Blaise’s father finally started to take him to mathematical gatherings at "Academic Parisienne." At the age of 16, Pascal began to play an active role in "Academic Parisienne," as the principal disciple of Girard Desargues, one of the heads of "Academic Par...
Blaise Pascal lived during a time when religion and science were clashing and challenging previous discoveries and ideas. Pascal lived from 1623 to 1662 due to his untimely death at the age of thirty nine. The scientific community grew enormously and Pascal was a great contributor to this growth. The growth in the scientific community is known as the Scientific Revolution. He lived in a time where an absolute monarch came into power, King Louis the XIV. Louis XIV was a believer in “one king, one law, and one faith” (Spielvogel, 2012). Pascal saw the destruction of protestant practices in France and the growth and acceptance of scientific discoveries. He used the scientific method to refine previous experiments that were thought to be logical but Pascal proved otherwise and eventually led to Pascal’s Law. He spent his life devoted to two loves: God and science. Within his book, “Pensees,” Pascal argues and shares his thoughts about God, science, and philosophy.