Book Review
I'm about ten pages from the end of a great book--it's short, but takes awhile to read because you need to take time to digest it. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it: Foundations of the Christian Religion, by Blaise Pascal. Pascal as in the Pascal triangle, the guy that the programming language was named for, the mathematician. Yes, that Pascal.
This book excerpts his Pensees, in a series of numbered notes of his thoughts on faith, belief, and the fundamentals of Christianity. Pascal wrote his notes in a sort of sequential order, with a common flow throughout them. Since they have been translated (from French, I presume), I'm not sure how much has been lost in the translation. The wording is tight--some passages require reading three times to sort them out. Nevertheless, it is worth reading. Those who have taken quite a bit of math might appreciate this slightly more than the average reader, especially when he starts to talk about concepts like infinity, proofs, and references other mathematical ideas.
My favorite quote from the whole book: "Some vices only lay hold of us by means of others and these, like branches, fall on removal of the trunk."
(For those interested in acquiring this book, Relevant Magazine is putting out a series called "Foundations of the Faith," which includes this book.
This book excerpts his Pensees, in a series of numbered notes of his thoughts on faith, belief, and the fundamentals of Christianity. Pascal wrote his notes in a sort of sequential order, with a common flow throughout them. Since they have been translated (from French, I presume), I'm not sure how much has been lost in the translation. The wording is tight--some passages require reading three times to sort them out. Nevertheless, it is worth reading. Those who have taken quite a bit of math might appreciate this slightly more than the average reader, especially when he starts to talk about concepts like infinity, proofs, and references other mathematical ideas.
My favorite quote from the whole book: "Some vices only lay hold of us by means of others and these, like branches, fall on removal of the trunk."
(For those interested in acquiring this book, Relevant Magazine is putting out a series called "Foundations of the Faith," which includes this book.