When he goes
inside [the church], he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression
on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands,
and one shabby little book containing corrupt
texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in
very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks
round him he sees just that selection of his neighbours
whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty
heavily on those neighbours. Make his mind flit to and fro
between an expression like ‘the body of Christ’ and the
actual faces in the next pew. It matters very little, of
course, what kind of people that next pew really contains.
You may know one of them to be a great warrior on the
Enemy’s side. No matter. Your patient, thanks to Our
Father Below, is a fool. Provided that any of those neighbours
sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double
chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily
believe that their religion must therefore be somehow
ridiculous.
This appears to be saying “anyone who follows my religion and still looks stupid isn’t a True Christian”. How this is a rationality quote is beyond me.
It’s pointing out that people tend to judge the validity of a cause by the superficial appearance of the supporters of that cause. Quotes that point out common fallacies count as rationality quotes to me.
-- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
This appears to be saying “anyone who follows my religion and still looks stupid isn’t a True Christian”. How this is a rationality quote is beyond me.
It’s pointing out that people tend to judge the validity of a cause by the superficial appearance of the supporters of that cause. Quotes that point out common fallacies count as rationality quotes to me.