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Two Reasons Why Martin Luther Fails Any Test of Integrity

Number One:

Number Two:

Luther had no use for reason. Indeed, he hated it, once called it: "that damned whore," obviously because it acted contrary to the faith which Luther apparently set above all things. Worse, he endorses lying for his god for the good of his church. Makes me wonder how he feels about the ninth commandment, then.

Thanks to AronRa and his Third Foundational Falsehood of Creationism, from which I got these graphics.

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Comment by Loren Miller on July 29, 2012 at 7:34pm: Faith Is No Reason.

That says it all, succinctly and without need of further elucidation, at least from where I sit.

Comment by Glen Rosenberg on July 25, 2012 at 11:44am: Agreed.

He has his place.

Comment by James Yount on July 25, 2012 at 10:26am: Yes, but Luther first translated the Bible into German and Luther was very popular in Germany. And his pamphlet was used a lot by the German religious community.

Comment by Glen Rosenberg on July 25, 2012 at 10:17am: I've read excerpts James. I cant agree that he set the stage. Anti-semitism is spouted by many christian theologians. The catholic church was always sure to tell their listeners who killed christ. And christians have a long history of persecuting and scapegoting jews. Were he a voice in the wilderness his influence on nazism. . . . Dont think nazism would exist without christian anti-semitism.

Comment by James Yount on July 25, 2012 at 12:31am: You all should read his 70 page pamphlet, "On the Jews and Their Lies." He basically set the stage for the holocaust with his litany of anti-Semitic tripe.

Comment by Glen Rosenberg on July 24, 2012 at 9:08am: Not exactly my point, Loren. Admittedly, the renaissance popes are corrupt beyond imagination. But my point is more the notion that a dictatorship will demonize outsiders and strike down dissent. When the balance of propaganda gets away from the dictatorship its existence is threatened.

While Luther had predecessors who had begun the dissent, Savanarola, Huss, Wycliffe and others he is a major player in calling out the catholic church. The Catholic church is a dictatorship. And it had a long history of demonizing Jews and Muslims and condemining or marginilizing women, mentally ill and gays. Even their own order, the knights templar who were called into existence during the crusades were ultimately crushed accused of buggery and other deviations from the church. They acted with an iron hand. The inquisition went on for centuries.

Luther had taken a major step in first breaking with the catholic church and later opening the door for greater questioning and dissent. Think of the french revolution. The message "your next".

Comment by Loren Miller on July 24, 2012 at 5:37am: I see your point, Glen. As clearly poisonous as he was, he was possibly LESS poisonous than the tradition he came from ... albeit not by much!

Comment by Glen Rosenberg on July 23, 2012 at 10:32pm: As much as Luther is sexist, anti-semite, misogynist, insular, treacherous, ignorant and generally deplorable he is typical of reformation theologians.

On the positive side he was part of a movement which leads inexorably to atheism. He questioned catholicism-sale of indulgences, baptism, transubstantiation (I think) salvation through faith, not good works etc. That is a step in the right direction. When factions emerge out of the oneness of christianity and those factions depart fundamentally from the teachings of catholicism a stage is being set for change. For thinking not simply submitting.

Later in the enlightenment deism became all the rage. Deism is just one step removed from reality based thinking.