Quote:
Originally Posted by aegsm76
What is the debate about again?
Seems like ya'll are saying the same thing in different manners.
From my reading of Locke (and it has been a while), he tried to take principles in the Bible and extend them to human reasoning.
Which then led others (notably Marx) to extend new beliefs to the opposite of the Bible.
Which seems to always be the case.
As to what happens when we move beyond the Bible for our reasoning or beliefs.
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Locke made the same fundamental mistake as Abelard and Aquinas and the other scholastics (possibly excepting Anselm), which is they attempted to reinterpret Scripture in conformity with Graeco-Roman philosophy.
Locke certainly operated within the cultural bounds of his day. I have no doubt he believed himself a bona fide Christian and that he was doing God's work.
But the proof is in the pudding.
Locke, Grotius, and other Enlightenment philosophers laid the foundation for humanism, getting further and further away from Divine Revelation, until we wind up where we are today: a godless, Christless society whose basis of jurisprudence and ethics has abandoned any reliance on God and His Word. The quotes I gave from Locke are a clear example and demonstration of the fatal flaw in his philosophy of government. He begins with assuming as true something that is completely untrue, and the rest is history. Literally.