Is it right, is it wrong, is this the beginning of a song?
"I was already Bishop of Hippo, when I went into Ethiopia with some servants of Christ there to preach the Gospel. In this country we saw many men and women without heads, who had two great eyes in their breasts; and in countries still more southly, we saw people who had but one eye in their foreheads."
This is cited as proof that St Augustine was a big fat liar by Joseph Whelus. And I've seen it as a sig quote at a forum.
I'm not convinced that it is as simple as that, even if the quote is accurate.
Assuming it was, it could be metaphor, or poetic license, as in "here be dragons" rather than he literally met such people.
I could apply a literary meaning to it, where perhaps some of these people were led by their physicality (eyes in breasts) and some were spiritually handicapped (cyclops-like depth perception :D). And from cyclops, we can go merrily to eyeballs/balls/symbolic castration, if I'm following a literary bent :P. Not with this particular excerpt, just what occurs to me.
It's all in the interpretation. :D I loved such stuff in literature lectures, (and still do).
I think it's stretching it a bit to use it to try to destroy the credibility of St Augie-baby, as I feel the poster who uses it in his sig does. Sometimes I think some atheists try too hard to justify their position:
'I don't believe in God ... and anyway he stinks!' (To paraphrase Philip K Dick in Valis).
Currently I don't feel the need to justify my position. I know why I have no belief and I don't feel I need to fight about it with anyone. I do still visit the atheist forum because I enjoy the personalities and reading the debates, but I don't feel the need to jump in and expound. :D
And anyway, I think most of the resident posters there are smarter/better-informed than me, so don't need my meddling :D).
This is cited as proof that St Augustine was a big fat liar by Joseph Whelus. And I've seen it as a sig quote at a forum.
I'm not convinced that it is as simple as that, even if the quote is accurate.
Assuming it was, it could be metaphor, or poetic license, as in "here be dragons" rather than he literally met such people.
I could apply a literary meaning to it, where perhaps some of these people were led by their physicality (eyes in breasts) and some were spiritually handicapped (cyclops-like depth perception :D). And from cyclops, we can go merrily to eyeballs/balls/symbolic castration, if I'm following a literary bent :P. Not with this particular excerpt, just what occurs to me.
It's all in the interpretation. :D I loved such stuff in literature lectures, (and still do).
I think it's stretching it a bit to use it to try to destroy the credibility of St Augie-baby, as I feel the poster who uses it in his sig does. Sometimes I think some atheists try too hard to justify their position:
'I don't believe in God ... and anyway he stinks!' (To paraphrase Philip K Dick in Valis).
Currently I don't feel the need to justify my position. I know why I have no belief and I don't feel I need to fight about it with anyone. I do still visit the atheist forum because I enjoy the personalities and reading the debates, but I don't feel the need to jump in and expound. :D
And anyway, I think most of the resident posters there are smarter/better-informed than me, so don't need my meddling :D).
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