It often happens that one who is not a Christian hath some knowledge, derived from the evidence of his senses, about the earth, about the heavens, about the elements of this world, about the movements and revolutions, or about the size and distance of the stars, about certain eclipses of the sun and moon, about the course of the years and the seasons, about the nature of animals, plants, and minerals… Now it is an unseemly and mischievous thing, and greatly to be avoided, that a Christian man speaking on such matters, as if according to the authority of the Christian Scriptures, should talk so foolishly that the unbeliever on hearing him and observing the extravagance of his error, should hardly be able to refrain from laughter. And the great mischief is not so much that the man himself is laughed at for his errors, but that our authors are believed, by many people without the Church, to have taught such things, and so are condemned as unlearned and cast aside, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we are so much concerned.
For when they find one belonging to the Christian body falling into error on a subject with which they themselves are thoroughly conversant, and when they see him moreover enforcing his groundless opinion by the authority of our Sacred Book, how are they likely to put trust in these Books about the resurrection of the dead, and the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, having already come to regard then as fallacious about those things they had themselves learned from observation, or from unquestionable evidences? And indeed it were not easy to tell what trouble and sorrow some rash and presumptuous men bring upon their prudent brethren, who, when they are charged with a perverse and false opinion by those who do not accept the authority of our Books, attempt to put forward these same Holy Books in defense of that which they have lightly and. falsely asserted, sometimes even quoting from memory what they think will suit their purposes, and putting forth many words without well understanding either what they say, or what they are talking about.
