Anthropological Argument

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info.gif Anthropological Argument: An argument for Christianity developed by Blaise Pascal that starts with the observation of humanity's dual nature of greatness and wretchedness and claims that the best explanation of this fact is Christianity and its doctrines of creation and the fall. Pascal wrote:
  • "What sort of freak then is man! How novel, how monstrous, how chaotic, how paradoxical, how prodigious! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sink of doubt and error, the glory and refuse of the universe!"
  • "Man’s greatness and wretchedness are so evident that the true religion must necessarily teach us that there is in man some great principle of greatness and some great principle of wretchedness."
Groothuis, D. (1998) Deposed Royalty: Pascal’s Anthropological Argument. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 41(2), 297-312