Escape from Reason: A Penetrating Analysis of Trends in Modern Thought (IVP Classics)

by Francis A. Schaeffer

The vital principle to notice is that, as nature was made autonomous, nature began to “eat up” grace.

We cannot deal with people like human beings, we cannot deal with them on the high level of true humanity, unless we really know their origin—who they are. God tells man who he is. God tells us that he created man in his image. So man is something wonderful.

What is autonomous freedom? It means a freedom in which the individual is the center of the universe. Autonomous freedom is a freedom that is without restraint.

The conclusions he drew were these: if man is determined, then what is, is right. If all of life is only mechanism—if that is all there is—then morals really do not count. Morals become only a word for a sociological frame-work. Morals become a means of manipulation by society in the midst of the machine. The word “morals” by this time is only a semantic connotation word for non-morals. What is, is right.

Sadism is not only pleasure in hurting somebody. It implies that what is, is right and what nature decrees in strength is totally right.

We are watching our culture put into effect the fact that, when you tell men long enough that they are machines, it soon begins to show in their actions. You

This is what it means to say man is dead. It does not mean he was alive and died. He was always dead but did not know enough to know that he was dead.1

Angst is a vague feeling of dread—the uncomfortable feeling you have when you go into a house that might be haunted.