Do I Need A Citation?

[Byzantine]

Okay, so I want to write a blog post striking out from something a religion teacher said in high school. It does not seem that it was his original idea, but he was the first person I remember saying it. I don't even need to mention the class in order to make my point, as I can find the same thing said in many other places. Do I need to include a citation, and if so how would I do that? Thanks!

Edited May 5, 2013 by Byzantine

[Basilisa Marie]

You don't need a formal citation for a blog, but an acknowledgment would be good. 

[Spem in alium]

^ This.

[Byzantine]

Okay, but just to be sure:

Some seem to think that God created us because He was lonely (Google "God was lonely" and you'll get a bunch of results). Let me outline for you why this teaching is dangerous and should be made to be like a dinosaur (except dinosaurs are cool and false teachings aren't).

 

First off, it contains an implicit denial of the Trinity. If God is Three Persons, as we believe and profess (really, really often in the Byzantine tradition), how could God be lonely? It is ridiculous to even propose such a thing.

Second, after assaulting the dogma of the Trinity, it attacks man. Man is not meant to be a mindless puppet for God to pull the strings. That seems a depressing view of the universe, doesn't it? And yet it seems to me that that is what happens when people say that God created man out of loneliness.

So, why did God create us then? Let's look at our friend the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

"God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life" (CCC 1).

That's why God created us. It was not to be toys.

 

The Catechism later bears witness to both St. Athanasius and St. Thomas Aquinas teaching about the Incarnation as means to the divinization of man (CCC 460). My personal opinion is that God probably wouldn't have done that if we were just meant to be toys to stave off loneliness.

 

Sometimes giving a simple answer seems like the easy way out, especially if the kid is three and/or you don't know the real answer. However, in the long run "God was lonely" may prove dangerous to both faith in the Trinity and a right understanding of man.

 

The base for this post which I got from the class was just the day my teacher said that God didn't create us because He was lonely, possibly mentioning the thing about drawing us into the divine life. So, is that just an informal acknowledgment ("Thanks, Mr. McC") or does it need a special format?

[Basilisa Marie]

Yeah, that's fine.  If it were me, I'd put at the very beginning of the post:

 

((The following post was inspired by a particularly interesting comment made by my teacher, Mr. McC))

 

Or something to that effect.  But the way you have it is fine, too. :)

[CatholicsAreKewl]

It'd be nice. If you really dislike your teacher,  you can also find out if someone else said it and quote him/her instead.

[Gabriela]

I think you're overthinking it. But for the sake of argument...

 

In academia, if something is "common knowledge" (which a google search with thousands of results would likely indicate), you don't need a citation.

 

On the internet, no one cites anything.

 

Pick your argument.