Credo quia absurdum

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Credo quia absurdum is a Latin phrase of uncertain origin. It means "I believe because it is absurd" It is derived from a poorly remembered or misquoted passage in Tertullian's De Carne Christi defending the tenets of orthodox Christianity against docetism which reads in the original Latin:

(De Carne Christi V, 4)

The phrase is sometimes associated incorrectly^{[citation needed]} with the doctrine of fideism, that is, "a system of philosophy or an attitude of mind, which, denying the power of unaided human reason to reach certitude, affirms that the fundamental act of human knowledge consists in an act of faith, and the supreme criterion of certitude is authority." (Catholic Encyclopedia).^{[citation needed]} Fideism as a school of thought was rejected by Church in the Middle Ages.^{[citation needed]}

Tertullian's quotation actually implies a rejection of Fideism, in that he asserts that the Apostles, being reasonable people, would not have believed in something as incredible as the resurrection of Jesus Christ had they not seen it firsthand.^{[citation needed]}

However, the line "What I believe in cannot be proven" can be taken neither as a statement of Fideism nor a statement against it, unless the nature of the unprovable be evaluated in some way.^{[citation needed]} Tertullian thought that reasonable people will not accept contradictory assertions and will dismiss them as ridiculous or impossible unless they themselves have legitimate certainty concerning them.^{[citation needed]}

In Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud reverts to the phrase while questioning the commandment 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself'.^{[citation needed]} In The Future of an Illusion, Freud again refers to this phrase as a tactic to evade the need to support one's factual beliefs with reasons.^[1] The phrase appears again in Freud in Moses and Monotheism, in his discussion of the development of religion, in context of Freud's argument that those whose sense of spirituality is developed enough to provide for non-rational belief take great pride in this achievement and consider it an accomplishment that makes them superior to others who have mere sensory beliefs.^[2]

It has also been used, though often in different interpretations, by some existentialists.

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