“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers with weak minds, who with ease and ingenuity deceive ourselves about all aspects of our lives.”Søren Kierkegaard · Jurnale · 1850 · 1850
It is not the text that is hard to understand, but our will refuses to obey it.
Kierkegaard attacks intellectual evasion: people claim the teaching is hard to understand so they have an excuse for not obeying it. The mechanism is rationalization — the weak mind becomes an accomplice to desire, inventing ingenious interpretations that postpone decision. A Christian who forgives everyone in theory but holds a grudge for years knows exactly what the text demands; he simply prefers to believe it is too complicated.
The card shows rationalization as an excuse. The next step is more uncomfortable: ambiguity becomes an active strategy, not just a weakness. When we claim the text is unclear, we buy time. We enjoy appearing to reflect seriously, when in fact we are postponing. Think of someone who has known since Monday that they must apologize to a colleague, yet spends the week reading articles on the art of forgiveness. Complexity is a stage set placed over a simple decision. Kierkegaard does not say every question is evasion; he says evasion disguises itself as questioning. How, then, do you tell sincere searching from skillful delay? One sign might be this: if clarity arrived tomorrow, would you be ready to act — or would you instantly find another obstacle?
Why it matters We recognize the same move everywhere: we know what should be done — at work, in a relationship, for our health — and we build elaborate explanations for not doing it.