Damien Thompson has an interesting post on the lecture scheduled today as part of "Islamic Awareness Week" which supposedly recounts "The collapse of the evolutionary theory". The very muted reaction to this reflects a "kid gloves" approach to Islam that would certainly not be afforded a Christian group expressing the same views.
I agree with Damien's take on this and his impatience with pseudoscience. His website Counterknowledge is well worth a look.
As Catholics, we should remember that the natural sciences are a profoundly Catholic project, beginning in the High Middle Ages as a result of a Christian view of the world and prospering because of the Christian concern for truth, objectivity and the goodness of the natural world. As Fr Jaki and other explained, the natural sciences had a promising start in Islam but foundered because of a rejection of the importance of secondary causes.
Secularist relativism is also fatal for the natural sciences as we are beginning to see with the Government's interference in the science curriculum. See the excellent Civitas book "The Corruption of the Curriculum" for further information.
6 comments:
The little I have read about neo-darwinian evolution seems to raise a few questions in my mind as to it's scientific credibility, but I am not a scientist. My concern is that many theist evolutionists treat this theory as a dogma to which all must consent and conform. No Catholic will ever be obliged to believe in Evolution, although it's possible to argue that they may be required to reject it. When I see a dog turn into a cow, I'll believe it.
This post may not be entirely relevant to the blog title, but I was hoping to settle one or two issues regarding the church and creationism. (Please anyone feel free to contribute).
I was talking to two of my fellow students the other week about creationism, and of course I tried to present fairly the views of the church on this topic.
However, the two students said they didn't believe in all this 'religion nonsense' as the church maintained for years that the world begun 4,000 years ago with the Garden of Eden, and when Darwin's evolution theory came along there was a 'shifting of the goal posts' by the church to support this 'scientifically sound' theory.
At this, I wasn't sure quite what to say, but I would be most grateful if anyone could shed more light on this and perhaps clarify the church's view on creationism.
Deo Gratias
High Middle Ages . . . secondary causes. The high science project has been turned into dogmatic materialism -- "we don't know how life could have arisen, but it must have arisen by natural causes." Even saying that no natural cause is known, gets one accused of being anti-science. Here are two rather different links for you to explore: http://www.kolbecenter.org/
http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playground.php
Father, what would be your position to the views of this Catholic website on creationism - Kolbe Centre?
For those interested, the Biblical Commission of 30th June 1909, laid down very strict guidelines for Catholics to read and understand the first three chapters of Genesis, which may be found here.
http://www.kolbecenter.org/
I do know that one of their number was responsible for the infamous Paluxy River hoax, where fossil footprints were doctored to make it appear that dinosaurs and humans once walked together. Another of their contributors dropped out of Maryvale when they wouldn't let him change the subject of his PhD to geocentrism, and now has an unaccredited "doctorate" in theology. And a third thinks that Neanderthal man is alive and well and frequents the US boxing circuit. I wouldn't waste your time here.
http://www.expelledthemovie.com/
...a film so unpopular they're apparently having to pay people to go and see it:
http://www.getexpelled.com/schools.php
When I see a dog turn into a cow, I'll believe it.
Sigh...
many theist evolutionists treat this theory as a dogma to which all must consent and conform.
An old warhorse this one - but completely untrue. Read up on Lynn Margulis and the endosymbiotic theory. Evolutionary biologists are prepared to change their minds, but only if the data is there.
Father, what would be your position to the views of this Catholic website on creationism - Kolbe Centre?
If I were unsure about it, I might ask the opinion of a good Catholic evolutionary biologist currently working at doctorate level at Cambridge or somewhere... like Edmund Nash or someone. (see comment above)
On the 1909 Biblical Commission document - this is often used by modernists to show how silly the Church was back then. Actually, a careful reading shows that the Commission's position is more nuanced than is often thought e.g.
"VII: As it was not the mind of the sacred author in the composition of the first chapter of Genesis to give scientific teaching about the internal Constitution of visible things and the entire order of creation, but rather to communicate to his people a popular notion in accord with the current speech of the time and suited to the understanding and capacity of men, must the exactness of scientific language be always meticulously sought for in the interpretation of these matters?
Answer: In the negative."
Of course, since then we have Divino Afflante Spiritu and, if you are relying on the authority of the Biblical Commission, its excellent document of 1993 "The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church"
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