An article on Evolution being discussed at the Vatican:

http://iht.com/articles/2006/09/01/news/vatican.php

 

 

Over my few days here, during my conversations with a few friends, the topic of evolution and christianity popped up and of course there are varying views expressed by each individual.

And I'm beginning to understand a little why certain parts of evolution or other sciences might feel like it threathened our belief in our faith in Christ.

While good science is promoted by a hefty dose of skeptism, it does not serve well when huge chunks of good observable evidences are disregarded.This may only serve to isolate the church and promote Christianity as a religion fueled by a narrow mindset.

It is crucial to realise that using science to debunk God is as effective as using playdough to hammer a nail and using interpretations of the bible to debunk science, likewise.

Science cannot test the realms of supernatural and there should not be a fear that science can eradicate our faith.

 

However, in the above article, a concern was expressed that Evolution may be used as a tool to explain away the role of God in our lives.

My impression is that it is a pretty minor reason why people people are God-independant - For example, in the U.S. there is a prevalent view, especially among the coastal residents, that being christian involve being narrow minded, people-hating(homosexuals, mexicans and non-christians) and an undisputed authority on morality.

That's probably a bigger reason why Christianity is a hard pill to swollow - nobody wants to be in a religion that changes them into mean-spirited individuals.

 

If you need anything to explain away the role of God in our lives - there's plenty of well established sciences that can do that.

We believe God made the rain and the rainbow - the science of such phenomenon is well established - anyone can bring out an elementary textbook to explain away God causing rain to fall on Noah's ark - its an entirely random process - without any pattern - so CLEARLY God isn't involve in rain and rainbows... isn't this true?

 

How about the development of a baby in the womb - we know that God "knitted" us in our mother's womb. But developmental biology has and is showing that there are no needles and threads involved - they found that developing cells perform an epic dance that involved plenty of signalling of gazillions of chemicals and almost limitless amount of replication. Given the DNA - it is extremely random which cells develop into which part of the body - which cells is involved with sending what signal in the mega cascade of hormonal communication.

Clearly God is not involved??

 

Anyone can bring up a hundreds of various fields of science to show that our world does not need God to explain the existance of everything in this universe. If evolution is the work of hades-based deception, we are surrounded by many more satanic sciences which were the source of many of the things we currently enjoy. Perhaps amish isolation may be the next logical step for Christians and our growth be spurred on by restrictive and conditional evangelism.

Or, perhaps, we should not base our judgement on what everyone is saying, but take a peek into the observations of these sciences and understand why majority of the brightest brains on earth are convinced certain events happen.

Afterall, if we had never seen successful space launches, pictures, videos and other evidences of the universe - it is easier for us to join the mob condemning Galileo and his preposterous(and "obviously" satanic) view that the Sun is the center of the solar system

 

Hopefully, the discussion at the vatican observatory, a monument to the stark shift from the condemnation of Galileo, will be guided by the excitement of understanding another of God's ingenious workings rather than the stubborn disappointment that creation did not involve a wand, a top hat and a bunny.