In late October, Pope Francis made some remarks supporting the theory of evolution. Although he merely echoed what Pope John Paul II had said about evolution two decades ago, nevertheless a media frenzy ensued. To understand why, it’s wise to remember that both print and TV media thrive on controversy, whereas agreement or conciliation aren’t exciting.
A variety of creationists (some Catholic, some Protestant) provided the media with the controversy they were seeking. The creationist movement began about a century ago, right after World War I. Creationists read the first chapter of Genesis quite literally, dismissing interpretations that see the Biblical writer as someone trying to convey the essential meaning of God’s revelation to a set of very limited human beings. By that dismissal, several thousand years of scholarship were brushed aside.
In our contemporary world there are plenty of strident atheists who delight in bashing religion every chance they get. The biggest name in the field is Richard Dawkins, but their strategy is the same in every case: set up a “straw man” notion of religion, involving a creator that is something like Plato’s Demiurge; then give reasons for disbelieving in such; then associate all religions with that straw man. A favorite tactic is to invoke the question thought up Bertrand Russell a century ago: “If your God is so powerful, why did it take him so long to create the world we see around us?”
The creationists take that bait and try to defend such a god of limited power, by trying to shrink the time frame. That is a strategy that is guaranteed to lose the argument. (Indeed, by agreeing to play by the other guy’s rules, you’re set up to lose any game or argument.) As soon as one accepts the notion that God has to watch time go by the way we humans do, it’s all downhill. As I have often written previously, making God subordinate to time is placing a false god (i.e., time) ahead of God. St. Augustine said 1600 years ago that God created space and time together. A lot of people forgot that over the centuries, and when Isaac Newton came along, the notion of time being absolute and immutable took hold.
On the other hand, if God is recognized as the transcendent Creator of time who is merely present to all time, then the struggle between creationists and atheists vanishes. And if God chooses to use Evolution as his mechanism of creating, we’re not going to object or second-guess God (the term “Monday Morning Quarterback” comes to mind). To a physicist, it is absolutely astounding to look at the basic equations governing the universe and discern therein a pathway by which God could create a being capable of loving God in return. The atheists see no such pathway, no direction, only meaningless random variation.
How dearly we wish that the creationists would abandon their literalism (and associated Demiurge imagery) and embrace the Christian vision of an omniscient, omnipresent God who knew what He was doing in the first place; and who expressed it to humans in a metaphorical way that allowed our distant ancestors to grasp it. Regrettably, the media’s enduring thirst for controversy will probably postpone that day for many years, during which atheists will continue bashing their stereotype of religion.
This essay originally appeared in the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology, Fall 2014 Quarterly Bulletin.
Dr. Thomas P. Sheahen is a professor of theology and science at Holy Apostles College and Seminary. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is Director of the Institute for Theological Encounter with Science and Technology (ITEST). To learn more about the Institute, visit the website and consider becoming a member.
19 thoughts on “The Hazards of Creationism”
I would encourage all to make a visit to The Creation Museum, and The Ark Complex in KY, the truth of God’s word is laid out, clearly, and precisely. “Let God be found true, and every man a liar”. (Romans 3:4). (Then maybe a trip to the Museum of The Bible in Washington D.C.).
P.S. Didn’t the Pope just state “all paths lead to God”? Hmmmmmm.
The catholic church has firm dogma supporting special creation, instantaneous creation of the world and the living beings in it, both corporal and spiritual, from nothing, at the beginning of time, that means we did not evolve and the the traditional doctrines of the church are firmly established against evolution. These are unchangeable dogmas, 4th Lateran council, first Vatican council, pontifical biblical commission of 1909, and reaffirmed in today’s catechism 296 and 297 as one person in this series has already indicated. And in scripture
2nd Maccabees ch 7. More good news is Darwinism has seen its day and fallen, as its well known the fossil record has no transitional forms, and there are no transitional forms amongst current living species, and irreducibly complex systems that cannot be built one tiny step at a time abound, these data and more have totally broken down Darwinism. There is no compatibility between christian creation theology and evolution. The theologians who have mispoken on this need to be corrected as they are badly mistaken. The creation of the world and the first human beings was not observed by anyone, it was not measured, not recorded and cannot be repeated in the laboratory, philosophy and traditional creation theology is not the realm of the scientist. Scientists making up stories about human origins have over stepped the boundaries of science, they have lost their integrity, professing to be wise they became fools.
First off, there are many Catholics that don’t believe in Evolution but that doesn’t mean they are creationists in your description. I have always been a believer in evolution until a university professor who is a department head shot holes all over the theory of evolution. I had always thought that macro evolution was so well proven but in reality it is not. It is more of a faith, than a science.
We have yet to have even one set of fossils going from the fish coming out of the sea to what we have today. Also, we are to believe that in 10,000 generations, men went from being primitive apes to man, and yet scientists have tried to force evolution on bacteria and fleas for what is millions of generations and yet no evolution at all. (Of course, we all know how bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics, but the bacteria don’t change, just the kind of bacteria that survive remain.) Between these two facts, I see no compelling reason to believe in Macro evolution. He had many additional arguments against it, yet most everyone believes in it because we are supposed to.
I am not saying it didn’t occur, but I need more proof than someone telling me it is true in order for me to believe it and discount Jesus words regarding Adam and Eve as the literal people.
Par.296 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
“We believe that God needs no pre-existent thing or any help in order to create, nor is creation any sort of necessary emanation from the divine substance. God creates freely “out of nothing”:
If God had drawn the world from pre-existent matter, what would be so extraordinary in that? A human artisan makes from a given material whatever he wants, while God shows his power by starting from nothing to make all he wants.”
Par.302 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
“Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created “in a state of journeying” (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call “divine providence” the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection:
By his providence God protects and governs all things which he has made, “reaching mightily from one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well”. For “all are open and laid bare to his eyes”, even those things which are yet to come into existence through the free action of creatures.”
My dear brother,
We must understand that the person who is referred to as “pope” Francis is not the Vicar of Christ, for the last true Pope is Benedict XVI. It is not surprising that Jorge Mario Bergoglio has uttered more blasphemies and committed more heresies than all the 265 prior Popes of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church’s two-thousand-year history.
And it’s about time.
No, no, Paul. You upvoted me on a cynical reply. I like Francis’ ” blasphemies”
and “heresies”. We can only imagine how far a 22nd century Francis type will take us down the road to understanding Jesus’ mission. “It’s about time” means
that we finally have an unabashed intellectual at the helm.
Shut up with your lies from Satan, Mr. Paul Joseph. Why don’t you get off the computer once in a while & read some real history & read the Catechism too (not the kookoo Internet conspiracy theories). Pope Francis is most certainly the ecumenical Patriarch of Rome, the orthodox Vicar of Christ, lovingly titled Pope. Don’t be guilty of calumny, don’t raise false serious accusations against others, especially not the Vicar of Christ.
“Catholic” pilgrim: you use a lot of “don’t!” for a follower of the King of humbleness of heart.
The TRUTH MUST be spoken, my friend. Unless you want us to allow Satan to take all of you down in Hell-Land, of course.
This man is a total heretic: his mouth has vomited dirt from day one, sir. Therefore, please try to stay away from his anti-Christian doctrine and warn others of the Truth; for ONLY THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE +++
My dear friend: it is YOUR SOUL at the end. I did my duty as a child of the Lord. If you would rather blindly follow the lies that Satan spews out of the mouth of this imposter, then you may continue along the wide and easy road.
But soon you shall see the Truth by God’s Grace.
God Bless +++ 🙂
He is the Pope and was validly elected. You should not say such things and should show some respect.
You may believe him to be so, but the TRUTH is completely different from the fantasy human beings wish to live. This man is the FALSE PROPHET, and that is the only truth.
http://www.unamsanctamcatholicam.com/component/content/article/81-theology/451-catholic-solemn-enthronement-of-evolution.html
http://www.kolbecenter.org
Framing the problem as though creationism is a recent- rather than ancient – phenomenon seems problematic.
Exactly. Creationists’ science is terrible. Their theology is worse.
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The creationists are not exactly abandoning science as much as they are exploring another side of it, and they have made some rather interesting discoveries in the process. Like the apparent impossibility of a black hole to have lasted the millions of years the earth is supposed to have been around for, and a mini Grand Canyon that formed in a matter of decades. And I do find it interesting why so many missing links are missing.
I believe St. John Paul II had the perfect notion of what constitutes REAL science in his letter to the Pontifical Academy:
“..And to tell the truth, rather than speaking about the theory of evolution, it is more accurate to speak of the theories of evolution. The use of the plural is required here—in part because of the diversity of explanations regarding the mechanism of evolution, and in part because of the diversity of philosophies involved. There are materialist and reductionist theories, as well as spiritualist theories. Here the final judgment is within the competence of philosophy and, beyond that, of theology.”
and further
“As a result, the theories of evolution which, because of the philosophies which inspire them, regard the spirit either as emerging from the forces of living matter, or as a simple epiphenomenon of that matter, are incompatible with the truth about man. They are therefore unable to serve as the basis for the dignity of the human person.”
Bob Kurland
Now you’ve gone and done it. There are some magic words in the Catholic blogosphere which are like the old comedian, the Banana Man – once he started making one banana appear, there was a never-ending plethora of bananas that kept on coming, an unstoppable flow. These magic words, the abracadabras of commenting, are words like priestesses, same-same marriage, purgatory, – and the mother of them all, which can spawn a record-breaking number of coments- EVOLUTION. Great article Dr. Thomas. I do note that at least the creationists have a smideon of truth in their position. Also, perhaps the atheists who read this and/or respond in comment will go a little further down the road [up? the road] to the truth. I envision myself on God’s pin ball machine and every time I go off course [not thy will but mine be done] and the TILT sounds out, God puts me back aright, He controls the flippers. Guy McClung, San Antonio