On this “World Day of Creation” we ponder the glory and power of God in what he has made. One of the painful paradoxes of our time is that our scientific insights have increased unbelief rather than belief. Perhaps as never before we have come to know the astonishing interplay of creation at every level. From the smallest parts of atoms to the farthest reaches of space, from the complex interactions within cells to the almost perfect sweep of earth’s orbit, everything seems gloriously orchestrated so that we can live and grow. Even in the upheavals of storms, such as we have recently experienced, and other natural disasters, God and creation are often up to something good.
Just a simple thing like photosynthesis silently serves life. Plants take in the carbon dioxide we exhale and return the oxygen we need. Beneath us, the earth is a cauldron that occasionally shakes or erupts, but those very eruptions release gases that help sustain our atmosphere. Earth’s orbit is nearly circular; the distance between the Earth and the Sun differs only by about 3 percent between its closest and farthest points. This relatively constant position moderates our temperature. This is in contrast to the other planets in our solar system, whose elliptical orbits are far more eccentric. The moon beautifully regulates our tides. The asteroid belt keeps the dangerous chunks from regularly raining down on our planet; Jupiter and Saturn are catching comets as well. I could go on, but at every level—inner space, the ecosystem, and outer space—everything works together in a beautiful symphony.
There is an old spiritual that says, “Over my head I hear music in the air, there must be a God somewhere.”
The whole universe shouts, I was designed and I am governed!
Recently I put together a video for use in a Bible study I was conducting. The song that is used speaks beautifully to the testimony of creation to its Creator:
The spacious firmament on high,
with all the blue ethereal sky,
and spangled heavens, a shining frame,
their great Original proclaim.
The unwearied sun from day to day
does his Creator’s power display,
and publishes to every land
the work of an almighty hand.
Soon as the evening shades prevail
the moon takes up the wondrous tale,
and nightly to the listening earth
repeats the story of her birth;
whilst all the stars that round her burn,
and all the planets in their turn,
confirm the tidings, as they roll,
and spread the truth from pole to pole.
What though in solemn silence all
move round the dark terrestrial ball;
what though nor real voice nor sound
amid their radiant orbs be found;
in reason’s ear they all rejoice,
and utter forth a glorious voice,
forever singing as they shine,
“The hand that made us is divine.”
Enjoy the video.
The galaxies, stars and other celestial objects getting farther apart as the Universe expands; the Moon getting farther from Earth; continental drift; the extinction of bees, fish, and other species; our eyesight bobbing up and down as we walk; entropy meaning the moment something exists it starts to decay; general relativity meaning we view the present in the past; natural disasters; mutations; mental disorders; disabilities; allergies; sickness; agony; pain; animals not being able to speak like us; the amoral acts of animals (cannibalism, fighting for dominance, deer eating plants and lions eating deer, etc.); plants being organisms; global warming and cooling; and pollution all attest to God’s Providence, which takes everything into account.
Sin, too, attests to God. It helps form our consciences. Pride opposing humility helps us discern vice from virtue. Murder causing death helps us see the intrinsic evil of murder, despite circumstances and good intentions (assassination for the good of a worrying nation, reparation for a past wrong, the victim desiring to die rather than to die, the paraphilia of sexual killing, a phobia of men or women, the murderer being disabled or mentally ill, etc.).
Sin also helps us better see God’s Mercy and Justice. For example, abortion is the killing of a human person. If done deliberately, it is the mortal sin of murder. If done accidentally, or without full knowledge and consent, it is accidental killing. Moreover, abortion is distinct from a miscarriage. God permits killing for our greater good – bring souls into Heaven, cause guilty hearts to break (even the hearts of the dying), continue the oxygen cycle, relieve the victims of sin, etc. – even dying on the Cross for our Redemption.
Awestruck by the physical good and physical evil present in the Universe due to the hierarchy, interdependence, variety, and continued creation of creatures – laws, elements, organisms, stars, etc. – let us turn away from sin to God. The Self-Sufficient and Self-Existent needs nothing, yet He made us for our own sakes, and He make everything else for our own sakes too, even making Creation testify to His Existence.
I don’t know if Nick was being sarcastic or what. Msgr Pope wrote that “One of the painful paradoxes of our time is that our scientific insights have increased unbelief rather than belief.” The reason for this is that Catholic intellectuals, particularly clerics, have adopted theistic evolution as their belief system and are incapable of teaching the Catholic people the doctrines of creation. Evolution is such bogus “science” but social research shows that 68% of white, non-Hispanic Catholics in the U.S. believe humans evolved from animals. All of the real science of the last 50 years goes contrary to the 19th Century science that passes for orthodoxy in seminaries.
Scientific insight doesn’t encourage unbelief, because the more we know God the more we believe; rather, ignorance encourages unbelief.
Your ignorance is proof of this. Science taught you how to type, now get to learn more about it: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_01
Get to know what the Church teaches about science by reading Faith and Reason: http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html
I’m not sure that your all-or-nothing approach is Catholic either. I think a middle position which gives qualified accept to evolutionary theory is best. Obviously we cannot hold with the Darwinists that the evolutionary process is utterly blind and results from random chance. Neither can simply accept polygenism. My reason for calling unbelief paradoxical is that perhaps as never before we can see the intricate order and design of all things and that creations testifies “I was designed!” There is considerable evidence that things have existed for billions of years, further that some adaptation has taken place over time. I do think the fossil evidence is lacking for the kind of macroevolution proudly proclaimed by many. But it is not the Catholic approach to wholly reject science or scientific theories but rather to listen to the evidence that the book of creation gives. Since truth is one true (non ideological) science and Biblical revelation, while speaking of reality differently ultimately point to the same truth: creation is ordered and directed by an intelligent designer.
Is there a Church Document that states scientific insight encourages disbelief, or ignorance does not? I have not found one myself; yet heeding the Church is not absolutionism but the Assent of Faith and Fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The Church teaches us that the Creation accounts are symbolic, so that there is no conflict between Dogma and evolution. See Catechism of the Catholic Church 337, 362, 375 and 396 and what Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis have said about evolution.
If you have evidence that evolution is wrong (some adaptions are false, shakiness of the fossil record, etc.), than share it with the scientific community, for every person has the human right to know the truth. To violate a human right is a sin.
Also, it is the sin of slander, and a strawman fallacy, to call biologists “Darwinists.” Darwinian evolution is just a superseded theory of the fact of evolution. Theories =/= facts in science.
Ronald Reagan:
“It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.”
You can replace liberals with know-it-all scientists.
There is no such thing as settled science.
There is no human right to know the truth, you’re a perfect example.
Evolution is a theory.
Global warming is a theory.
I think there may be some truth in both but most of the thought in these theories are gobblygook