Just when I was trying to give the "faith crowd" the benefit of the doubt. I saw this article from Villanova University. The article doesn't give science the credit it deserves and left me feeling very empty.
Faith in a Scientific Age
With all the advantages of living in the age of technology, there is a temptation to apply the experiential method of learning to every discipline, including theology. Even scientific methods frequently demonstrate a theory or an event as happening pretty much as Scripture described it. But faith adds a dimension, as Augustine says: "Observe what you see, and see what you cannot see. Believe in the one whom you cannot see, on account of those things you can see" (Sermon 126, 3).
The Big Bang theory of the beginning of the universe is such an event, and it turns out that God didn't need seven days to do the job. The source material of everything in the universe could have come into existence in one burst of energy. As cited in the previous installment of "All Things Augustine," St. Augustine believed that "the universe was brought into being in a less than fully formed state but was gifted with the capacity to transform itself into a truly marvelous array of structures and life forms."
However, Augustine, like the other early Church fathers, took his Bible literally. He believed that Adam and Eve were created and set on Earth; they did not evolve from a lower life form. He also believed that the Gospels were written by four eyewitnesses to the life and death of Jesus.
There is no reason to think that Augustine, with his giant intellect and open mind, would have ignored the physical evidence that modern archaeologists and anthropologists have discovered to support the theory of evolution. Nor would he have refused to examine the work of modern experts in Scripture who have discovered that at least three of the four Gospels were written by Christians born well after the time of Christ.
For him, such knowledge, based on reason, would simply enhance his knowledge based on faith. For Augustine and for the modern Church, which relies so strongly on him, reason and faith never are on a collision course. And faith itself is a journey. As he noted in Sermon 27, 6: "At the moment we are still on the road. What is the road? It's faith."
Father Burt stated it simply. "Belief [faith] is a necessary means to beatification [blessedness] but it is not the ultimate stage in our knowing. We believe now so that some day we will finally and forever understand ourselves and our God. We seek now by faith; then we shall find by understanding. Then we shall know the truth of Augustine's words: 'Understanding is the reward of faith.' Then we shall finally see what now we can only believe."
A man told athiest Richard Dawkins (upset over his attempt to use reason to explain religion), "There's a reason they call it faith!"
Again, you cannot reason someone out of something they were not reasoned into in the first place. One they play the faith card, all reason is disqualified.
It's seems like vacuous tripe bordering on the inane.
I'm done venting now.
3 comments:
Q, I think faith and science are just different ways to say "I don't know."
As a person of Christian faith, I take the Bible literally - but not TOO literally. In other words, where it's trying to be poetry rather than a science textbook, I try to read it as poetry. Where it seeks to share principles of truth that transcend time, rather than just share a story, I try to read it as truth.
("How I Did It" - by God would probably out-sell the Bible, but it doesn't seem to be the book we're left with!)
And I guess I'm a heretic Christian in some ways, because I have very little concern with the far-flung past or the far-flung future. What's here and now seemed to be the primary concern of Jesus of Nazareth - how to help people who were sick, poor, oppressed, hemmed in by religious law, ruled or captured or scattered or occupied by people who did not understand the God credited with creation and purported to be just yet merciful, strict yet loving, righteous yet forgiving.
Thanks for dropping by my little blog and asking for help; I wish I could be more. Truth is, I struggle with faith and fact, too.
I don't have all the answers, Q; sorry. Don't know anyone who does. Which leads me to believe that the search for them by helping other folks in the here and now is maybe more important than having them handed to us in a sweet, bound volume by science or faith.
It is very interesting that people of faith are also struggling. Look at Mother Theresa...she struggled until the end.
Thanks for respecting my opinion as I also respect yours. As my mother is fond of saying...."Nobody has all the answers." Part of what makes life fun is the mystery. (The mysterious as Einstein described it.)
We seem to agree on faith, it's an unfortunate human device to mask a negative, fear. The problem being that fear is based on reality, we will die. So to cover that they invent a heaven we can't see to make the thought of the certainty less painful.
As for faith in God I have trust, of the people who say they know God personally. They seem to have something and that's as close as we can get to evidence. But using faith as a reason is like saying 'My son could never murder anyone' after he was convicted for mass murder.
Post a Comment