R
Rasoleil
Guest
Excellently put! I absolutely agree with you.You are going to get many different viewpoints but the main difference is between those who take the bible literally and those who understand that the bible as a collection of different types of writings.
I am a biologist (two degrees and working on a third) and I have no issues whatsoever with Catholic teachings regarding evolution. I see the bible as a collection of different types of writings, including poems of praise, historical records, and allegorical type writings meant to teach and guide God’s people. The Old Testament has never claimed to be a scientific textbook. As a Catholic, I am not solely dependent on the bible because we also need the traditions that have been passed down from the early Church fathers combined with the understanding of the two from the magisterium in order to make sense of it all. In fact, there was no New Testament until over 300 years after Jesus ascended into heaven. In one of St. Paul’s letters, he tells us to follow the traditions. There were traditions that the Jews had in regards to how they viewed the Old Testament writings. We inherited those traditions. No one ever tells us that we must solely depend on the bible. There is nothing in those traditions that bothers me as a scientist (or a farmer).
God gave us the curiosity and intellect to try to understand the world around us. This is a beautiful gift! For me, each new discovery in science is like taking a peek at God’s desk. What saddens me is when people fear knowledge or science.
One thing I love about Catholicism is the fact that I can dive in and search and search through centuries and centuries of knowledge and writings and never know it all. To me, it resembles science in that aspect.