Dinosaurs and the Flood

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buffalo said:
I am following the teachings in the Catechism and the long held understanding since the beginning of the Church.
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Catholics are not now, nor have they ever been, fundamentalists. As has been pointed out to you, Catholics from the ancient days of Augustine to the present reject literal readings of Genesis. So do Jews.
 
billsherman said:
Catholics are not now
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Jesus Himself is very clear about the flood. To deny the flood is to deny Jesus. Fundamentalist or not… Produce a magisterial document explaining we got the flood wrong and why we were mistaken for so long and why the Holy Spirit allowed the error.
 
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buffalo said:
Jesus Himself is very clear about the flood. Do deny the flood is to deny Jesus. Fundamentalist or not… Produce a magisterial document explaining we got the flood wrong and why we were mistaken for so long and why the Holy Spirit allowed the error.
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I’m no longer sure you even know what literalism is, or what exactly you’re arguing. The existence, or non-existence, of a flood is entirely irrelevant to the age of the Earth.
 
billsherman said:
I’m no longer sure you even know what literalism is, or what exactly you’re arguing. The existence, or non-existence, of a flood is entirely irrelevant to the age of the Earth.
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Science denies the flood. Many Catholics do too and they think the ark story is a fable. Do you?
 
buffalo said:
Science denies the flood. Many Catholics do too and they think the ark story is a fable. Do you?
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Somehow we went from Genesis dealing with the age of the Earth to the flood. Moving goalposts.

The existence, or non-existence, of a flood is irrelevant to the age of the Earth.
 
I believe, as I am free to according to the Church, that the flood was not worldwide but one which destroyed the entirety of civilization in the Near East, i.e. the “world” of the Jews. A flood of that magnitude at that period of time would have destroyed most or all of humanity in that area. The human(s) who survived would have had no concept of China or the Americas. To them, the whole world really had been decimated.
 
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Oh come on, you know that’s not what I’m talking about.
 
DanielJosephBoucher said:
Faith prevails over science.
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In some areas it certainly does, Daniel. Science says that people don’t come back to life but all true Catholics believe in the resurrection. Without that faith you are not a Catholic and it trumps anything science might say on the subject.

As far as Genesis goes (and this is what everyone is really talking about), there are a few who read it literally and those who take it as an allegory for creation. And both camps believe in God as being the creator and who believe He sent His son to die for us and was then resurrected. No problem there. And a discussion between the two camps should run as follows:

‘I believe the planet is 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs and man co-existed’.
‘Really? Well that contradicts everything I know from a science perspective. The evidence shows the planet to be a few billion years old’.
‘Fair enough. Fancy another beer?’

Live and let live, eh? But this is how it goes on this forum:

‘I believe the planet is 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs and man co-existed’.
‘Really? Well that contradicts everything I know from a science perspective. The evidence shows the planet to be a few billion years old’.
‘YOU ARE DENYING GOD!’

Which isn’t really being respectful to the genuine beliefs of fellow Catholics.
 
For reasons I can relate to but not ascribe I found YEC necessary for my Catholic faith. The more science I learned the harder is was to believe. The problem being if God inspired the Bible why was the timeline not inline with historical Egypt? For example the entire written history of the people round the Nile overlaps with the flood.

How can Egypt (which was unified in 3000 BC) the flood was in 2300 BC how did the kingdom of the Nile survive? Even if the flood was earlier the upper and lower kingdom was documented well into the 4000BC.

Chinese history doesn’t make it any easier either.

I can relate why it’s so vital YEC works, it’s very disturbing to one’s faith if it doesn’t.
 
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I was unaware that the flood had even been dated, much less to 2300 BC.
 
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You know folks its ok to believe in dinosaurs , Noah, the flood, creation as given, and evolution
 
As stated above, I do take issue with scientific illiteracy and YEC for reasons that have a fair bit of weight.
 
we are all Noah in our own life , having only God to count on as we drift through this life in a boat on uncertain waters,. The ark represents obedience to God to work to save others, to preserve life.
 
Anrakyr said:
I can relate why it’s so vital YEC works, it’s very disturbing to one’s faith if it doesn’t.
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And yet it causes the Magisterium of the Church no difficulty whatsoever. Perhaps you are missing something?
 
If YEC is true then those who believe it should be able to prove there is only one land mass, one basin of ocean, the earth is indeed flat and that space above the dome of the sky isn’t space but actually an ocean.

FWIW, scientists 100 years ago also believed the world was flat while the church maintained it to be a sphere. They also believed the universe didn’t have a beginning but always existed. The Big Bang theory shifted that perspective and one would be hard pressed to find a scientist today who believes it (though there might be some fringe ones). However there is an atheist on this board who recently suggested such, which to me is completely boggling.
 
If they do so, one expects there to be evidence supporting their view that disproves the current field.

In other words, it’s not okay to reject science without valid evidence and process of reason.
 
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