The concern is grave, but not so much for the church which tends to allow a lot of practices it claims are wrong.
The only thing that I can think of regarding this topic is the Church’s warning not to fall into the various errors of fundamentalism. We can appreciate their zeal but we should not emulate their methods.
The reason is quite simple. The impact on the numbers of “Catholics” are already going down rapidly enough as it is. 85% of all Catholics practice birthcontrol and the Church is not ready to lose 85% of its followers.
I’m sorry but if indeed 85% of all Catholics practice birth control then the Church has already virtually lost 85% of her followers. They have effectively excommunicated themselves, so I don’t think the reason is
that simple.
Furthermore, the Church does not “permit” this kind of dissention. This is actually an all-out apostasy if indeed the statistics you have provided are correct.
As an example of a “permission” that the Church does grant, the Church does “permit” a divorce via the proper procedures of an annulment. But if this annulment is not properly obtained then the actions of the divorcees have left them in a state of mortal sin if they re-marry. This is the same state that the “85% of all Catholics” you mentioned above are in if they are indeed practicing birth control.
On the issue of creationism, however, the Church permits it without really any warning at all, aside from the warning to avoid the errors of fundamentalism. In other words, no “annulment” is required by the Church to believe in creationism. The Church permits both views.
My own personal view is a theistic evolutionary one, and I would seriously hope to patiently convince many YEC’s here to strongly consider the theistic evolutionary view without advising them
falsely that they are going against the Church when doing so. The bottom line is that they are allowed by the Church to believe this if they choose and they have not “sinned” if they believe the Earth is merely 6,000 years old. They’re simply seriously misinformed regarding current scientific issues in my opinion.
I assume they see no great harm in a small percentage of creationists (mostly very old Catholics or converts from Baptist denominations) the same way they see no big harm in those same folks more often than not being fundamentalists which the Church also decries as incorrect.
You mentioned that 85% of all Catholics above. Do you know which percentages of all Catholics actually do believe in some form of YEC? I have no numbers on this.
Since Islam is now the largest religious denomination in the world, I think they are protecting their numbers.
Actually, Islam is now the largest religious denomination in the world precisely because, apparently, 85% of all Catholics practice birth control.
And, yes, we are protecting our numbers by praying for them to remain true to Church teachings and admonishing them to not engage in birth control for example. We are not “permitting” them to use birth control however. We have specifically “condemned” these practices.
We have not, however, condemned creationism though. The comparisons you are giving really are trying to make out creationism as a grave evil which the Church should “repent of” though, such as your example below.
The gravity occurs in our country where we are continually falling farther and farther behind the rest of the world in education.
And what does the Catholic Church have to do with this?
Do you have statistics to verify this claim and by what criteria do we judge this?
Our children are so poorly taught these days that a full 25% of TEACHERS don’t know that dinosaurs were extinct before humans arrived on the scene. That is so abominable a situation that it makes one physically ill.
My children
do know that dinosaurs were extinct well before we humans arrived on the scene. But even if they didn’t they could still be very well educated in other areas besides the biological sciences.
So much for ill-educated parents deciding school curriculum and text books. That’s what you get folks. We are an anti-intellectual society precisely because historically the rich worked hard to make sure that the masses thought little of education. We now do, and worldwide we pay a horrific price for it.
I think we’re going to pay a horrific price for the 85% of all Catholics who practice birth control, so I’m not so much concerned with the unknown percentage of Catholics who preach some form of YEC. I’m trusting that they’ll eventually come around if they investigate the matter with an open mind toward the evolutionary methods by which God created humanity. And, if they don’t, society will
not collapse anytime soon either.
Anyway, I have another more in-depth thread I’m involved in.
Thanks for your (name removed by moderator)ut.
