How many Catholics are YEC

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I know a few Catholic YEC. Most of the practicing Catholics I know are not. More than a few simply say “I don’t know”, and leave it at that.
 
Bradski, have you been spending too much time at The Thread That Would Not Die ?
 
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TheLittleLady said:
Here in the Bible Belt South, I’d imagine that more than half of my fellow parishioners are YECs. The Evangelical influence is so strong that we have to remind people that drinking beer or gambling are NOT in and of themselves sins.
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Probably a lot of them are converts from Fundamentalism. That’s certainly true in my parish which is definitely in the bible belt. Lots of converts, and nearly all from fundamentalist sects.

I am a cradle Catholic myself, but I find quite a lot to admire in fundamentalists. By and large they really do believe, unlike so many others, and they really try to live moral lives. I’m frequently reminded of what Flannery O’Connor said, and I’m paraphrasing. She said southern fundamentalists would be surprised to learn that they share more with Catholicism than they do with Protestantism. And I believe that myself.

I guess I keep an open mind about Genesis, but am inclined to think it’s more literally true than a lot of Catholics do. I think Catholics by and large have been poisoned by revisionist theologians who, I fear, don’t believe much of anything.

But I recall reading, for example, that in the 19th Century “modern” thinkers blew off the creation story as “myth” because it had light occurring before creation of the sun or stars. That was impossible, they thought. But if we believe in the Big Bang (first proposed by a Catholic priest) we now know that’s exactly true. Light long preceded formation of stars. So the “smart people” were wrong, and Genesis was right.

And before the creation of the space/time continuum, what was time? What was a “day”? Was it something we don’t even know anything about now? Physicists tell us that before the Big Bang, nothing can be known. Whatever was there, whatever happened, is beyond our knowledge forever because all rules we know break down at the Big Bang. Physics, even math, no longer explain anything past that point.

The more I learn about the universe, the more respect I have for Genesis.
 
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Bradskii said:
I know there are those who consider Genesis to be a reasonably factual description of the begining of the world. But how many are actually YECs?
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Very few, but probably a disproportionate amount hang around forums like this, so you may hear from a few.
 
Bradskii said:
But how many are actually YECs?
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I don’t know of any. To me a 5k year old earth ,or whatever it’s supposed to be, is in the same space as a flat earth or geocentrism. It’s still hard for me to believe that anyone can take it seriously.

It’s not a Catholic thing, as others have pointed out. I don’t know how a Catholic comes to believe that YEC is even a thing because no one in Catholicism has taught it for probably hundreds of years, if it was ever taught at all.

It’s definitely in Protestant circles and I suppose that’s why the concept keeps going, from converts maybe.
 
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‘When we are born, we cry that we are come|To this great stage of fools’.
 
The Church does not mandate any particular scientific belief, but certainly teaches that an old universe, the Big Bang, and evolution are all consistent with the Catholic faith. From the Vatican document “Communion and Stewardship”:
  1. According to the widely accepted scientific account, the universe erupted 15 billion years ago in an explosion called the “Big Bang” and has been expanding and cooling ever since. Later there gradually emerged the conditions necessary for the formation of atoms, still later the condensation of galaxies and stars, and about 10 billion years later the formation of planets. In our own solar system and on earth (formed about 4.5 billion years ago), the conditions have been favorable to the emergence of life. While there is little consensus among scientists about how the origin of this first microscopic life is to be explained, there is general agreement among them that the first organism dwelt on this planet about 3.5-4 billion years ago. Since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on earth are genetically related, it is virtually certain that all living organisms have descended from this first organism.
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http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/c...th_doc_20040723_communion-stewardship_en.html
 
Nice try. Communion and Stewardship:
  1. Pope John Paul II stated some years ago that “new knowledge leads to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge”(“Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Evolution”1996). In continuity with previous twentieth century papal teaching on evolution (especially Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Humani Generis ), the Holy Father’s message acknowledges that there are “several theories of evolution” that are “materialist, reductionist and spiritualist” and thus incompatible with the Catholic faith. It follows that the message of Pope John Paul II cannot be read as a blanket approbation of all theories of evolution, including those of a neo-Darwinian provenance which explicitly deny to divine providence any truly causal role in the development of life in the universe. Mainly concerned with evolution as it “involves the question of man,” however, Pope John Paul’s message is specifically critical of materialistic theories of human origins and insists on the relevance of philosophy and theology for an adequate understanding of the “ontological leap” to the human which cannot be explained in purely scientific terms. The Church’s interest in evolution thus focuses particularly on “the conception of man” who, as created in the image of God, “cannot be subordinated as a pure means or instrument either to the species or to society.” As a person created in the image of God, he is capable of forming relationships of communion with other persons and with the triune God, as well as of exercising sovereignty and stewardship in the created universe. The implication of these remarks is that theories of evolution and of the origin of the universe possess particular theological interest when they touch on the doctrines of the creation ex nihilo and the creation of man in the image of God.
 
But it is important to note that, according to the Catholic understanding of divine causality, true contingency in the created order is not incompatible with a purposeful divine providence. Divine causality and created causality radically differ in kind and not only in degree. Thus, even the outcome of a truly contingent natural process can nonetheless fall within God’s providential plan for creation. According to St. Thomas Aquinas: “The effect of divine providence is not only that things should happen somehow, but that they should happen either by necessity or by contingency. Therefore, whatsoever divine providence ordains to happen infallibly and of necessity happens infallibly and of necessity; and that happens from contingency, which the divine providence conceives to happen from contingency” ( Summa theologiae, I, 22,4 ad 1). In the Catholic perspective, neo-Darwinians who adduce random genetic variation and natural selection as evidence that the process of evolution is absolutely unguided are straying beyond what can be demonstrated by science. Divine causality can be active in a process that is both contingent and guided. Any evolutionary mechanism that is contingent can only be contingent because God made it so. An unguided evolutionary process – one that falls outside the bounds of divine providence – simply cannot exist because “the causality of God, Who is the first agent, extends to all being, not only as to constituent principles of species, but also as to the individualizing principles…It necessarily follows that all things, inasmuch as they participate in existence, must likewise be subject to divine providence” ( Summa theologiae I, 22, 2).
 
I believe the earth was created just as He said He did…twernt none of us there when He did it…so who is to say?

I also seem to remember that the tree that Adam and Eve ate from was the tree of knowledge…I think that might have gave way to one too many pedantic paths of sorts for some folks though…so I figure that’s why He put ol’ Job in his place.

Always someone smarter or thinks they got it all figured out…

I happen to believe God is the three big O’s…

Sooooo…He said it took six days, fine by me…still doesn’t change one thing on the greatest commandment…Love…let’s let God be God and maybe the rest of us learn how to treat those who believe differently over semantics with a little more tolerance…

Just my 2 cents from a country bumpkin…
 
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edwest211 said:
Nice try. Communion and Stewardship:
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Ed, this is a post about YEC, not evolution. We all know your views on evolution, as they have been discussed on many other threads. This thread is about YEC. There is certainly no doubt whatsoever that the Church accepts that the universe is old. The Church does not necessarily condemn YEC, but it does not teach YEC, and no aspect of Catholicism requires a YEC world view.
 
I’ve never met anyone face to face who believes in a “young earth”. Online I’ve come across one or two, but I have never attempted to engage them in discussion. I can’t see the point.
 
BartholomewB said:
I’ve never met anyone face to face who believes in a “young earth”. Online I’ve come across one or two, but I have never attempted to engage them in discussion. I can’t see the point.
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So your just automatically judging someone…whats the point…nice attitude.
 
Have you ever engaged in an online discussion of that kind? If so, how often? And on which side?
 
Yes…search my post history if you like…

I would sit down face to face to discuss it anytime…I’ll even buy the first round…I’m guessing you for an Appletini type of drinker or perhaps a holistic organic daiquiri kind of person…whatever it is that people who automatically feel intellectually superior to folks who might have a different world view drinks…

See how prejudice and intolerance comes through?
 
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