Science and faith.

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The_Chicken

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Hey,
I know that this is a debated topic but I decided to express myself anyway.
This year I started to study Geography on a big university. We are having Biology classes, among other things. I was surprised to the way that they teach things about evolution because they kind of make fun of our faith, like if it was clearly not truth.
I have disliked this issue, and most of all, I don’t like the scientific method at all. I know it leads to some good, but it lead to a lot of bad things too.
The real reason for me to want to get this degree is to be able to make some good money some day, surviving, because other than that, I wouldn’t be there. I don’t like to be in an enviroment where all people believe is their science, which is very likely wrong in many points, and mostly, where religion is seen as a joke.
The university claims to be open, accept and respect people of all walks of life, religions and cultures, but apparently it doesn’t really happen.
Just wanted to share this.
 
I agree with you. The Catholic Church needs to reclaim it’s identity on science. Science and the Church can go hand in hand. I think the Pope is starting to make strides in doing this already with the conventions he has held with scientist.
 
My dear Chicken,

I was going to offer some advice about standing up for your faith and the truth, but given your “name,” I am not sure that is a great idea. I don’t want to put you in an uncomfortable place.

If you feel strong and confident, speak up. Otherwise, you might pray for those being misled and that you will not be adversely influenced by your environment.

Try to find like minded students to hang out with.

God bless you.
 
Mr. Chicken, I’m not sure if I understand. Are you a literalist, that is do you believe in the 7 day creation period? There’s nothing wrong with this, mind you, and I am sorry if you’re being mistreated because of it. On the other hand, the general mood of the class may just be atheistic. This happens, sometimes, alas, and I would certainly speak up about it.
Myself, though, I am proud to call myself a Christian Evolutionist. I have no problem accepting the Genesis creation story as allegory, as do many Catholics and other Christians. As I see it, science and faith go hand in hand, though soemtimes we do have to change our interpetations, true enough. As Mamondes, the medieval Jewish philosopher said, if science and faith are at odds, either science is wrong or the Torah (Bible for us!) needs to be reinterpeted. Now, as I see it, there is plenty of evidence for an old earth and the evolutionary theory, and so I accept another interpetation. But again, there’s nothing wrong with believing in a literal interpetation. I think it shows you have much faith in God, not really worrying about how the earth was created (in the end, this doesn’t really matter to our faith).
 
I was just reading a timely passage by Bishop Fulton Sheen:

“Whenever you admire the wonders of science, and forget that I am the Author of the Universe and its science. Your scientists are the proofreaders, but not the authors of the Book of Nature; the can see and examine My handiwork, but they cannot create one atom themselves.”
 
Papa Benedictus XVI says in Jesus of Nazareth (p. 37);

“We are dealing here with the vast question as to how we can and cannot know God, how we are related to God and how we can lose him. The arrogance that would make God an object and impose our laboratory conditions upon him is incapable of finding him. For it already implies that we deny God as God by placing ourselves above him, by discarding the whole dimension of love, of interior listening; by no longer acknowledging as real anything but what we can experimentally test and grasp. To think like that is to make oneself God. And to do that is to abase not only God, but the world and oneself, too.”

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

mark
 
If you haven’t already seen it, watch the Ben Stein movie, Expelled. He addresses what you are experiencing. He doesn’t get into the old earth/new earth distinction, but he does a great job of questioning the atheist understanding of how life began. You might get some ideas about questions to ask. Also, read the book by Dinesh D’Souza - What’s So Great About Christianity. It has three chapters on Christianity and Science and four on The Argument from Design.
 
Oh I feel your pain! I am having to move to a different city so that I can go to a university where I can take classes, write papers and not fail simply because I wouldn’t go against my beliefs. In the University in my hometown, my friend took a first-year philosophy course and the professor said, in the first class, “By the time you are done with this class, I will have crushed your faith.” My friend walked out.

I suppose transferring either to a Catholic University or somewhere that even has a Catholic College on campus (they’ll probably be a teensy bit more open to faith there) is a possibility?

But, excepting that, God created everything that science looks at. In addition to that, most neurologists, brain surgeons, astronomers and a large chunk of biologists are theists, that is because they look at God’s design. On the other hand, psychologists and sociologists and historians tend to be atheists because they look at humans, and all the things we’ve done (we’re far from perfect).

You have two choices, you either need to turn the other cheek, live and let live sort of thing, or you can know your stuff and know it REALLY well. The worst thing you can do is go into an argument with an atheist and not know your reasonings inside and out, because then you come off as ignorant, and, coincidentally, that’s what atheists think us theists are.

I’ll be praying for you!
 
Science and faith are not incompatible; nor are creation and evolution.

First: evolution is FAR from certain, although scientists seem to act like it is. There is not one missing link, there are only missing links. The similarity of species does not prove macro-evolution. Further, we do not have evidence of random mutations leading to beneficial outcomes (except for differentiation within the same genus). They have very silly “just-so” stories that cannot be proven scientifically. It is an interesting theory, but it is just that, a theory (a theory with a lot of wholes, as it happens).

Second: the literal interpretation (like interpretations about the sun going around the earth) need not be the right interpretation. What needs to be understood, is that human beings are different from brute animals. We have rational souls. Biologists tend to fall into a materialist notion of human reason-- human reason= human brain; this is opposed to the Church teaching.

Third: Scientists and physicists cannot explain the existence of the world, the human being or the atom. Something cannot come from nothing-- even if they try to explain the world away with the big bang and then evolution. Something has to cause the big bang, even in their story, it is not sufficient to itself. Creation is God bringing something from nothing, if scientists want to call that the big bang, so be it- it is still caused by something; God.

Finally: I let scientists figure out the universe as far as they can, and I withhold belief in their theories until they have proof: for evolution and big bang they have no proof-- they have at best explanatory causal stories- it is a faith in itself. If, on the other hand, they contradict the faith they cannot be right-- evolution does not necessarily contradict the faith so I have (nor does the Church have) any theological disagreement with it. I think it is scientifically premature to buy into it, however.

Peace.
 
I see that a lot in the school that I go to. Students and even teachers poke fun of Christians and especially Catholics which really bothers me sometimes considering it is getting more prevelent. I speak up when someone starts up some religion bashing up that just seems to spark an argument between my classmates. Jesus has become a four letter word in our public colleges I guess…what a shame.
 
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