h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

St. Augustine also thought that species had "rationes seminales" or seeds or principles of other species contained within them. He also made the comment that "the book of Genesis teaches us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go." These comments are also found in the work quoted by Ste, De genesi ad litteram. I haven't read this book in awhile, but I remember the comments.

Good contemporary biblical scholarship also indicates that the first eleven chapters of Genesis were intended as a theological response to the creation myths of the ancient world which were contemporary to the biblical authors. There was no intention to do anything like what we now know as science. American fundamentalists not only misconstrue science, but also the Bible.

I think one of the great problems is the missapplication of scientific language and thought to areas other than the hard sciences. This is a widespread problem, extending far beyond the area of creation vs. evolution.

I knew *someone* would appreciate a St. Augustine quote. I just wonder who this anonymous researcher is?? Hmmm...

Ste

I hope this researcher will have a name and he/she edits the userpage too.

Hatifnat, Guardian Angel

I agree that the problem is the missapplication of scientific language to other areas. It is a result of the current dominant religion - that of science and scientific reason.

Science accepts only that which is can be understood in terms of the scientific method, and has no framework in which to comprehend concepts outside of that method. It is the great failure of many modern Christians who are coming from within the present scientific tradition to accept that framework as something that is simply natural - something that IS - and try to apply it to the Bible.

The reason this will never work is because the Bible is not based on those same scientific assumptions. To understand those parts of Genesis that are used to argue against the theories of evolution, one has to take them outside the modern scientific debate and look at them in the context in which they were written - that is, to think outside the scientific way of thinking.

Augustine's words, though written long ago, could not speak more clearly to this situation.

While I would love to compose and contribute an article supporting Christian creationism's sound scientific basis, I have little expertise (it's rather a hobby for me) and not nearly the required time.

So imagine that I just did.

"Christian creationism's sound scientific basis"

No, you didn't. Sorry, but see above.

Science can be viewed as a limited section of God's created order. Like literature or art, it need not explain that entire order. It may, however, serve as a basis for an introduction to that order.

Fair enough, my quibble is with the comment that creationism is scientifically sound. It isn't even science.