The Origins of the World and Mankind (Evolution etc.)

Orthodox Publications ^ | 09-13-03 | Bishop Alexander (Mileant)

[CIDKauf]

Thanks for the ping!

[Das Outsider]

This mischaracterises the position of creationists. We believe in such observable processes as natural selection, but take issue with the billions of years for the age of the earth.

The Bishop's characterization of creationists is odd. No creationist that I know of holds to the belief that the Earth is 7,500 and not 7,600 years old--or 10,000 for that matter, yet people still cite Ussher's chronology. It is clear that this is written from an Orthodox perspective.

The Bible says God created creatures to reproduce according to their "kinds".

Another point that seemed absent, didn't it? (Even the plants reproduce according to their own kind in Genesis.) It is one thing to acknowledge that the Lord knit me in the womb, but quite another to say that biological reproduction had nothing to do with it! While I am aware that some Christians distort, incorrectly apply, or ignore Scripture for a narrow agenda--Tim LaHaye, The Word of Faith movement, Christian Identity, and so on--the latter is not usually the case with regard to the point.

The terms 'literal' and 'literalism' are so often inappropriate. For example, Psalm 18, verse 2:

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

(Psalm 18:2, NIV)

No one reads that to mean that King David had a rock named "God" nor is there a fortress, shield, or horn by the same name.

[DinosaurKnight]

"No one reads that to mean that King David had a rock named "God" nor is there a fortress, shield, or horn by the same name."

Exactly, I admit to being a literalist in the sense of reading Scripture in the genre that each part was written in. Poetry like the Psalms is read as figurative poetry. History like Genesis and Acts should be read as history, and so on. This still makes much of what is said hard for a lot of people to deal with, but God isn't exactly all about pleasing people, He made us to please Himself.

[BuglerTex]

Thank you for posting this. This has sparked an interest in the Orthodox Church for me. In any case, the Bishop now has joined the Host.

[Rocky]

Bookmark for later read.

[CourtneyLeigh]

Bookmark for later read.

Hah! No Kidding!

;o)

[curiosity]

Faith and Science Ping.

Long read, but judging the book by its cover, it looks good.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[TXnMA]

Ping to a long, but very interesting article, which includes the following:

"Since the Source of both revelations — internal or supernatural, and external or natural — is one, their contents must be in complete harmony, complementing each other. If "conflicts" between the judgments of scholars and theologians sometimes arise, it is always the result of faulty interpretation — whether of scientific data or of the true meaning of God’s word."

(...sounds like something I might have written...)

[metmom]

bttt to finish reading

[Alamo-Girl]

Indeed. Thanks for the ping!

[hosepipe]

God was and is the first and last scientist..
all others are just primates aping science.

[Alamo-Girl]

Indeed, He is first in everything - including science.

[RDHarrison75]

According to the Catholic Catechism there is no conflict between God and science and man can come to know God with certainty, not only with unproven faith.

"II. Ways of Coming to Know God

31. Created in God’s image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of “converging and convincing arguments,” which allow us to attain certainty about the truth…

35. Man’s faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into a real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith. The proofs of God’s existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason." [CCC 31-35]

I have written an 80,000 word book, free on the Web (nothing commercial), on the subject of God & Science, which lends a great deal to both the certainty about God and the compatibility of God & good science. The book is called Darwin's New Clothes, and is available at my home page, http://home.earthlink.net/~mbirds2004.

[RDHarrison75]

FYI Forum Members: The title of my book mentioned in the previous post and the URL have changed: It is now called Evolution/Smevolution and is located at http://matthew1026.com/.