Falling Stars, Damnable Heresy, and the Spirit of Evolution

Renew America ^ | Sept. 19, 2013 | Linda Kimball

[spirited irish]

“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22).

“And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet, and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth, and there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit." (Rev. 9:1)

In his Concise Commentary Matthew Henry identifies falling stars as tepid, indecisive, weak or apostate clergy who,

"Having ceased to be a minister of Christ, he who is represented by this star becomes the minister of the devil; and lets loose the powers of hell against the churches of Christ."

John identifies antichrists, in this case clergy who serve the devil rather than Christ, sequentially. First, like Bultmann, Teilhard de Chardin, Robert Funk, Paul Tillich, and John Shelby Spong, they specifically deny the living, personal Holy Trinity in favor of Gnostic pagan, immanent or Eastern pantheist conceptions. Though God the Father Almighty in three Persons upholds the souls of men and maintains life and creation, His substance is not within nature (space-time dimension) as pantheism maintains, but outside of it. Sinful men live within nature and are burdened by time and mortality; God is not.

Second, the specific denial of the Father logically negates Jesus the Christ, the Word who was in the beginning (John 1), was with God, and is God from the creation of all things (1 John 1). In a pre-incarnate theophany, Jesus is the Angel who spoke “mouth to mouth” to Moses (Num. 12:6-9; John 9:20) and at sundry times and in many ways “spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all…” (Hebrews 1:1) Jesus the Christ is the incarnate Son of God who is the life and light of men, who by His shed blood on the Cross died for the remission of all sins and bestowed the privilege of adoption on all who put their faith in Him.

Therefore, to deny the Holy Father is to logically deny the deity of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, hence,

“…every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist . . . and even now already is it in the world” (1 John 4:3).

According to Peter (2 Peter 2:1), falling stars will work among the faithful, teaching damnable heresies that deny the Lord, cause the fall of men into unbelief, and bring destruction upon themselves:

“The natural parents of modern unbelief turn out to have been the guardians of belief.” Many thinking people came at last “to realize that it was religion, not science or social change that gave birth to unbelief. Having made God more and more like man---intellectually, morally, emotionally---the shapers of religion made it feasible to abandon God, to believe simply in man.” (James Turner of the University of Michigan in “American Babylon,” Richard John Neuhaus, p. 95)

Falling Stars and Damnable Heresy

Almost thirty years ago, two well-respected social science scholars, William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark found themselves alarmed by what they saw as a rising tide of irrationalism, superstition and occultism---channeling cults, spirit familiars, necromancers, Wiccans, Satanists, Luciferians, goddess worshippers, 'gay' shamans, Hermetic magicians and other occult madness at every level of society, particularly within the most influential--- Hollywood, academia and the highest corridors of political power.

Like many scientists, they were equally concerned by Christian opposition to naturalistic evolution. As is common in the science community, they assumed the cause of these social pathologies was somehow due to fundamentalism, their term for authentic Christian theism as opposed to liberalized Christianity. Yet to their credit, the research they undertook to discover the cause was conducted both scientifically and with great integrity. What they found was so startling it caused them to re-evaluate their attitude toward authentic Christian theism. Their findings led them to say:

"It would be a mistake to conclude that fundamentalists oppose all science (when in reality they but oppose) a single theory (that) directly contradicts the bible. But it would be an equally great mistake to conclude that religious liberals and the irreligious possess superior minds of great rationality, to see them as modern personalities who have no need of the supernatural or any propensity to believe unscientific superstitions. On the contrary...they are much more likely to accept the new superstitions. It is the fundamentalists who appear most virtuous according to scientific standards when we examine the cults and pseudo-sciences proliferating in our society today." ("Superstitions, Old and New," The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. IV, No. 4; summer, 1980)

In more detail they observed that authentic ‘born again’ Christians are far less likely to accept cults and pseudoscientific beliefs while the irreligious and liberalized Christians (i.e., progressive Catholics, Protestant emergent, NAR, word faith, prosperity gospel) are open to unscientific notions. In fact, these two groups are most disposed toward occultism.

As Bainbridge and Stark admitted, evolution directly contradicts the Bible, beginning with the Genesis account of creation ex nihilo. This means that evolution is the antithesis of the Genesis account. For this reason, discerning Christians refuse to submit to the evolutionary thinking that has swept Western and American society. Nor do they accept the evolutionary theism brought into the whole body of the Church by weak, tepid, indecisive, or apostate clergy.

Over eighty years ago, Rev. C. Leopold Clarke wrote that priests who embrace evolution (evolutionary theists) are apostates from the ‘Truth as it is in Jesus.’ (1 John2:2) Rev. Clarke, a lecturer at a London Bible college, discerned that evolution is the antithesis to the Revelation of God in the Deity of Jesus Christ, thus it is the greatest and most active agent of moral and spiritual disintegration:

“It is a battering-ram of unbelief---a sapping and mining operation that intends to blow Religion sky-high. The one thing which the human mind demands in its conception of God, is that, being Almighty, He works sovereignly and miraculously---and this is the thing with which Evolution dispenses….Already a tremendous effect, on a wide scale has been produced by the impact of this teaching---an effect which can only be likened to the…collapse of foundations…” (Evolution and the Break-Up of Christendom, Philip Bell, creation.com, Nov. 27, 2012)

The faith of the Christian Church and of the average Christian has had, and still has, its foundation as much in the literal and historic meaning of Genesis, the book of beginnings revealed ‘mouth to mouth’ by the Angel to Moses, as in that of the person and deity of Jesus Christ. But how horrible a travesty of the sacred office of the Christian Ministry to see church leaders more eager to be abreast of the times, than earnestly contending for the Faith once delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3). It is high time, said Rev. Clarke, that the Church,

“…. separated herself from the humiliating entanglement attending her desire to be thought up to date…What, after all, have custodians of Divine Revelation to do making terms with speculative Biology, which has….no message of comfort or help to the soul?” (ibid)

The primary tactic employed by priests eager to accommodate themselves and the Church to modern science and evolutionary thinking is predictable. It is the argument that evolution is entirely compatible with the Bible when we see Genesis, especially the first three chapters, in a non-literal, non-historical context. This is the argument embraced and advanced by mega-church pastor Timothy J. Keller.

With a position paper Keller published with the theistic evolutionary organization Bio Logos he joined the ranks of falling stars (Catholic and Protestant priests) stretching back to the Renaissance. Their slippery-slide into apostasy began when they gave into the temptation to embrace a non-literal, non-historical view of Genesis. (A response to Timothy Keller’s ‘Creation, Evolution and Christian Laypeople,” Lita Cosner, Sept. 9, 2010, creation.com)

This is not a heresy unique to modern times. The early Church Fathers dealt with this damnable heresy as well, counting it among the heretical tendencies of the Origenists. Fourth-century Fathers such as John Chrysostom, Basil the Great and Ephraim the Syrian, all of whom wrote commentaries on Genesis, specifically warned against treating Genesis as an unhistorical myth or allegory. John Chrysostom strongly warned against paying heed to these heretics,

“…let us stop up our hearing against them, and let us believe the Divine Scripture, and following what is written in it, let us strive to preserve in our souls sound dogmas.” (Genesis, Creation, and Early Man, Fr. Seraphim Rose, p. 31)

As St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote, higher theological, spiritual meaning is founded upon humble, simple faith in the literal and historic meaning of Genesis and one cannot apprehend rightly the Scriptures without believing in the historical reality of the events and people they describe. (ibid, Seraphim Rose, p. 40)

In the integral worldview teachings of the Fathers, neither the literal nor historical meaning of the Revelations of the pre-incarnate Jesus, the Angel who spoke to Moses, can be regarded as expendable. There are at least four critically important reasons why. First, to reduce the Revelation of God to allegory and myth is to contradict and usurp the authority of God, ultimately deny the deity of Jesus Christ; twist, distort, add to and subtract from the entire Bible and finally, to imperil the salvation of believers.

Scenarios commonly proposed by modern Origenists posit a cleverly disguised pantheist/immanent nature deity subject to the space-time dimension and forces of evolution. But as noted previously, it is sinful man who carries the burden of time, not God. This is a crucial point, for when evolutionary theists add millions and billions of zeros (time) to God they have transferred their own limitations onto Him. They have ‘limited’ God and made Him over in their own image. This is not only idolatrous but satanic.

Additionally, evolution inverts creation. In place of God’s good creation from which men fell there is an evolutionary escalator starting at the bottom with matter, then progressing upward toward life, then up and through the life and death of millions of evolved creatures that preceded humans by millions of years until at long last an apish humanoid emerges into which a deity that is always in a state of becoming (evolving) places a soul.

Evolution amputates the entire historical precedent from the Gospel and makes Jesus Christ unnecessary as the atheist Frank Zindler enthusiastically points out:

“The most devastating thing that biology did to Christianity was the discovery of biological evolution. Now that we know that Adam and Eve never were real people the central myth of Christianity is destroyed. If there never was an Adam and Eve, there never was an original sin. If there never was an original sin there is no need of salvation. If there is no need of salvation there is no need of a saviour. And I submit that puts Jesus…into the ranks of the unemployed. I think evolution absolutely is the death knell of Christianity.” (“Atheism vs. Christianity,” 1996, Lita Cosner, creation.com, June 13, 2013)

None of this was lost on Darwin’s bulldog, Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1985). Huxley was thoroughly familiar with the Bible, thus he understood that if Genesis is not the authoritative Word of God, is not historical and literal despite its’ symbolic and poetic elements, then the entirety of Scripture becomes a collection of fairytales resulting in tragic downward spiraling consequences as the Catholic Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation makes clear in part:

“By denying the historical truth of the first chapters of Genesis, theistic evolutionism has fostered a preoccupation with natural causes almost to the exclusion of supernatural ones. By denying the several supernatural creative acts of God in Genesis, and by downplaying the importance of the supernatural activity of Satan, theistic evolutionists slip into a naturalistic mentality which seeks to explain everything in terms of natural causes. Once this mentality takes hold, it is easy for men to regard the concept of spiritual warfare as a holdover from the days of primitive superstition. Diabolical activity is reduced to material or psychological causes. The devil and his demons come to be seen as irrelevant. Soon ‘hell’ joins the devil and his demons in the category of antiquated concepts. And the theistic evolutionist easily makes the fatal mistake of thinking that he has nothing more to fear from the devil and his angels. According to Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome, there is a tremendous increase in diabolical activity and influence in the formerly Christian world. And yet most of the bishops of Europe no longer believe in the existence of evil spirits….To the Fathers of the Church who believed in the truth of Genesis, this would be incredible. But in view of the almost universal acceptance of theistic evolution, it is hardly surprising.” (The Difference it makes: The Importance of the Traditional Doctrine of Creation, Hugh Owen, kolbecenter.org)

Huxley had ‘zero’ respect for modern Origenists and received enormous pleasure from heaping piles of hot coals and burning contempt upon them, thereby exposing their shallow-reasoning, hypocrisy, timidity, fear of non-acceptance, and unfaithfulness. With sarcasm dripping from his words he quipped,

“I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how any one, for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures. The very conception of the Messiah, or Christ, is inextricably interwoven with Jewish history; the identification of Jesus of Nazareth with that Messiah rests upon the interpretation of passages of the Hebrew Scriptures which have no evidential value unless they possess the historical character assigned to them. If the covenant with Abraham was not made; if circumcision and sacrifices were not ordained by Jahveh; if the “ten words” were not written by God’s hand on the stone tables; if Abraham is more or less a mythical hero, such as Theseus; the story of the Deluge a fiction; that of the Fall a legend; and that of the creation the dream of a seer; if all these definite and detailed narratives of apparently real events have no more value as history than have the stories of the regal period of Rome—what is to be said about the Messianic doctrine, which is so much less clearly enunciated? And what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fictions for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands?” (Darwin’s Bulldog---Thomas Huxley, Russell Grigg, creation.com, Oct. 14, 2008)

Pouring more contempt on them he asked,

“When Jesus spoke, as of a matter of fact, that "the Flood came and destroyed them all," did he believe that the Deluge really took place, or not? It seems to me that, as the narrative mentions Noah’s wife, and his sons’ wives, there is good scriptural warranty for the statement that the antediluvians married and were given in marriage; and I should have thought that their eating and drinking might be assumed by the firmest believer in the literal truth of the story. Moreover, I venture to ask what sort of value, as an illustration of God’s methods of dealing with sin, has an account of an event that never happened? If no Flood swept the careless people away, how is the warning of more worth than the cry of “Wolf” when there is no wolf? If Jonah’s three days’ residence in the whale is not an “admitted reality,” how could it “warrant belief” in the “coming resurrection?” … Suppose that a Conservative orator warns his hearers to beware of great political and social changes, lest they end, as in France, in the domination of a Robespierre; what becomes, not only of his argument, but of his veracity, if he, personally, does not believe that Robespierre existed and did the deeds attributed to him?” (ibid)

Concerning Matthew 19:5:

“If divine authority is not here claimed for the twenty-fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, what is the value of language? And again, I ask, if one may play fast and loose with the story of the Fall as a “type” or “allegory,” what becomes of the foundation of Pauline theology?” (ibid)

And concerning Cor. 15:21-22:

“If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than Prometheus, and if the story of the Fall is merely an instructive “type,” comparable to the profound Promethean mythus, what value has Paul’s dialectic?” (ibid)

After much thought, C.S. Lewis concluded that evolution is the central, most radical lie at the center of a vast network of lies within which modern Westerners are entangled while Rev. Clarke identifies the central lie as the Gospel of another Spirit. The fiendish aim of this Spirit is to help men lose God, not find Him, and by contradicting the Divine Redeemer, compromising Priests are serving this Spirit and its’ diabolical purposes. To contradict the Divine Redeemer is the very essence of unfaithfulness, and that it should be done while reverence is professed,

“…. is an illustration of the intellectual and moral topsy-turvydom of Modernism…’He whom God hath sent speaketh the Words of God,’ claimed Christ of Himself (John 3:34), and no assumption of error can hold water in the face of that declaration, without blasphemy.” Evolutionary theists are serving the devil, therefore “no considerations of Christian charity, of tolerance, of policy, can exonerate Christian leaders or Churches who fail to condemn and to sever themselves from compromising, cowardly, shilly-shallying priests”---the falling stars who “challenge the Divine Authority of Jesus Christ.” (ibid)

The rebuttals, warnings and counsels of the Fathers against listening to Origenists (and their modern evolutionary counterparts) indicates that the spirit of antichrist operating through modern rationalistic criticism of the Revelation of God is not a heresy unique to our times but was inveighed against by early Church Fathers.

From the scholarly writings of the Eastern Orthodox priest, Fr. Seraphim Rose, to the incisive analysis, rebuttals and warnings of the Catholic Kolbe Center, creation.com, Creation Research Institute, Rev. Clarke, and many other stalwart defenders of the faith once delivered, all are a clear, compelling call to the whole body of the Church to hold fast to the traditional doctrine of creation as it was handed down from the Apostles, for as God spoke and Jesus is the Living Word incarnate, it is incumbent upon the faithful to submit their wills to the Divine Will and Authority of God rather than to the damnable heresy proffered by falling stars eager to embrace naturalistic science and the devil's antithesis--- evolution. But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord,

“…you have your choice: choose this day that which pleases you, whom you would rather serve….but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

[BroJoeK]

spirited irish: "If theology is a search for truth but science has nothing to do with it, then BroJoeK must surely be attracted to the opposite of truth since he is a fervent defender of ‘scientific’ evolutionary theism."

Not in the least, since I am merely trying to distinguish between the lower-order knowledge of natural-science (i.e., facts, laws, hypotheses and theories) compared the higher-order truths of theology and philosophy.

In science, we never speak of "truth", because that is outside science's "lane", so to speak.
Truth (capital T) resides in the realm of theology and truths (small t) in the various categories of philosophy.
Neither of those resides within science, which is locked into the realm of "confirmed observations" (aka: facts) and "confirmed theories" (aka: natural explanations for natural processes).

Sorry, but I don't know why this seems so obvious to me, but apparently so difficult to explain...

[Alamo-Girl]

Ethics and law on Jefferson's list do not fit your definition of "practical knowledge of natural things." They are both steeped in what we would call philosophy and theology.

[BroJoeK]

Alamo-Girl: "Ethics and law on Jefferson's list do not fit your definition of 'practical knowledge of natural things.'
They are both steeped in what we would call philosophy and theology."

Granted, but remember that Jefferson and other Enlightenment figures were devoted to what they called "the laws of nature and of nature's God".
For them, "natural law" and the ethics on which it is based could be derived from nature, without reference to the Bible.

No, Jefferson was not strictly a Deist, "Christian-deist" would be a more appropriate term, along with "Unitarian", as understood in those days.
In another (1803) letter to Priestly, Jefferson explained that his interest in (basically) a Deist's Bible came from his 1799 conversations with Dr. Benjamin Rush.
What Jefferson wanted was to emphasize the "principles of a pure deism" taught by Jesus, while "omitting the question of his deity".

Jefferson's Bible:

Indeed, it seems that many of our Founders were uneasy, if not outright uncomfortable, with the Deity of Christ.
Regardless, Jefferson did not abandon the Bible, or "nature's God", but he did want them strictly, ah, suborned to his own naturalistic outlook.

[betty boop]

All of those [pagan philosophers] are irrelevant to this discussion because they were not Christians.... The importance of Aquinas is that as a well-recognized "Doctor of the Church", he defines long-standing official Church doctrine regarding the relationship between theology and natural-philosophy (science).... And what Aquinas recognized were two separate realms, based on different lines of reasoning.

Hi dear BroJoeK! Glad to see you again!

WRT the above statement: I agree with parts of it, but not all of it.

What I disagree with is the idea that the "pagans" are irrelevant to Christian theology. Also, though I think it's correct to say that Aquinas recognized "two realms" based on "different lines of reasoning," I do not get the sense from him that he intended to irrevocably separate the two realms, to somehow suggest that they are mutually exclusive. That would be tantamount to separating Faith and Reason. To do that would amount to the defacement of the very image of God that we each of us bears in our soul, thus rendering us "less than human."

But then dear BroJoeK, you did say, "What Aquinas did not recognize (as least so far as I know) was the possibility that the two realms might conflict — that scientific evidence from our senses might contradict theological words derived from the Bible." So I gather, you see the problem, too. [Question: Are you advocating for such conflict here?]

Personally, I do not find/experience any "conflict" along these lines, and never have. Since I was a small child, I "understood" (somehow) that the divine and the natural interpenetrate. It just took several decades for me to realize how and why that is. And that is still a work in progress — by the Grace and Light of the Holy Spirit I pray.

Notwithstanding its modern-day detractors, we still find Christianity inherently, eminently reasonable. I imagine the reason for this (in part) is its deep debt to the revolutionary thinking of "pagans" such as Plato and Aristotle, which gave birth to the knowledge disciplines of psychology, cosmology, logic, natural theology, natural philosophy, ethics, political theory; laying foundations for these disciplines which continue to bear up till this day, without which "modern science" would not be possible.

Actually, I find it quite amusing to hear you say that Plato, Aristotle, et al. — the "pagans" — are irrelevant to Christian theology because they were not Christians. How could they possibly have been Christians, since both men were dead some 400 or so years before the Incarnation of Christ?

What if — as was the case with St. Justin Martyr — Plato and Aristotle had actually lived long enough to hear the Word of God clearly articulated to man, with the Incarnation of Christ? My best guess is both men would have become Christians. As did Justin Martyr, a great student of the schools of ancient Greece (and especially of Plato) and elsewhere, who found in Christianity the culmination and fulfillment of classical philosophy, just as much as he found in it what Christianity proclaims itself to be: the culmination and fulfillment of the Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testament.

I agree with Eric Voegelin's assessment of Justin Martyr's point of view and conclusions as a great classical and Christian thinker:

In the conception of Justin the Martyr (d. ca. 165), gospel and philosophy do not face the thinker with a choice of alternatives, nor are they complementary aspects of truth which the thinker would have to weld into the complete truth; in his conception, the Logos of the gospel is rather the same Word of the same God as the logos spermatikos [the creative word] of philosophy, but at a later state of its manifestation in history. The Logos has been operative in the world from its creation; all men who have lived according to reason, whether Greeks [Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato) or barbarians (Abraham, Elias), have in a sense been Christians [Apology 1:46]. Hence, Christianity is not an alternative to philosophy, it is philosophy itself in its state of perfection; the history of the Logos comes to its fulfillment through the incarnation of the Word in Christ. To Justin, the difference between gospel and philosophy is a matter of successive stages in the history of reason. — Eric Voegelin, "The Gospel and Culture," in The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, Volume 12: Published Essays, 1966–1985. [emphasis added]

From which I conclude: The separation of faith and reason is an artificial construct designed to undermine human reason and human nature as well.

I sense that the difficulties we get into, dear BroJoeK, are the result of differences in the way we see things. I tend to be someone who sees history as indispensable to the analysis of human questions and problems, where you seem to be a bit more "scriptural" or "doctrinal" in basic approach. But I note that the promulgation of knowledge of human history is something actually repressed by the public schools and the institutions of higher learning nowadays.

Indeed, it seemed to me that, at the same time as lauding the great Saint and Doctor of the Church, Thomas Aquinas, you were trying to separate him from his own intellectual history. Which, to me, means you may have inadvertently falsified something very important about this man: That he, as a great genius of faith and reason, stood on the shoulders of other great geniuses of human faith and reason who came before him, who serve to illuminate the thinking of a great Saint in their turn.

Aquinas is one of my three favorite Saints and Doctors of the Church. The other two of my "three big A's" are Augustine and Anselm — both of whom were quite evidently heavily influenced by Plato. Aquinas is the most "Aristotelian" of the three. But if you've got Aristotle, you've got the most, if not the whole of Plato "for free" — for Aristotle was Plato's student and colleague of some 27 years.

To defend my claim that you may be more "doctrinal" than I am, I note that, from your writings, you are rather attracted to String Theory as ultimately accounting for the foundation of the world of experience.

It seems to me that String Theory is fertile ground for the unfettered mathematical imagination. Yet it seems its account of actual Nature must include new spatial dimensions that are smaller than Planck length — and thus strictly speaking undetectable by human direct observation in principle. Thus so far, the "predictions" of String Theory remain yet to be detected because so far, they have produced nothing capable of human direct detection in actual experimental contexts. Same problem with Panspermia Theory. Even if we think our method of evaluation is "true," what we cannot explain by this method is the origin of the "space aliens" who did all this biological "seeding" in the first place.

Thus to me, neither theory rests on anything that can be called "scientific" at all — if all that science as it is presently constituted can do is to observe, record, and test objects in Nature that fall under direct human observation.

My final point here is that there are aspects of Nature that are not susceptible to the observing, recording, and testing of natural objects which constitute the "scientific method" as presently understood.

But from that fact, we cannot conclude that just because something cannot be "qualified" by the scientific method, that it does not exist, and is not important to the lives of human beings.

In conclusion, I do not see that a fatal distinction obtains between "theology, based on revealed truth," and "natural-philosophy (aka 'science'), which begins with input from our senses."

These are but different approaches that human beings follow to illuminate the truth of their existence. And they are not mutually exclusive.

Must run for now. Thank you so much, dear BroJoeK, for writing!

[marron]

You’ve touched on something that I think about from time to time, which is the way various truths touch on one another.

If a collection of truths are in harmony with one another, which being true you would expect them to be, they become useful and we employ them in making sense of the world. We take them into the shop and build things with them.

Where there are small dis-harmonies, or apparent dis-harmonies, we can use one truth to illuminate the other, and vice versa.

As the contradictions grow, though, is where it gets interesting. Resolving the apparent contradictions is where you get the chance to move up to the next level. Where all your truths agree, thats great for the engineers and mechanics. Where they don’t all agree, thats where the scientists and philosophers and deep thinkers come in to play. Resolving the contradictions is where new knowledge is generated.

Something similar happens when the various truths are of different realms. They lend one another context and perspective where the apparent contradictions are small. Where they are larger, it doesn’t bother me. I’m happy to let the scientists do what they do, and I’m happy to let the theologians and cogitators figure out what the deeper meaning of it is. The human brain is quite capable, in fact it is well designed for handling and blending and splitting the difference between apparent contradictions and ricocheting ideas one to the other. And in the end, if we keep digging, truth is truth.

One of the things that make the arguments about evolution so bitter, I think, is that both sides of the debate seem to think the existence and godship of the Creator God is in play. It isn’t. If you’ve met him and walked with him that isn’t even in question; the only questions are the nuts and bolts “hows” of creation, which we generally let the science guys handle, and the “whys” of it which we generally leave to the philosophers and priests and amateur cogitators like us. I know, the scientists don’t really get us, but thats OK. They don’t have to. They gather the data, and where it impinges on the big picture and the “meaning of life” thats our job. If they think we’re wrong, they can go gather more data.

[tacticalogic]

What I disagree with is the idea that the "pagans" are irrelevant to Christian theology. Also, though I think it's correct to say that Aquinas recognized "two realms" based on "different lines of reasoning," I do not get the sense from him that he intended to irrevocably separate the two realms, to somehow suggest that they are mutually exclusive. That would be tantamount to separating Faith and Reason. To do that would amount to the defacement of the very image of God that we each of us bears in our soul, thus rendering us "less than human."

Whatever this "sense" you have is, it seems rather counter-intuitive. The act of defining "Realms" is intrinsically an exercise in finding mutually exclusive traits and characteristics that define the boundaries. The question is, what are the traits characteristics that delineate the Realms? If the realms themselves are not mutually exclusive, then nothing can be reasonably allocated to one or the other and every comparison results in a distinction without a difference.

[BroJoeK]

betty boop: "What I disagree with is the idea that the "pagans" are irrelevant to Christian theology."

No, not irrelevant to Christian theology generally, but certainly to this particular discussion on evolution theory, which involves the question: what do we do if/when it seems that Biblical Truth and scientific theory contradict each other?
Yes, I gather you don't agree they are in conflict, and I might well agree -- after all, when I look at science I see God's purpose, regardless of how "random" science claims it all is.
Likewise, when I read Genesis, I see metaphors made inevitable by the fact that those who first wrote and read it could not possibly have understood what was really going on, in scientific terms.
Neither scientific "randomness" nor Biblical metaphors cause me any particular problems in understanding.

But that is hardly the view of our Creationists, Intelligent Designers or Young Earthers posting on these threads.
They stubbornly insist the two accounts cannot be reconciled, and any efforts to explain Genesis in scientific terms they counter with other scripture passages which make reconciliation seem impossible.
And for them, it is not just a matter of understanding, but in spirited irish's article words: of "moral topsy-turvydom of Modernism" and even heresy:

"Rev. Clarke identifies the central lie as the Gospel of another Spirit.
The fiendish aim of this Spirit is to help men lose God, not find Him, and by contradicting the Divine Redeemer, compromising Priests are serving this Spirit and its’ diabolical purposes.
To contradict the Divine Redeemer is the very essence of unfaithfulness..."

For them, there is no reconciliation, and the very effort only serves "diabolical purposes".

betty boop: "...you did say, "What Aquinas did not recognize (as least so far as I know) was the possibility that the two realms might conflict — that scientific evidence from our senses might contradict theological words derived from the Bible."
So I gather, you see the problem, too.
[Question: Are you advocating for such conflict here?]"

I don't advocate anything, merely report the obvious fact that our Creationists, Intelligent Designers and Young Earthers are unwilling to accept any explanation that doesn't match up with their own interpretations of scripture.

betty boop: "Actually, I find it quite amusing to hear you say that Plato, Aristotle, et al. — the "pagans" — are irrelevant to Christian theology because they were not Christians.
How could they possibly have been Christians, since both men were dead some 400 or so years before the Incarnation of Christ? "

The important point about all those pagan philosophers -- for purposes of this particular discussion -- is that not one of them could even conceive the possibility that scientific theories and Biblical doctrines might conflict.
That's why they are irrelevant here.

betty boop: "I agree with Eric Voegelin's assessment of Justin Martyr's point of view and conclusions as a great classical and Christian thinker."

Understood, and not wishing to split hairs, yet still must point out that Justin Martyr was comparing Christian doctrine to the best of pagan theistic philosophy, and declaring them equivalent.
Martyr did not address the possibility of doctrine conflicting with natural-philosophy (aka "science").
And yet that is the conflict insisted on by our Biblical literalists.

betty boop: "I tend to be someone who sees history as indispensable to the analysis of human questions and problems, where you seem to be a bit more "scriptural" or "doctrinal" in basic approach."

Sorry, but I don't know what that means.
The truth is, I am merely responding to some very strong language posted on this thread (and others) by people like spirited irish.

betty boop: "at the same time as lauding the great Saint and Doctor of the Church, Thomas Aquinas, you were trying to separate him from his own intellectual history.
Which, to me, means you may have inadvertently falsified something very important about this man"

Sorry, but I'm only trying (and trying...) to draw your attention to the facts about Aquinas which relate to this thread, and those have to do with any potential for conflict between science and religion -- or in Aquinas' terms: between theology based on the Bible and natural-philosophy based on inputs from our senses.
Aquinas understood those are two separate modes of thinking, but did not expect them to conflict.

However in fact, for some centuries now, they have conflicted, at least in the minds of some believers.

betty boop: "To defend my claim that you may be more "doctrinal" than I am, I note that, from your writings, you are rather attracted to String Theory as ultimately accounting for the foundation of the world of experience."

Then you missed the ironic point of my mentioning "string theory", namely that it is hypothesis, not confirmed theory, and the very name "string" is total metaphor!
So "string theory" is scientific metaphorical guess-work.
It is not metaphysical or ontological, it's neither theological Truth nor philosophical truth, and it's not even a scientific fact, law or theory.
It's just scientific metaphorical guesswork, and yet, it's the best they can do at providing natural explanations for natural processes.

Of course I think it's interesting, and who knows where it might lead?
But "string theory" illustrates my main point: that science by its very nature is a highly restricted, limited enterprise which cannot leave the boundaries imposed by its mission to provide natural explanations for natural processes."

betty boop: "Same problem with Panspermia Theory.
Even if we think our method of evaluation is "true," what we cannot explain by this method is the origin of the "space aliens" who did all this biological "seeding" in the first place."

Well.... despite what you may have watched on some Discovery channel, there is no scientific theory of "space aliens" -- that is pure fantasy.
At most, "panspermia" posits that certain critical organic chemicals arrived on earth aboard comets or meteors, and for that there is some evidence.
There are also suggestions -- hints, really -- that some exotic organic chemistry may have been on-board certain rocks blasted off Mars and later fell to earth.
No confirmation on that as yet.

But that's it -- everything else is pure imagination without supporting evidence.
So it still remained for the Earth itself to provide conditions in which "exotic organic chemistry" may have grown complex enough to be classified as "primitive life-like forms".

betty boop: "Thus to me, neither theory rests on anything that can be called "scientific" at all — if all that science as it is presently constituted can do is to observe, record, and test objects in Nature that fall under direct human observation."

But of course, neither "theory" is a "theory", they are both just scientific hypotheses, meaning highly educated guess-work.
Yes, someday they may be confirmed by evidence or falsification-tests, but not yet.

betty boop: "But from that fact, we cannot conclude that just because something cannot be "qualified" by the scientific method, that it does not exist, and is not important to the lives of human beings."

Agreed, and thank you for a most interesting discussion, FRiend!

[Alamo-Girl]

Jefferson's concept of God is irrelevant, ethics and law both are steeped in our present concept of philosophy and theology, e.g. acceptable behavior, personal responsibility.

[Alamo-Girl]

In conclusion, I do not see that a fatal distinction obtains between "theology, based on revealed truth," and "natural-philosophy (aka 'science'), which begins with input from our senses."

These are but different approaches that human beings follow to illuminate the truth of their existence. And they are not mutually exclusive.

I very strongly agree, dearest sister in Christ!

Thank you so much for your illuminating essay-post!

[spirited irish]

Bro: I look at science I see God’s purpose, regardless of how “random” science claims it all is.
Likewise, when I read Genesis, I see metaphors made inevitable by the fact that those who first wrote and read it could not possibly have understood what was really going on, in scientific terms.

Spirited: In a pre-incarnate theophany, Jesus Christ spoke to Moses from the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). The name He used when He spoke to Moses is “I AM.”

According to the inner illogic of BroJoeK’s claims, Jesus Christ must have been a really stupid, inept God to not have known that Moses, let alone the Prophets, early Church Fathers and all of today’s faithful Christians could not possibly understand “in scientific” terms.

No, true understanding is only knowable, only possible, for ‘scientifically enlightened’ modern Gnostikoi like BroJoeK.

As BroJoeK has admitted elsewhere, ‘natural science’ is not a search for truth. What is left unsaid is that it is a search for personal power. Knowledge is power, and this is what ‘science’ is for BroJoeK whose ‘science’ is the perversion described by CS Lewis as magic science.

Magic science and the Wizard of Oz are twins animated by maestros of pompous pretense speaking presumptuously and with great authority about things which cannot possibly be known. Hiding behind both the curtain and magic science are mere mortals pretending to be what they are not.

[spirited irish]

Bro: what do we do if/when it seems that Biblical Truth and scientific theory contradict each other?

Spirited: For individuals like BroJoek, not only are natural science and the Wizard of Oz twins, but crystal balls. Thus when BroJoeK stares into his crystal ball in pursuit of answers the spirit of the glass informs him that ‘science’ is the ongoing, always ‘new’ revelation that must always supplant (replace) the Word of God.

In a pre-incarnate theophany, I AM (Jesus Christ) divinely revealed certain knowledge pertaining to creation which early Church Fathers who wrote commentaries on Genesis counseled us to accept by simple faith.

Unable to believe, Origenists argued that the first three books should be reduced to metaphor, allegory and myth. In company with all evolutionary theists BroJoeK argues for the same position thereby identifying himself as a modern Origenist.

Magic science and evolutionary thinking ultimately deny that Jesus Christ is I AM, and this is a very dangerous position, for as Christ Himself warned,

“...if you believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” John 8:24

[tacticalogic]

So the bait worked, and found you some heretics to rag on?

[BroJoeK]

Alamo-Girl: "Jefferson's concept of God is irrelevant, ethics and law both are steeped in our present concept of philosophy and theology, e.g. acceptable behavior, personal responsibility."

Sure, doubtless "Jefferson's concept of God is irrelevant" to you.
But it was certainly not irrelevant to Jefferson, whose list of "natural-sciences" you posted above.

Jefferson's list does not include subjects like theology, metaphysics, ontology, teleology or epistemology.
All of those, in Jefferson's mind, were outside the realm of practical "natural-sciences".

So, the fact that Jefferson did include ethics and law tells us he considered those also as practical natural-sciences, not necessarily requiring reference to theology derived from the Bible.

Point is: I am not at all clear as to why you resist the Thomistic idea that knowledge has two categories: 1) theology based on the Bible and 2) natural-sciences beginning with input from our senses?

[BroJoeK]

spirited irish: "In a pre-incarnate theophany, Jesus Christ spoke to Moses from the burning bush (Exodus 3:14).
The name He used when He spoke to Moses is “I AM.”"

First of all, the Old Testament itself insists that YHWH spoke to Moses, so why would an alleged "biblical literalist" tell us it was somebody else?
Wouldn't a "strict interpretation" require us to use His actual words, and not some later theological interpretation of them?

spirited irish: "According to the inner illogic of BroJoeK’s claims, Jesus Christ must have been a really stupid, inept God to not have known that Moses, let alone the Prophets, early Church Fathers and all of today’s faithful Christians could not possibly understand “in scientific” terms."

So, FRiend spirited irish, why are you changing the subject from Genesis to Exodus?
God's conversation from a burning bush with Moses said nothing about Creation, or Intelligent Design, or Young Earth.
Why then are you injecting it into this discussion?

Clearly YHWH's identification of Himself as "I am who I am", is a theological Truth, easily understood by any human soul, and having nothing directly to do with natural-sciences, isn't it?

spirited irish: "No, true understanding is only knowable, only possible, for ‘scientifically enlightened’ modern Gnostikoi like BroJoeK."

In fact, FRiend, I've said the opposite: theological Truth is knowable by any human soul, while natural-science deals only in "observations" and "confirmed theories".
So science is neither Truth nor truth, but basically a metaphor (based on what works) of natural explanations for natural processes.

spirited irish: "As BroJoeK has admitted elsewhere, ‘natural science’ is not a search for truth.
What is left unsaid is that it is a search for personal power.
Knowledge is power, and this is what ‘science’ is for BroJoeK whose ‘science’ is the perversion described by CS Lewis as magic science."

Sorry, but you are way, way off base here.
"Truth" by definition is a higher level of knowledge that mere science.
Science itself is only concerned with explanations that can be confirmed to work -- so "what works" is its basic standard.

As for my alleged "search for personal power", that is beyond ridiculous, since I am long since retired and have barely enough "personal power" to keep body and soul together.
So, what science provides me is only the same things it provides spirited irish and anybody else: enough know-how to make things work.

So, perhaps you can point to chapter & verse in the Bible where "know-how" is condemned as immoral or illegal?

spirited irish: "Magic science and the Wizard of Oz are twins animated by maestros of pompous pretense speaking presumptuously and with great authority about things which cannot possibly be known.
Hiding behind both the curtain and magic science are mere mortals pretending to be what they are not."

Sorry, but I cannot make sense of those words.
Who & what, after all, might you be speaking of, specifically?

So I would only remind you that natural-science is what it is, and you are not required to believe a word of it.
But just don't pretend that whatever it is you do believe is somehow "scientific", because it's not.

[BroJoeK]

spirited irish: "For individuals like BroJoek, not only are natural science and the Wizard of Oz twins, but crystal balls.
Thus when BroJoeK stares into his crystal ball in pursuit of answers the spirit of the glass informs him that ‘science’ is the ongoing, always ‘new’ revelation that must always supplant (replace) the Word of God."

Speaking of metaphors!
But yours aren't even honest, nothing accurate about them, which sort of suggests they are pre-programmed -- ammo loaded into your rhetorical guns, ready to be fired off at will.

The truth is, I've said the opposite of "‘science’ is the ongoing, always ‘new’ revelation that must always supplant (replace) the Word of God."

But truth doesn't seem to faze you, does it, FRiend?

spirited irish: "Unable to believe, Origenists argued that the first three books should be reduced to metaphor, allegory and myth.
In company with all evolutionary theists BroJoeK argues for the same position thereby identifying himself as a modern Origenist."

Origen (AD 184 - 254) is considered a Church Father, but not a saint, due to his condemnation by the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 AD.
That council in turn is not recognized by most Protestant denominations.

Here is some of what the Catholic Encyclopedia says about Origen's views on metaphors.

the Catholic Encyclopedia:

"If [Origen's] terminology is kept in mind there is nothing absurd in the principle he repeats so often:
"Such a passage of the Scripture as no corporal meaning."

"As examples Origen cites the anthropomorphisms, metaphors, and symbols which ought indeed to be understood figuratively."

"Though he warns us that these passages are the exceptions, it must be confessed that he allows too many cases in which the Scripture is not to be understood according to the letter; but, remembering his terminology, his principle is unimpeachable.

The two great rules of interpretation laid sown by the Alexandria catechist, taken by themselves and independently of erroneous applications, are proof against criticism."

• "Scripture must be interpreted in a manner worthy of God, the author of Scripture.

• "The corporal sense or the letter of Scripture must not be adopted, when it would entail anything impossible, absurd, or unworthy of God."

So, that sounds to me as if the Catholic Church itself is rather tolerant of Origen's views on metaphors, despite the Council's condemnations in 553 AD.

spirited irish: "Magic science and evolutionary thinking ultimately deny that Jesus Christ is I AM, and this is a very dangerous position, for as Christ Himself warned,

“...if you believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”
John 8:24

Well, FRiend... precisely who Jesus claimed Himself to be is fully explained just a few sentences later (John 8:25-29):

" “Who are you?” they asked.
“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied.
26 “I have much to say in judgment of you.
But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.
28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up[a] the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.
29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” "

[BroJoeK]

tacticalogic to spirited irish: "So the bait worked, and found you some heretics to rag on?"

spirited irish and her cohorts do seem to be on something of a witch-hunt here.
Well, considering that she throws two recently beautified popes (John XXIII & John Paul II) into the same category, I'm not so certain how much of a put-down it really is...

;-)

[HiTech RedNeck]

Is this some kind of contest as to who can out geek whom on the screen? This is ludicrous. Where does the love of the Lord enter here.

[BroJoeK]

Referring to what, exactly?
Did you object to the quotation from John 8, or was it the Catholic Encyclopedia which has you claiming "ludicrous"?

FRiend, I do my very best to respond with love and respect, even when being accused of the most terrible heresies.
But maybe you have some advice which could help our FRiend, spirited irish see the light?

[betty boop]

...[T]he question: what do we do if/when it seems that Biblical Truth and scientific theory contradict each other?

I have no idea. For they do not seem to contradict from where I sit. Therefore, I see no problem there.

Indeed, I would point your attention to the scientific physical cosmology that is called "big bang/inflationary universe theory." The nifty thing here is that there has been a tremendous amount of "human observation" that has gone on, as technologically extended by satellites and great mathematics to capture, say the WMAP data....

You denote three species of folks who you (from the context) might regard as "opponents" of your own point of view: creationists, intelligent design investigators, and YECs. But you do so in a way that suggests there is not a dime's-worth of difference between them.

To which I would respond: The three positions are not equivalent. Creationists and people interested in intelligent design have no reason to think such positions are contrary to the large-scale description of universal Nature given by state-of-the-art physical science.

Though I think the YECs may have a problem here: They seem to have a habit of projecting and imposing "time" as human beings understand/experience it, onto a timeless, eternal God.

But logically, I don't think one can get very far with that presupposition: For God Creator is not subject to the Laws of His Creation.

There is more I'd like to say tonight in response to your last. But it'll have to wait until tomorrow. The hour is growing late, and I still have to get dinner on the table....

So, good night and pleasant dreams, dear Bro! 'Til next we meet!

[tacticalogic]

I have no idea. For they do not seem to contradict from where I sit. Therefore, I see no problem there.

The three positions are not equivalent. Creationists and people interested in intelligent design have no reason to think such positions are contrary to the large-scale description of universal Nature given by state-of-the-art physical science.

Though I think the YECs may have a problem here: They seem to have a habit of projecting and imposing "time" as human beings understand/experience it, onto a timeless, eternal God.

I believe you've just imposed your own religious beliefs as a litmus test of the validity of scientific theories.