Thursday, August 03, 2006

Some Ancient Wisdom on Relating Christian Faith & Science

"Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an unbeliever to hear a Christian, presumably giving meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics [like astronomy, physics, and biology]. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books and matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learned from experience in the light of reason?"
St. Augustine