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Thursday, September 21, 2006 10:55 PM CDT
Letter: ‘They think they are the only ones here’
By BOB BUTTS, Charleston
The discussion over evolution reminds me of the 17th century fight by Galileo Galilei (astronomer and physicist)over the currently held astronomical theory of an earth-centered universe.
A good bit earlier Copernicus challenged this view, but very few theologians challenged him and those who did rejected his theory.
It was until much later that Galileo, a professor of astronomy challenged the accepted theory that the sun and the planets revolved around the Earth. He was convinced of the truth of Copernicus sun-centered or heliocentric theory. His support of this theory got him in trouble with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1633 the Inquisition convicted him of heresy and forced him to recant his support of Copernicus. They sentenced him to life imprisonment, but because of his advanced age allowed him to serve his term under house arrest.
Today it is not the Catholic Church that asks the evolutionist to recant, but the fundamentalist. It appears to me the majority of those who support creationism and intelligent design are those who believe the Bible is the inerrantly dictated Word of God, everything there....scientific opinions, medical theories, historical judgments, as well as spiritual insight... all infallible. There are those of us who love the Bible as much as they who never think of the Bible in this way. The Bible is a complex book and contains a variety of writings, including history, poems, myths, stories. It is not a book of science. The fundamentalist will not win this battle as the Catholic Church did not win in the 17th century. Evolutionary theory is the best science we have about the way the world has evolved.....the evidence is overwhelming. One needs to remind oneself that God is on the side of truth wherever one finds it.
There is a story about a Christian who went to heaven and met St. Peter at the gate.
St. Peter asked him to enter and enjoy the bliss of heaven and after visiting around for a while if he had any questions St. Peter would be glad to answer them. The man visited for a while and saw lots of old friends and new friends enjoying themselves. He later returned to St. Peter and wondered who those people were in a group all by themselves. St. Peter said, “Oh, those are the fundamentalist, they think they are the only ones here.”
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kay wrote on Apr 10, 2007 9:27 AM: