From: Denyse O'Leary (oleary@sympatico.ca)
Date: Sun Apr 13 2003 - 11:51:12 EDT
The Christian faith is not at liberty to reject anyone because they
appear stupid or ignorant.
This necessarily prejudices our position with the clever and well-educated.
It was so in Augustine's day, is so today, and will not cease.
You have probably read this quote from Augustine, expressing his
frustration:
It often happens that one who is not a Christian hath some knowledge,
derived from the evidence of his senses, about the earth, about the
heavens, about the elements of this world, about the movements and
revolutions, or about the size and distance of the stars, about certain
eclipses of the sun and moon, about the course of the years and the
seasons, about the nature of animals, plants, and minerals... Now it is
an unseemly and mischievous thing, and greatly to be avoided, that a
Christian man speaking on such matters, as if according to the
authority of the Christian Scriptures, should talk so foolishly that the
unbeliever on hearing him and observing the extravagance of his error,
should hardly be able to refrain from laughter. And the great mischief
is not so much that the man himself is laughed at for his errors, but
that our authors are believed, by many people without the Church, to
have taught such things, and so are condemned as unlearned and cast
aside, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we are so much
concerned.
... St. Augustine (345-430), On Genesis
Note, however, that in Augustine's day, as in ours, the growth of
Christ's church is not hindered by this problem. Growth occurs among all
classes and races, as predicted, because our common heritage means that
we face similar problems and have similar needs.
No argument and no miracle convinces those who wish to continue in sin,
because they are making a CHOICE. That is what "free will" means.
The Christian's duty is to witness to the good news that salvation from
sin is freely available, whether people take it up or not.
If you are a scientist, you may have to combat apparent theories in
science that deny that sin exists, that there is a choice to be made, or
that one is free to make it.
Such theories turn out, on inspection, to be vanity of one sort or
another. However, in many cases, only a fellow scientist who understands
the theory is likely to refute it convincingly. There is great
opportunity out there, from what I can see,
Denyse O'Leary
designorchance.com
Debbie Mann wrote:
> Re: fine tuningBut Faith is the Heart of Christianity. I agree that
> bull-headed Christians have thrown enormous obstacles into the paths of
> Scientists who might otherwise have believed. I can't count the number of
> people I have met who were just too angry or disgusted with ignorance having
> been thrust upon them to believe. Establishing the fact that our faith IS
> strong enough to accept all comers without our blood pressure rising is one
> of the best witnesses I can think of in this arena. At one time I rejected
> many scientific concepts because they were against what I was taught - and
> then, Enlightenment! I KNOW there is God. There is nothing anyone or
> anything can do to change the fact that I know. Science is not going to
> challenge the existence of my house or of me for that matter. Robert Shapiro
> challenges the fact that I exist. Do I cease to exist? No! Do I learn from
> his arguments? Undoubtably. If we as Scientistific Christians can make the
> question of Christ an attractive one, perhaps other scientist will open
> their minds and hearts to the possibility. But, then, conversion has to be
> by faith. Even when there has been seemingly incontravertable proof, history
> has taught that only God himself convinces.
>
>
>
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>
-- To see what's new in faith and science issues, go to www.designorchance.com My next book, By Design or By Chance?: The Growing Controversy Over the Origin of Life in the Universe (Castle Quay Books, Oakville) will be published Fall 2003.To order, call Castle Quay, 1-800-265-6397, fax 519-748-9835, or visit www.afcanada.com (CDN $19.95 or US$14.95).
Denyse O'Leary 14 Latimer Avenue Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5N 2L8 Tel: 416 485-2392/Fax: 416 485-9665 oleary@sympatico.ca www.denyseoleary.com
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