Wednesday, November 20, 2002

As a Christian, I would just like to say that one needs not be a "Creationist" to be a Christian. It is entirely possible to hold as true that God created the universe and everything in it, while at the same time acknowledging the probable truth of scientific theories on the age and development of the universe.

Faith and reason are both instruments for understanding the truth and both are a gift from God. Therefore, in the end, they cannot conflict or contradict.

The primary problem with creationism is that it relies on the Bible as not just the source of religious and theological truth, but as scientific truth as well. Nowhere does the Bible make this claim for itself and giving it this kind of authority does nothing to help one understand the religious truths contained therein. As Cardinal Caesar Baronius said during the trial of Galileo, "the Scriptures tell us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go."

To strict evolutionists and atheists I would say, science only tells us the "how" of the universe, not the "why." Do not view faith as essentially opposed to science and reason. They are complementary and have been held to be so at least since the time of St. Thomas Aquinas (13th century). In fact, reason can be used just as thoroughly as a tool to understand faith as it can to understand nature.

Trey Hoffman

Sharpsburg