Faith

In principio erat Verbum
~ At the begining of all things, stands the power of reason.

It is ironic how my previous blog post seems so relevant to this post, which is the result of an interesting conversation I had yesterday with 2 Christian friends. The Catholic church has always been criticised for being archaic and unprogressive but over the past decades it has made rapid progress. Evolution theory is no longer frowned upon but seen as complementary to Theological Doctrine.

I believe in God the creator. I believe that evolution does not undermine God but is the result of the His work. Besides, I do not believe that my God is so easily undermined.

I find it difficult to believe that the world and the universe that we live in is only 10,000 to 15,000 years old. I find it hard to believe that evolution does not exist because if that was so, there wouldn't be a problem of HIV. The mutation process of evolution may seem random but it is guided by the premise that nature knows what is best. But what exactly is nature? Who created nature?

Before we embark on a crusade for the truth there are several issues that we have to comprehend. First, is that the bible has been translated, allowances must be made for translantion and context. Second, that time is relative. What is an eternity for mankind could be a split second for God. Relativity is no longer a theory but a Law. Third, that the human being is only capable of so much divine comprehension. How much of God's plan and will do we understand or can we understand? Fourth, the major difference between humans and other life form is cognitive thinking.

Sola Scriptura, one of the 5 solas of Protestant doctrine, advocating a strict and literal interpretation of the bible has ironically resulted in an even more archaic and unprogressive outlook of the world today. This situation is compounded by selective literal readings of the bible. The Catholic church through scientific, historical and theological research, has made dramatic progess; placing it perhaps somewhere between Galileo and Comte. But to deny evolution would be to take a stand that is clearly pre Galileo.

Some interesting articles
Evolving Thoughts
On Evolution
What science has to offer