Episode four.
Let's now consider the Religious Community and
the views of two very well-known individuals.
We begin with a Roman Catholic.
In 1996, Pope John Paul the second made
international headlines when he stated in quote six,
"new knowledge leads to the recognition of the theory
of evolution as more than a hypothesis."
For this Pope, evolution is a fact.
Regarding the Bible, Pope John Paul offers a remarkable insight.
He writes sacred scripture wishes simply to declare that the world
was created by God and in order to teach this truth,
it expresses itself in terms of the cosmology,
that is the science in use at the time of the writer.
In other words, when God revealed himself
to ancient people that He was the creator of the world,
He came down to their intellectual level and used
their ancient concepts of the physical world.
Pope John Paul the second concludes the Bible does not wish to teach how heaven was made,
but how one goes to heaven.
As we'll see later in this course,
this aphorism was inspired by Galileo.
From this perspective, the Bible deals with spiritual truths, not scientific facts.
The Roman Catholic Church has no problem with evolution.
The reason is because for Catholics,
the Bible is not a book of science.
To be sure, there are numerous statements about nature and scripture but the Bible
uses the science of the day or in other words, ancient science.
As you will see, the idea that the Bible has
an ancient understanding of the physical world is
a major theme in this course and we will
have a lot more to say about this very important topic.
It is a key in developing a peaceful relationship between science and religion.
Let's now look at another famous Christian leader,
this time an Evangelical Protestant.
Billy Graham is often regarded as one of
the greatest preachers of the Gospel during the twentieth century.
In quote Seven, he states,
"I don't think that there's any conflict at all between science today and the
Scriptures," and then quite bluntly Graham states,
"I think we have misinterpreted the Scriptures many times and
we've tried to make the Scriptures say things they weren't meant to say.
And I think we've made a mistake by thinking the Bible is a scientific book."
In sharp contrast to Henry Morris' belief that the Bible is a book of science,
Billy Graham asserts, "the Bible is not a book of science,
the Bible is a book of redemption."
In other words, the Bible assists us to have a relationship with God.
Continuing, Graham adds, "and of course,
I accept the creation story.
I believe that God did create the universe.
I believe He created man and whether it came by
an evolutionary process and at a certain point He took this person or being,
and made him a living soul or not does not change the fact that God did create man."
In other words, whether God created humans
instantaneously or through a long process of evolution,
God is still the creator of humans,
according to Billy Graham.
Concluding Graham states, "whichever way God did it makes
no difference as to what men and women are and our relationship to God."
And Graham would say,
"that we all are created in the Image of God and that God loves us beyond measure."
Like Pope John Paul the second,
Billy Graham firmly believes that the Bible is not a book of science.
To be sure, his openness to evolution is not
often heard in Evangelical Protestant churches,
but it's worth pointing out that this is slowly starting to change.
And we'll talk about this shift later in the course in
the section on the modern origins debate.
Returning to our Science and Religion Warfare diagram on page one of the handouts,
we're seeing that within the religious community,
there are Christian leaders like Pope John Paul the second
and Billy Graham who do not have a problem with
biological evolution and they are clearly suggesting
that we do not have to make a choice between Evolution and Christianity.
Instead, we can embrace both.
Let's summarize our findings with regards to
the new science religion dialogue that began during the 1990s.
It is clear, that Science and Religion Warfare is being challenged by
prominent leaders within both the scientific community and the religious community.
The new science religion dialogue is opening up
a middle ground between the extremes of scientism and fundamentalism,
and it is underlining that the science versus religion and evolution
versus creation dichotomies are misguided and mistaken.
Today is a very exciting time for people who love
modern science and who embrace religious faith.
As we proceed through this course,
you will see that there are a wide variety of approaches
for a peaceful relationship between science and religion.
As a university professor,
I believe that it's important for my students to see all sides of a topic.
This to me contributes to a much better education.
So, you need to know that there has been criticism of the new science religion dialogue.
There is no better critic of the new scholarship supporting
a peaceful relationship between science and religion than Richard Dawkins,
who is the most important atheist in the world today.
In quote eight, he asks,
"are science and religion converging?
No. Convergence? Only when it suits,
"to an honest judge."
The alleged marriage between religion and science is a shallow empty spin doctored sham.
In other words, Dennis Lamoureux,
if you're being honest with your students you would be telling them that
the science religion dialogue is utter nonsense.
End of episode.