Tuesday, March 09, 2004
The Catholic Church believes: "Any knowledge which is profitable to salvation may be the object of prophetic inspiration. But things which cannot affect our salvation do not belong to inspiration." In other words, the Bible does not concern itself with the details of the physical world. Our Pope has called it an "error" that theologians in the past put people like Copernicus & Galileo in prison or made them recant their scientific findings. In fact, the Catholic Catechism really doesn't care about the theory of evolution, but says that the human soul was made by God and has never changed. The biological principles of how the physical world operates, then, is in the competence of human experience and reasoning.
This is much to think about. Immediately, it makes one think of stem-cell and cloning research, contraception, homosexuality... all these things have biological aspects that humankind is trying to understand and learn more about. I don't want to be looked upon as the Church making Galileo recant when I believe that stem-cell research is against the teachings of the church. Much more reading, and talking to those of longer-standing faith, is needed.
This is much to think about. Immediately, it makes one think of stem-cell and cloning research, contraception, homosexuality... all these things have biological aspects that humankind is trying to understand and learn more about. I don't want to be looked upon as the Church making Galileo recant when I believe that stem-cell research is against the teachings of the church. Much more reading, and talking to those of longer-standing faith, is needed.
