Year of Faith The beauty of the world is not a work of nature but a work of art, and if it’s a work of art, then it involves an artist. What we call Nature, the wiser of us call Creation. Evolutionists continually use the phrase “the purpose of Nature”, but “nature” is a purposely vague word, and purpose naturally implies an act of the will. Evolution is an explanation …of the cause of living things, is still faced with the problem of producing rabbits out of an empty hat; a process involving some hint of design. We have lost our balance because the role of science is out of proportion in our society. We need to put science back in it’s place because in it’s rightful place, science can do a great deal of good, instead of adding to the confusion and doubt of the modern world. The only thing that can put science in its proper place is religion. Only the supernatural can give the proper context to the natural. You can already imagine the editorials, sputtering with outrage at such a suggestion. They will say that religion will persecute science or inhibit scientific progress. After all, look at how the Church persecuted Galileo! The name “Galileo” has become imbedded in journalese and preserved there like a fossil. You can not read an article on science and religion without seeing the name “Galileo”. Chesterton suggests a tax be put on the word “Galileo”, which would force young journalists to come up with some other example of a scientist who has been persecuted by the Church. It would force them to do some research and perhaps learn something about history. They might even learn that Galileo’s “persecution” was pretty minor, if you even call it persecution. Galileo’s idea about the earth going around the sun was not Galileo’s idea. It was first suggested by a Catholic priest from Poland named Copernicus, who was never persecuted for his idea but was always held in the greatest esteem by the Church. Chesterton also points out that long before even Copernicus stated it, it had been suggested in the very middle of the Middle Ages by Cusa, and that the persecuting Church proceeded to persecute him by making him a Cardinal . The heliocentric theory is called the Copernican Revolution and not the Galilean Revolution. But, according to Chesterton, the most important point is that the discovery of Copernicus and Galileo really doesn’t matter. He says the Solar System is a colossal trifle. It is irrelevant to human affairs. What matters is feeding the hungry and relieving the suffering of those who hurt. The Solar System doesn’t matter to them. Neither does the Neanderthal Man. Science is a tool or toy. When it is a tool, the real issue is, whose tool is it and what is it being used for? As for the tired argument about Galileo, the question needs to be updated. In today’s western world, whose creed is taught in schools, fully underwritten by the government? Whose creed is silenced under penalty of law? Our religion should not contradict our science, because our religion should not contradict anything in our lives. Religion is what keeps everything in its proper place. Chesterton says ONCE WE ADMIT THERE IS A GOD, THE COSMOS BEGINS TO KNOW ITS PLACE AND IT’S PLACE IS SECOND PLACE. The Cosmos falls down before Him. The main problem with science today is that it needs to be kept in its right place. Science must not impose any philosophy, any more than the telephone must tell us what to say… … from the book COMMON SENSE 101 – Lessons from G.K. Chesterton.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 03:06:26 +0000
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