Seeking the truth

by Letters Editor · August 30, 2012

From Anthony Sturges, Johannesburg

Franko Sokolic (August 8) and I do agree on one point: the Father is creator of all heaven and earth. It is how this came about which always invites so much controversy and rightly so, for who knows the mind of God? �For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord,� says Isaiah.

"We cannot know the mind of the Creator nor how he achieves his creation (for it is on-going). "

Mr Sokolic expressed shock that Cardinal George Pell of Sydney supports the principle of evolution; how could our Lord have descended from simian ancestry? Apparently Mr Sokolic does not understand Jesus� hypostatic nature; so when referring to evolutionary progress, it means evolution within creation: referring to his humanity not his divinity.

Relying on a literalistic interpretation of the Bible and on the teachings of distant councils, without contextualising, Mr Sokolic makes the mistake of placing ancient narrative into modern understanding � oil and water so to speak. Applying modern mores and conceptions to material intended for an ancient audience is a mistake, which leads to false perspectives, no matter how relevant the message might be.

To understand the stance of the Catholic Church, we need to clarify what is meant by evolution. The word has two properties which are of specific interest to this discussion.

Firstly, evolution can be understood in the scientific sense as change over time and biologically as the change to living organisms over time; both underscored by empirical proof.

Secondly, and more pertinent, there is the philosophical sense which refers broadly to the motive behind the evolutionary process; it is this aspect of evolution to which Mr Sokolic refers � confounding and fusing both definitions of evolution into one combined and mistaken viewpoint.

Evolutionism, which flows from the second property of evolution mentioned above, is broadly speaking a worldview which seeks to explain the origin or existence of all things from a materialistic perspective. This is the foundation of Darwinism, a rationalistic pseudo-faith which proposes chance over cause, thus excluding any role for a creator. This view is obviously at odds with Catholic thinking.

However, the Church only ever seeks the truth, being founded by Truth itself. So too does science seek the truth, for empirically proven theses are the truth. So from this perspective, how can the Church have a problem with what is the truth?

We cannot know the mind of the Creator nor how he achieves his creation (for it is on-going).

Patently science has proven that the earth is not as young as the creationist view would have us believe, nor is creation the result of some chance mixing of chemical compounds as a Darwinist would have you believe. The continual chance-based building of ever more complex systems is at odds with the thermodynamic principle, which sees entropy as the final outcome over time

I would propose that not only is Mr Sokolic�s viewpoint irrational, but it is counter to the truth.