The Story of Us

I once read that science is the canvas upon which God paints the world. I thought it beautiful and true.

I don't get into the evolution/intelligent design debate usually, simply because I believe in both in their essence. There is no doubt that the earth and man has evolved. Science tells us this, and it does not disprove God or his creation in the least, unless you think of God as some magician that waved a wand and created all the glories of the earth. I can only disagree with fellow believers that are asked to believe that the Old Testament is to be taken literally. Not to offend those that believe that, but it only makes people of faith seem silly when we claim to believe something that science has shown us to be untrue, such as the age of the earth. The age of our earth is written in it's stones.

As Catholics, there is no problem believing in the evolutionary process, and at the same time knowing that God's hand formed this process. We know what it looks like when a star is born in the sky. Scientists can claim a big bang theory, but they can never find that one beginning. How it all came from....nothing. That is where faith steps in and tells us that as sure as there are souls in our earthly bodies, there was God creating us, the universe, the planets, and everything in it. In science we discover how he did it, and all his mysteries that we are forever discovering.

A U.S. professor, Robert J. Russell, founder and director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley, Calif., spoke at a Vatican conference yesterday.

"Evolution is not the problem. The problem is scientism; it's people like (Richard) Dawkins who use evolution as an argument for atheism," he told Catholic News Service March 5. Russell was one of dozens of experts in science, theology and philosophy invited to speak at an international conference in Rome to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species," in which Charles Darwin put forth his theory on evolution.

Russel went on to say:

"If you claim evolution makes you an atheist or legitimates atheism or is the route to atheism, then you're really moving beyond the constraints of science," Russell said. While people of faith are right to criticize scientism, proponents of creationism or intelligent design are wrong to attack science, he said. He said if people want to "attack evolution they should do it in Proponents of intelligent design and creationism offer "a kind of fool's gold" claiming they are the only ones who can keep God's role in explaining the origins of life since "those nasty atheists have co-opted it" with the theory of evolution, he said. "Well, they should attack the atheists. You don't attack the victim," which in this case has been the scientific theory of evolution, he added. an intelligent way, not in an embarrassing way" by putting forth arguments that the scientific community addressed years ago.

Darwin's scientific theories have been co-opted for decades by unscrupulous people who use them to put forth and justify "absolutely horrendous social policies," he said, such as Nazi Germany's eugenics program. But Russell said it is wrong to blame Darwin or his theory of evolution for their being manipulated by others.

No one ever seems to address that truth. That people have used Darwin's theory, not to advance science, but to disprove God. This should never be the measure of science.

Darwin's desire to disprove an image of God involved a tragedy that not many people know about. It was the death of his 11 yr old daughter. Along with that and his studies, Darwin abandoned his faith in God.

I have held fossils in my hand that are 100 million years old. I have experienced miracles that only God could have placed before me.

No one could ever convince me that either one isn't true and astounding.