Young earth blasphemy (almost), declares Vatican astronomer, according to an article in Christian Post 15 October 2014 and Brisbane Times 16 October 2014. Brother Guy Consolmagno, an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory, claims that believing in six day creation and a young earth is “almost blasphemous theology”. He went on to say “It’s certainly not the tradition of Catholicism and never has been and it misunderstands what the Bible is and it misunderstands what science is”.
Consolmagno agrees that a literal interpretation of the Bible suggests the earth is young, but claims this belief is bad theology because scientific evidence contradicts it. He went on to say that the Bible should not be used for scientific purposes. He explained: “Science goes out of date – it’s supposed to. Now, if you’re turning the Bible into a science book, then you’re saying you should throw it out after three years and you don’t want to do that”. He also commented, “The very concept of a science book didn’t exist when the Bible was written – that’s the misunderstanding of theology, of the Bible”.
When asked how he reconciled science and religion he said “my religion tells me God made the universe and my science tells me how he did it”.
Editorial Comment: The Bible never claims to be a science book, so don’t use it that way, but it never claims to be a religious book either, so Consolmagno needs to be severely reminded that it does claim to be the truth, i.e. the word of the living God who was there! Science may at best tell us how things in the universe function now, and even then its guesses or theories come and go with the academics’ wind.
To know how God made things we need His testimony in order to even begin investigating. And as such the book of Genesis is just the historical record that is what is needed to know how the universe began. The major problem here is that in order for human astronomers to comment on the Biblical text about how God made the universe in six days (Exodus 20:11), they need real qualifications and experience, so when they have successfully made their first universe they will be in a position to comment on just how it might have been done. Until then they are hiding their arrogance behind ignorance camouflaged with academic fairy tales.
We would also remind Guy Consolmagno and anyone else who wants to scoff at the Bible’s clear record of a young earth, that Charles Lyell, the man who persuaded modern European scientists to believe in an old earth, did so in order to remove people’s trust in the Bible and the church. See quote from Lyell’s letters here. It worked in a most spectacular fashion in one of his most devoted disciples – Charles Darwin. See our article Descent of a Man here. (Ref. theology, geology, time, theistic evolution)
Evidence News vol. 14, No. 17
22 October 2014
Creation Research Australia