Copernicus Against the Church

A defining event in modern Western history is Copernicus' idea that the earth revolves around the sun.  Not the sun around the earth.

The veracity of the claim launched the Copernican Revolution and the ascendancy of science as our society's way to truth.  It marked a turning point in history where truth is obtained not through the teachings of the Church but through consultation with science.

The Church's resistance to Copernicus' idea effectively put the Church on the wrong side of history and was the beginning of the Church's (and Scripture's) growing irrelevance in people's lives.  Our society has lost and continues to lose faith in the Church (and Scripture) because we believe its positions are irreconcilable with such obvious facts as heliocentricity.

But here is the thing: isn't the Church treated a bit unfairly for its proclamations against Copernicus?  More to the point, wasn't the Church deeply right, if superficially wrong, in its insistence that the earth is at the centre of it all?  Or that we earthlings, and not the Sun, are in the position of command?  And are that around which all things revolve?

Just think for a moment: this position of the Church (and Scripture) is true!  Our life in the world shows us that it is!  Sure we are small.  Sure we can die in an instant and the cosmos is an expansive and mysterious space.  But look at what we have done and are able to do!  Look at what is under our power and what could be ours to control!

We have yet to subdue the stars but many of the earth's inhabitants are already under our command.  As human beings we have the power to make life hell just as we can build things like no other has built before.

The simple fact of the matter (evinced by our human capacity for science among other things) is that we are the centre of the universe.  The other planets and suns do, or are meant, to revolve around us.

We have the power, the responsibility, and the potential glory as humankind.  We are the ones who are called to speak so that others will listen and fall in line.  And will revolve around us and our Word.

In its resistance to heliocentricity the Church was simply proclaiming a truth that is deeper and more important than heliocentricity.  It made a mistake in regards to astronomy but it is understandable why it might make the mistake.

The Church did it for us.  To call us to the responsibility that we have all along been called to and to defend us against those who would say that we don't deserve it.

Thanks be to Job.

Has Science Surpassed Religion?

I heard a claim recently that science has surpassed religion.  It has done so by answering the problem of life, or how life came about.  Apparently this is something that the hallowed discipline of religion has been unable to accomplish to date.

So how does science answer the problem of life where religion has so far failed?  It does so through the generations of chaos and the good judgment of evolution.  These two, according to this claim, are the power couple of science.

To quickly say how they work together, chaos could be thought of as the engine of creation.  It is constantly bringing forth new orders and patterns into the world.  Just think of the stripes on a tiger or the spots on a cow.  Evolution then decides from among these chaotic creations what is good (and worth keeping) and what is evil (and for the ash heap).  Effectively, chaos sets them up and natural selection knocks them down (or at least it knocks down those that prove incapable of passing on their traits).

With this religion is (apparently) surpassed by science in terms of life explaining power.  Chaos and evolution provide natural mechanisms for what could before only be explained by God, the original engine and judge of creation.

But let's be serious for a moment.  Even if we accept these natural mechanisms (indeed, I would say that both chaos and evolutionary theory are beautiful and true), is this power couple a superior solution to the problem of life than God?  Has science surpassed religion?

One simple question decides the matter for me: Can we shout with joy before the mindless generations and selections of nature?  Are these above all praiseworthy or creative of the good?  Can we deny that a more mindful creative power is at work?  Or could be at work and should be at work?

I don't think so.  I don't think anyone can seriously think so.  Therefore science has not surpassed religion.

Thanks be to Job.