Donna
Danna (8 May 2006)
"Creationism Dismissed As
A Kind Of Paganism By Vatican Astronomer"
(If the Lord is going to resurrect all those
dead Christians and change the living Christians bodies to immortal, incorruptible
bodies in a twinkling of an eye, then he certainly didn't have any problem
creating the universe in six days.)
Creationism Dismissed As A Kind Of Paganism By Vatican
Astronomer
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=674042006
BELIEVING that God created the universe in six days is
a form of superstitious paganism, the Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno
claimed yesterday.
Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory
in Arizona and as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Italy,
said a "destructive myth" had developed in modern society that religion
and science were competing ideologies.
He described creationism, whose supporters want it taught
in schools alongside evolution, as a "kind of paganism" because it harked
back to the days of "nature gods" who were responsible for natural events.
Brother Consolmagno argued that the Christian God was
a supernatural one, a belief that had led the clergy in the past to become
involved in science to seek natural reasons for phenomena such as thunder
and lightning, which had been previously attributed to vengeful gods. "Knowledge
is dangerous, but so is ignorance. That's why science and religion need
to talk to each other," he said.
"Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition
and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at
the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it's turning God into a nature
god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know
that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to
do."
Brother Consolmagno, who was due to give a speech at
the Glasgow Science Centre last night, entitled "Why the Pope has an Astronomer",
said the idea of papal infallibility had been a "PR disaster". What it
actually meant was that, on matters of faith, followers should accept "somebody
has got to be the boss, the final authority".
"It's not like he has a magic power, that God whispers
the truth in his ear," he said.