Unsettled Christianity

My good friend, Dr. Jim West, has two posts up on science and theology.

I would venture to guess it

Our ignorance (Photo credit: Loulair Harton)

has something to do with Dr. Robert Cargill’s tweets from earlier today:

Ignorance about science often results in an increased reliance on theology. So why is theology proud of that?

— Dr. Robert R Cargill (@xkv8r) April 3, 2013

and

It’s like choosing to build your house out of mud bricks because you don’t understand how to use a hammer. #theology #science

— Dr. Robert R Cargill (@xkv8r) April 3, 2013

I refuse to suggest that Jim is more in line with Little Honey Tee Tee’s latest rant (doesn’t qualify as a post because Tee Tee does’t qualify as a blogger, although from what I understand, he is on the run from U.S. authorities which is why he is in South Korea).

Personally, science informs my theology as much as Tradition does. In fact, I would agree with the confessions and the tradition of the Church that God reveals himself through two books — Scripture and Nature (or Science). Ignorance of either science or theology is no excuse — not in a modern world with information at our finger tips.

I would change but one thing with Dr. Cargill’s statement. It is not so much ignorance, but fear (fear is not always caused by ignorance) of science that causes an increased reliance upon bad theology. We see this fear used by those who would know science and the beauty it holds. Instead, they use fear that if science is true, then God is but a lie. I pity the people who follow such morons and I pity the hell awaiting the people who use fear to subjugate the masses with fear of knowledge.

Anyway, this conversation needs more than one blog post about it. It needs several books written — to show that science has a huge place in theology and one need not fear the revelation it could bring.

Mars, 2001, with the southern polar ice cap visible on the bottom. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Like the comet that restarted the evolutionary life cycle 65 million years ago (give a take a decade or two, because, well, scientists), one icy rock is approaching Mars

Given the unusual speed of the comet (which is moving so fast that it may well be coming from outside the solar system—cool upon cool) and the fact that it is travelling the wrong way round the sun, from a planet’s point of view, Mr Plait estimates that its impact should yield a blast equivalent to that of a billion megatons of TNT. It would be an event on the same sort of scale as the impact that drove the dinosaurs extinct 65m years ago. If it really is that big, and if the comet were to hit the side of Mars facing Earth (it seems that it might do, but it might also hit the far side), then the blast could well be visible to the naked eye, even in daylight.

Unfortunately, there is only a small chance that this might happen; however, if it does, it would be nice to have the Curiosity on the ground.

Wonder if we can name the comet, Cat.

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