The Lord reveals Himself
to people in two ways: through immediate spiritual enlightenment of the human
soul, and through nature, whose entire order witnesses the wisdom, goodness and
omnipotence of the Creator. Both the interior and exterior revelations have one
Source, and their contents must complement one another and cannot be
contradictory under any circumstances. It should be therefore accepted that
genuine science, based on factual studies of nature, and the Holy Scriptures, a
written witness to spiritual enlightenment, must be in full concord regarding
each and every issue related to knowing God and His acts. Throughout history,
sharp conflicts have occurred between people of science and people of religion
(mostly Roman Catholic); however, a thorough investigation into the causes of
controversies would explain that they arose out of pure misunderstanding.
Religion and science have their own goals and methods, and, while their
elements may correlate in certain principal areas, they cannot tally up in
full.
Conflicts of science
and religion occur when, for example, scientists express voluntary and
unreasonable opinions about God, the Original Cause of the world and life and
the utter aim of human existence. These opinions of scientists have no
scientific facts supporting them; they are constructed from superficial and
hasty generalizations which have nothing to do with science. In a like manner,
conflicts between science and religion occur when clerics wish to derive laws
of nature from their own understanding of religious principles. For example,
the Roman Inquisition tried Galileo for teaching that the Earth revolves around
the Sun. The Inquisition opined that, as God created everything for the sake of
man, then the Earth must be in the center of the Universe and everything else
rotates around it. This was an absolutely voluntary conclusion, not based on
the Bible, because being in the focus of God’s care has nothing to do with the
geometrical center of the physical world (which is possibly nonexistent). In
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, atheists were
ironical, above all, about the Biblical narration on the creation of light.
They ridiculed believers, saying, “Where could light come from if the source of
light, the Sun, had not existed!” But today’s science has advanced far from
this childish, naive notion of light. Now physics knows that light and matter
are two different states of energy, able to exist and translate into each
other, irrespective of stellar luminaries. Fortunately, such conflicts of
science and religion disappear when deeper study of the issue supersedes the
zeal of disputation.
Far from all people are
able to achieve a stable balance of faith and reason. Some blindly believe in
human intellect, and are ready to agree with any theory, even the most
newly-invented and unproven, e.g. the theory about the origins of the universe
and life on the Earth irrespective of what is said in the Holy Scripture.
Others suspect scientists of crookedness and mischief, and are reluctant to
learn about positive scientific discoveries in the fields of paleontology,
biology and anthropology, because they are afraid to weaken their faith in the
truth of the Holy Scripture.
However, there will
never be any serious conflict between our faith and reason if we adhere to the
following: Both the Holy Scripture and nature are true witnesses of God and His
acts, and they confirm each other.
Man is a limited
creature, unable to comprehend fully the mysteries of nature and the depths of
the truth in the Holy Scripture. What seems to be controversial now may receive
explanation when man becomes able to understand better what nature and the Word
of God communicate to him.
One also needs to be
able to distinguish precise scientific facts from suggestions and opinions of
learned people. Facts will remain facts, but scientific theories built upon
them often change radically after new data become known. In a similar manner,
one must be able to tell the difference between a direct witness
of the Holy Scriptures from its interpretations. People comprehend the Holy
Scripture by the measure of their spiritual and intellectual development and by
the baggage of their knowledge. That is why we cannot demand from interpreters
of the Holy Scripture perfect infallibility in the areas related to religion
and science at the same time.
In the Holy Scripture,
only the two first chapters of the Book of Genesis were dedicated to the
creation of the world and humans on earth. It is noteworthy that no other
writing in the world’s literature was read with greater interest than this
God-inspired book. On the other hand, no other book has met with such brutal
and undeserved criticism as the book of Genesis.
Therefore, in the next
several chapters we wish to speak in defense of this holy book, and
particularly of its first chapters. These will cover God’s inspiration of the
Holy Scripture, the author and circumstances of writing of the Book of Genesis,
the days of Creation, and man as a representative of two worlds.