On December 12, 2012, the Mille Lacs Messenger, a Minnesota county newspaper, published the
following letter of mine.
Church and science
by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
In a recent survey it was found that fifty percent of U.S.
Christians believe that dinosaurs and man coexisted. They believe
that God created all things in six days and this included
dinosaurs. Twenty-seven percent of those Christians
surveyed believed dinosaurs died 60 million years ago
and that man was not around until 6,000 years ago.
Twenty-three percent were unsure whether or not dinosaurs
roamed the earth at the same time as man. Most in this
group responded with a comment like, "I don't know and
I don't care." Evidently, they believe that, in respect to
their faith, it is irrelevant if dinosaurs lived before man
or at the same time as man.
For Roman Catholics it is suppose to be relevant. The Catechism of the
Catholic Church says: "Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of
its origins." And U.S. Catholic Bishops wrote: "The whole Bible is
spanned by the narrative of the first creation (Gn 1:3) and the
vision of a restored creation at the end of history" (RV. 21:1-4).
According to this Christian belief, animals (including dinosaurs)
did not live and die on earth before the first humans were created and lived on earth.
This seems similar to the Biblical Christian belief that "the earth is flat" and that
it is "standing still", and not moving very fast around the sun.
So for Catholics and many other Christians, not only is it relevant
as to whether or not dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time
as man, it is also necessary for them to believe that neither
plants, animals nor humans died until after the first humans
sinned. The reason why it is necessary for them to believe
this, is because, if the creation was not pure (or not without death)
at its origins (and up to the time of Adam's first sin) it cannot
be "restored to the purity of its origins at the end of history."
According to surveys, most U.S. Christians have a radical disrespect
for science. Scientists around the world are warning us about the
global warming crisis and many Christians just ignore the warning,
and do so, because of their disrespect for science. This is a
very dangerous situation.
Thomas Dahlheimer
Wahkon
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The following references were presented in the letter that I submitted. The
editor did not include them in the published letter.
St. Symeon wrote: "Neither Eve nor Paradise were yet created,
but the whole world had been brought into being by God as one
thing, as a kind of paradise, at once incorruptible yet
material and perceptible."
St. John of Damascus wrote: "The creation of all things
is due to God, but corruption came in afterwards due to
our wickedness...For God did not make death, neither does
He take delight in the destruction of living things" (Wisdom 1:13).
But death is the work rather of man, that is, its
origin is in Adam's transgression."
St. Ignatius Brianchaninov wrote: "Plants were not subjected
either to decay or to diseases; both decay and diseases and
the weeds themselves, appeared after the alteration of the
earth following the fall of man."
St. Basil the Great wrote: "...it is customary for
vultures to feed on corpses, but since [before Adam's trangression] there were not
yet corpses, nor yet their stench, so there was not yet
such food for vultures. But all followed the diet of
swans and all grazed the meadows...none of the beasts were
carnivores...such was [before "original sin"] the first creation , and such will
be the restoration after this." [When the "restoration" occurs, Isaiah 65:25 says: The wolf and the lamb shall
graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox,..."]
More on this topic:
Genesis 1:30 reads: "...and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing
that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food"; and it was so..." The
Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church says: "Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins" (CCC, n. 2336).
A Bible scripture states that "the creation itself," will be "delivered from its bondage to corruption" (Romans 8:21).
Isaiah 65:25 says: The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox,..."
According to the scriptures, "Adam" ("the first human") sinned and the creation consequently "fell into a state of corruption,"
causing many animals to become carnivorous. However, scientifically discovered truth has proven that the first human beings
from which we are all descendants came into existence around 200,000 years ago and violent complex carnivorous animals came
into existence hundreds of millions of years before the first humans came forth on earth. Therefore, the
creation cannot be "restored to the purity of its origins," because it was never "pure," or "very good."
Also, before "Adam and Eve," or the first humans, came forth on this earth, five mass extinctions of animals had
occurred. These mass extinctions caused a lot of suffering. Hence, at that time (a time before the first humans
lived on earth) the creation was in a state of corruption.
Contrary to what the Bible scriptures say, since the origins of life on earth, living things have suffered and
death was inevitable for all of them, including fish, reptiles, birds, mammals and later, for the first humans also.
A related article of mine is titled
Rev. Matthew Fox's Theology On Creation As Original Blessing.
Related article: Scientific Discovery: Ending The
Christian Paradigm Of Domination
