Are you a former theistic evolutionist? Would you be willing to share an account of your conversion from evolutionism to the traditional Catholic doctrine of creation? If so, in 600 words or less, please briefly explain what you used to believe about origins, what changed your mind, and how that change has affected your life--especially your relationship with God.
Read the following testimonies:
1. Steve Fontana
2. Jacqueline Lee
3. Rick Mudd
4. Edward Razz
5. Hannah Holden
6. George Ayer
7. Alison Buman
8. Chris Knight
9. Ed Taraba
10. Keith Scott
11.
Marya Tipton
12.
Sarah Rosenbaum
13. Can we place yours here?
Video Testimonies (Requires Windows Media Player)
1. Hannah Holden's for browsers supporting Windows Media Player format:
Download streaming video here.
My conversion to the true wonder of God's creation:
About eight or nine years ago my sister called from Florida and asked for prayer for my nephew. Her, my brother-in-law and their two children had accepted the truth that God created everything just as Genesis describes. They routinely listened to Protestant Christian Radio and received information form a Protestant Ministry called, Answers In Genesis. My nephew, then about 10 years old, defended his creation beliefs when he was confronted with evolution in his Florida public class room. He was well received there and his opinion was given respect. Subsequently, he defended his faith again in his Catholic CCD class where they were openly teaching evolution. In his religion class he was ridiculed and heart broken by both the instructor and the other students. This is what prompted my sister to call and ask for prayer.
My friend Ed Razz had been feeding me tidbits of information about God's Act of Creation, but I didn't think it was a big issue. "After all", I said "Genesis says that God created Adam from the dust of the earth and evolution says Adam was created from the dust of the earth.." . But, the phone call from my sister really bothered me and I had to get more information. I asked Ed for that information, and I told him about what had happened to my nephew. Ed wrote a very encouraging letter to my nephew and gave me Dr. Gary Parker's book "Creation Facts." About half way through the book the scales fell off my eyes and I truly could never believe in evolution again.
I decided to write the Pope and tell him what had happen to my nephew. I didn't have the Pope's address, but Human Life International for one reason or another, had sent me, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's address along with the addresses of other Vatican Officials. I figured Cardinal Ratzinger was close enough, so I addressed the package to him. The letter, I addressed to Our Lord Jesus Christ the Most High, and His Holiness Pope John Paul II. The reason I decided to go over the Pope's head was because I didn't know if he would receive the letter, but in Christ Jesus I knew that the Pope and I were closer than anyone could imagine. The letter was a prayer and I spoke to both Our Lord and the Pope within it. I told them about what had happened to my nephew. I thanked both of them for helping me in my conversion from the sin of contraception. I asked the Lord and the Pope for help with this similar big lie called evolution, and I enclosed Gary Parker's book "Creation Facts."
There is no doubt in my mind that Our Lord Jesus answered my prayer and called upon Hugh Owen and the Kobe Center for the Study of Creation. Hugh and the Kolbe Center are an answer to many of our prayers and continue to be a blessing to all of us. I received a letter later from someone who said that the Pope had seen my letter and was touched by my thoughts. Perhaps today he is finding the time to personally answer my request for help.
Your brother in Christ Jesus Always
Steve Fontana
BS Mechanical Engineering
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Dear
Mr. Owen-
Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by the past. I devoured
all the books in my parochial elementary school library on paleontology,
archeology, and any other old-sounding “ology” that I could find. They
were all solidly evolutionary, as was my teaching—I still remember sitting in
third grade religion class, puzzling over my teacher’s statement that Adam and
Eve were just a myth. Eventually, I abandoned Catholicism, and it
wasn’t until I was deep in my studies for a master’s degree in geology that
a personal crisis brought me to ask Jesus into my heart as my Savior, and later,
to realize that the faith of my childhood was the fullness of Christianity.
Now I believed in Jesus, but I was very wary of the claims of other Christians
about creationism. Then I came into contact with a scientist who was a
creationist, who showed me distinctions between microevolution and
macroevolution. The final revelation was the realization that God, being
God, could have created the universe in any manner He desired, including that
described literally in the Book of Genesis.
I came to see that the true argument in the origins debate is not between evolutionist and creationist, but between those who don’t believe in God and those who do. If, as the atheist believes, there is no God, then evolution by random chance can be the only explanation for the origin of life. If, as the Christian believes, there is a God, then He is the ultimate origin of all that exists, whether He worked through evolution or not, and the appearance of chance is just an artifact of our limited knowledge.
I also saw that faith is necessary for belief in either creationism or evolution. The atheist has faith that nothing exists apart from what can be experienced through the senses. The Christian, whether evolutionist or creationist, has faith that there is an order of existence beyond the natural, and that God is the creator of all that exists.
Once I had realized all this, the only question that remained was, where does the evidence point? As a geologist, I have come to believe that biology and earth science point to special creation, young age, and a worldwide flood.
The fossil record, for example, is one of overwhelming stability of species, not the massive genetic flux that would have been necessary to create the incredible diversity of living things that now exists. In addition, my knowledge of sedimentology led me to see that there are many depositional features in rocks that point to a young age of the earth, while radiometric dating is fraught with improvable assumptions. Finally, there are too many rock formations that could only have been caused by processes far more catastrophic than any we see operating now, thus invalidating the uniformitarian principle of the present being the key to the past.
As I tell my children, belief in either creation or evolution is a matter of faith. For me, reason dictates that creation is the theory that explains the evidence better. However, charity demands that we treat all participants in the debate with courtesy and humility, realizing that we will not know for certain what the truth is until we meet face to face with Him who made us and all else that exists.
Sincerely,
Jacqueline Lee
M.S., Geology
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I left the Catholic Church in my late teens. I was doing things that made me feel guilty and going to Mass made it worse so instead of repenting, seeking God's forgiveness and the Grace to change, I went my own way. (The song we used at my 8th grade Catholic school graduation was Sinatra's "I Did it My Way"!)
During my 20+ years away from the Church I became enamored of the Eastern philosophies of Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu, Buddhism, Baghwan Shree Rashneesh. To recover from a serious compulsive drinking problem I joined a 12-step program and began to seek God more systematically in 1988. I read a fair amount of Buddhist literature but also attended Unity church services, 1st Metaphysical Church of Flint services, read all kinds of pop-psych and new age literature, read some Catholic materials sent by my sister Linda, investigated alternative healing methods, trained in a TM offshoot called Silent Sharing, and studied massage therapy. I went to a Church of the Nazarene service once and attended Mass for a few months while dating a Catholic woman. No conversion yet.
In 1998, while working with my sister Linda in a network marketing business, a good friend of my sister’s made a deal with me that he would buy some of the stuff we were selling if I would agree to pray the Rosary daily for two weeks and ask Mary to reveal her Son to me. Being open-minded and wanting to make the sale; I agreed. A series of events followed that in hindsight seem to have been marvelously orchestrated.
A couple months later I took a part time job in Santa Fe, NM. I wanted sunshine and mountains and got that plus a whole lot more. Next, I met Jennifer (my future wife) who was also a 12 step group member. We began to date. Jenny was an atheist convert to evangelical protestant Christianity. I would not listen to any of her talk about Jesus being the only way. I firmly believed there were "many spokes to the wheel" that led to God at the center. One of the things that interested me in Jenny's collection was a variety of Creation Science videos and books.
I remember watching a debate between Phillip E. Johnson and William B. Provine first. Then in quick succession I watched a series of videos by Answers in Genesis by Ken Ham and Gary Parker. I pulled out a Bible and starting reading it at Genesis. I read Darwin on Trial by Johnson and Bones of Contention by Lubenow, Creation: Facts of Life by Parker and Genesis and the Decay of the Nations by Ham. In the meantime my sister Linda was sending me Catholic materials to read and audio tapes. Also, I was attending Mass with Jenny and her three girls every other week. She wasn't even Catholic but that's where she was going to church. The long and the short of it is that things started to make sense to me—Creation, the Bible, morality. In talking to my sister during this time I remember her saying "The Holy Spirit is opening up your heart." It seemed to be true.
Dinosaurs were my favorite topic in second and third grade. I knew the names of the geologic eras and the supposed sequence of events. It was amazing to discover all the holes in the evolutionary scheme of things—to discover the inaccuracies in carbon and radiometric dating, the lack of fossil record of any transitional species, the genetic evidence for common parents to all mankind, the frauds perpetuated in the so-called human evolutionary line, and the way micro-evolution (genetic variation, variety within species) has been pawned off for proof of macro-evolution (one species turning into another species).
After about 10 months of investigation it became clear that I needed to become a Christian and return to the sacraments. That was in the fall of the Jubilee Year 2000. Since then I have continued to study Creation Science. The Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation has been a great help with many excellent resources. I now teach catechism to 7th, 8th and 9th graders and always present some of this evidence for creation. I am eternally grateful to my wife Jenny and to all the wonderful people I have known who had the courage to honestly explore the evidence for themselves instead of accepting the pseudo-science about macro-evolution that most of us get spoon-fed all our lives.
Rick Mudd
Santa Fe, New Mexico
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I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you the importance of believing the book of Genesis for faith in a personal God. I was born and raised a Catholic but later in my teen years began to drift away from the faith. I had gradually lost faith in the personal God of the bible - but never considered myself an atheist. I generally tied evolution and God together in my personal faith journey. After marriage and children - I began to critically re-think the faith. I visited my brother and his family in California and witnessed their strong faith in a personal God. I thought that perhaps - I missed something in my Catholic education - that needed revisiting. Upon my return, two close friends offered to come to my house to teach a bible study on the book of John. I accepted their invitation and just loved it. I was so impressed by the words of Jesus and the message he taught. Having said this - I still did not accept Jesus or the events of the bible as true. I knew that the bible recorded many supernatural events - things that just could not be explained by natural causes. I saw that these passages could not easily be dismissed without destroying the message of the bible. I also struggled with prayer. I would let my teachers do all the praying at the bible study. After all, if God could hear me - then I would be acknowledging the existence of a supernatural realm. This was something that I was unable to do at the time.
Praise God! I overcame this unbelief when I started examining the issue of origins and the book of Genesis. As a trained scientist - I recognized the atheistic implications of the theory of evolution. Evolution, relying solely upon naturalism, purposely excludes supernatural causation - and therefore God in any direct creative acts. God becomes an unnecessary hypothesis if evolution is properly understood. I was shocked to learn of the many difficulties with the theory in light of 20th century scientific discoveries. I was also impressed with the evidence for the alternative explanation - supernatural creation and the flood. As I studied the difficulties with the theory of evolution - I came to recognize that for evolution to be true - I would have to accept more miracles than that are found in all the bible. I figured that if I was going to believe in miracles then I might as well accept those in the bible - and please God with my faith at the same time. I immediately returned to the sacrament of reconciliation and confessed my prior unbelief.
I largely credit non-Catholic Christians with my return to faith in a personal God. I found their teachings on Genesis to be very Catholic and continue to maintain a deep respect for them. Books and tapes from Protestant ministries such as Answers in Genesis and The Institute for Creation Research were key to my return to the Catholic faith. Today, I find myself to be in a unique position, defending the literal truths of Jesus word's "This is my body" to Protestant friends and "Haven't you read, that in the beginning the creator made them male and female" to Catholics. It breaks my heart to hear so many Catholics compromising their faith by attempting to reconcile it with evolution. There are many good Catholics who grasp the importance that we are created in the image of God - but forget that this is a literal teaching from the book of Genesis. They fail to see the harmful effects of teaching evolution to the faithful that many popes have warned us about. They do not see the connection of evolution with our cultural trend toward secularism and the presence of modernism within the church. I thank God everyday for your apostolate, The Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, for exposing these errors and defending the Catholic teachings on the doctrine of creation.
Thank you Hugh for your work.
Edward Razz
Engineer, Ballston Lake, New York
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I'm a seventeen year old home-schooler, I live in Wichita, Kansas, with my father, mother, brother, and two sisters. My family became Catholic in 1994, and I happily attended our church's school from kindergarten upward, digesting books on biology and paleontology.
On Sundays over lunch I would eagerly listen to my Dad reason aloud on the silliness of animals evolving into other kinds, and the way that all of the differently colored nations could stem from Adam and Eve. These topics were fascinating, so I naturally wanted to discuss them with my teachers, in whose classes I earned good grades, and who were my leaders and friends.
The first time I raised my hand and questioned my science teacher, that perhaps archaeopteryx was not a missing link between reptiles and birds (as he was saying), but was a fully formed animal, he looked at me like I was insane and said that the evidence for evolution was obvious, but was too complicated to be discussed in a sixth grade classroom.
It was disappointing to have him sidestep my questions, but it was heart-wrenching when I asked my religion teacher how six days of creation could possibly fit with evolution, and she incorrectly used 2nd Peter 3:8 to say the days were symbolic, and proceeded to tell the class that we could not limit God to a short time scale or to a particular creative method. When other kids asked about the flood or the extremely long lived patriarchs, we were told that the Hebrews borrowed these ideas from Babylonian myths.
Classmates began getting disgusted with religion class (I believe this was because our true history was taken away from us). Many of them joked about the acts of Jesus, and the lives of saints, unable to give true reverence because our teachers had demolished our faith in our beginnings, making us incapable of understanding the full significance of the New Testament.
By seventh grade I had slipped into a depression where I was unable to focus on work, and half the time refused to go to school. I couldn't talk to my concerned teachers about my problems because they had already failed me when I had confided in them. It was sickening to be in this stifling atmosphere, and I kept failing to explain to my parents why I was so deeply disturbed.
Around this time my parents met Ellen Myers, who runs a creation resource library in her Wichita home. We watched many lectures from Kent Hovind, and Answers In Genesis. These brightened my world and raised my spirit by revealing the armies of Christian adults who are battling for our true origins. Home-schooling then allowed me to learn with confidence in my teachers (my Mom and Dad).
I was a member of the church youth group and became a teacher for children's RCIA. These involved attending dinners and social gatherings with our associate priests, and people were always encouraged to bring them questions about church teaching. Hoping to have open-minded discussions about Genesis history, I'd tread gently, but my queries always degenerated into polarized debates because the priest would admit to the group, "The Church doesn't force Catholics to believe in evolution, but it is compatible with Scripture." This always forced me to defend the literal historical truth of Genesis. Besides alienating me from my passive friends, this became a nightmare because the priests saw my insistence as a threat to their authority, and they would silence me by saying I was too young to have read enough Papal encyclicals on the subject.
We were extremely joyful to hear about the Kolbe Center. Finally, here is a Catholic organization that speaks for the unity of all Christians, and it is one that our fellow Catholics will listen to. The Kolbe Center's message needs to be heard by every Catholic so that all traditional Church teaching can be understood and validated, and so that we can all be strong members of the Universal Church.
It's painful to see how belief in evolution prevents the maturation of strong adult role models by leaving generations of adults uncertain as to moral absolutes, making them poor leaders in lukewarm churches, and even in their own families. I've seen and experienced how this destroys children's faith in authority and in themselves.
Since embracing the traditional Catholic doctrine of creation, the most fantastic changes have taken place in my personality. When I was coerced into filling my head with depressing materialistic explanations for the universe that were clearly in conflict with the Bible, and pressured into thinking I was a fool for feeling there was something "fishy," I became bitter towards otherwise great teachers, and very self-conscious. After several years of hearing a hopeful message I've become confident in using the gifts God gave me. I know He crafted my body and spirit; that I was built to serve Him and love His creation. Instead of worrying about handling my own destiny, I know He loves me and gives me all I need to do His work. Knowing all of this, I'm humbled every day because He's shown me so much grace; I'm nothing without the life He gives me.
I thank my Mom for lovingly sacrificing her time and energy to give me a great education, and I thank my Dad for living his life in the spirit of St. Maximilian Kolbe who said, " ...what we can do, and should do, is to search for truth, and to serve it when we have found it."
Hannah Holden
Wichita, Kansas
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It is amazing how much miraculous work I have seen God do. I came back to a relationship with Christ just over 5 years ago (March 2001) at 23 years old (I will be 29 this July 27th). Before this I was heavily into drinking and other addictions, and quite depressed, but I never convinced myself to be an atheist, and I knew that something supernatural was going on because I never got into as much trouble as I should have done!! After my conversion, over time, and after jumping from one evangelical community to another, I wondered if any church could ever be my true home. It was at this time that I began to investigate the Catholic Church.
I was working at Teletech in my city of Sudbury at the time, (I am now in university) and a Catholic coworker of mine supported me in my new relationship with the Lord. He invited me to the Catholic charismatic prayer group where he played the keyboard, and while I was going to this group I began to notice differences between Protestant belief and the Catholic Faith, especially in regard to the Holy Eucharist and Mary. Within two years of searching I came into the Catholic Church in November of 2002.
Although at this point I had not heard of the Kolbe Center, I was deeply influenced by a strong evangelist and Bible preacher named Fr. Bill Halbing who taught everyone to believe that the Bible is true. Sadly, after a while I began to realize that many Catholics did not take God at his word, and that this was especially true in regard to Genesis and creation. I never felt at peace with the millions and billions of years, and after reading Gerry Keane's book Creation Rediscovered I was very excited to learn that the truth about creation was indeed being compromised. It was probably at this time or in early 2004 that I first came across the Kolbe Center on the web (it may have been recommended by Gerry Keane or I may have come across it websurfing). I was amazed at the work that they were doing to proclaim the truth of creation on an international scale, and I knew in my heart from the Holy Spirit that I wanted to be a part of this mission. I began to compile a list of people in my area who believed in the traditional Catholic understanding of creation or who were open to it, and, after calling Hugh Owen and meeting a lady in Sudbury with a Catholic apostolate, the doors opened for me to go to Virginia to the Third International Catholic Creation Conference in October of 2004.
Gerry Keane did a wonderful presentation here in Sudbury as well, presenting for about 50 Catholics up here. He also had a nice dinner with my grandfather who is a strong evangelical creationist of many, many years. Actually, the truth of creation has brought me Christian unity with my grandfather who had a hard time with my conversion to Catholicism. Finally, I would like to recognize my evangelical brother David (also not Catholic) who has been behind me on my creation efforts. He is now in graphic design, and plans to print information on Haeckel's faked drawings of embryos. My brother and I both love Pope Benedict XVI's statement (paraphrased) that we are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution, that each of us is loved and that each of us is necessary.
In 2005 the Kolbe Center was invited to present a Catholic creation conference in Sudbury but had the invitation revoked because of complaints from a few prejudiced and poorly-informed people. Through this trial, Hugh Owen really helped me to see that, as St. Paul says, when one part of the body suffers, it is for the building up and consolation of another, and indeed the Lord has opened up opportunities for the Kolbe Center to hold many other creation conferences internationally.
I am thankful that, whatever happens, God through His redemptive suffering will redeem this groaning creation and restore and transform the world into a glorious new creation where righteousness and peace will be at home.
May Christ transform us all in this Easter Season!
May the peace and the love of Christ be with all of you from Sudbury, Ontario, Canada!
George Ayer
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At the age of 31, after being a confessed atheist for some ten years or more, I experienced a life-changing conversion to Christianity.
My parents had both been members of the Australian Communist Party and I had been indoctrinated at home with atheistic teaching.
After I had received my initial conversion and was hungry for the Bible and further teaching, I remember reading a book called “The Seal of God” by F.C. Payne. At the time I was struggling with many questions as I had been much affected by evolutionary teaching, having received this in my History lessons at High School. I remember that when I finished reading The Seal of God, that I was not only absolutely certain of the existence of God, but I also believed that He was the Creator and that the Bible was in fact the inerrant Word of God and that I should accept and obey all it asked of me. I had had a great struggle with the question of who determines truth and that there must be absolutes in truth and this question was now settled for me for once and for all; the Bible was the absolute truth and I would be obedient and true to it.
I had an insatiable thirst to read and I devoured many books on the Bible, the Bible itself and also much literature on Creation, which at the time was put out by the Creation Science Ministry which is now called Answers in Genesis.
Since my original conversion, I have always sought to be obedient to the Bible and accepted what I thought it taught without question. However, in more recent years I began to wonder what Church God would choose for me to attend and so I commenced to pray for direction and for God to show me.
I realise now that I had become very narrow-minded and thought that I had an answer for everything. I became exposed to some Catholics who knew their Bible very well and really lived their faith vibrantly and I became more open. I finally decided to purchase a Catechism and see just what these Catholics did believe. I was greatly surprised to find that the Catechism was full of Scriptures and had explanations for those Scriptures which had seemed to be obscure to me previously. I was becoming very excited and it was quite like my initial discovery of faith. I finally decided to attend a Mass to see just what did happen (I had never been to a Mass before) and I was amazed to hear so much scripture being quoted in all parts of the Mass.
After many trials and tribulations, I was finally received into God’s Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church at Easter in April 1999 and I have been in love with the faith and the Lord’s One True Church ever since.
My only disappointment has been the great lack of faith amongst so many Catholics in relation to Creation and an absolute belief in the Bible, particularly the literal details of the Book of Genesis. The Church and Her teaching Institutions have been so infiltrated with evolutionary teachings and beliefs for the last fifty or more years and this has, I believe, been the cause of many to leave the true faith and to accept other fundamental teachings, especially those where Creation is taught as a literal interpretation of the Genesis record and is backed up by historical and scientific evidence.
My faith has been somewhat restored since I have discovered the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation and have read some of their documentation and in particular the book of Gerry Keane entitled “Special Creation Rediscovered”. It is a relief to discover that the early Fathers of the Church believed and taught a literal interpretation of Genesis. Any other option does not make sense and it is a shame that so many young Catholic people make this discovery in Protestant Bible-believing Churches and then, unfortunately, accept their erroneous beliefs instead of true Catholic doctrine.
I am so grateful to God for the gift of my Catholic faith and I am so indebted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who I believe was praying and interceding for me and leading me back to her crucified Son and to His One True Church.
Mrs Alison Buman
42 Echuca Rd
Rochester VIC 3561
Australia
June 20, 2006
Thank you for all your work with the Kolbe Center. My wife and I are recent converts to the Catholic Church and we both believe strongly in the Traditional Catholic Doctrine of Creation, the inerrancy and inspiration of the Bible, and the true literal meaning of Scripture. Please allow me to share my testimony with you.
I was raised in a very secular home, with very practical and down-to-earth parents. However, I always had this feeling that there was more to life than the mundane. Because my parents didn't believe in any one organized religion, they allowed me to look into almost any religion, as long as it wasn't "weird" or "occult."
I remember that one time my stepmother took my sister and me to a Sunday school class at an evangelical covenant church. Since I had already, by the age of 10 become so indoctrinated with the old age of the earth and how the dinosaurs lived millions of years before man, I dismissed Christianity as a whole as superstitious myth.
In 7th grade biology, I learned about the various species depicted on one of the infamous "tree of life" illustrations in my science textbook. It all seemed very logical to me how life progressed from one creature to the next through mutations. I never really questioned evolution because it was presented as legitimate science.
As I grew a bit older, my interest in the supernatural had only grown, in spite of (or possibly because of) my materialistic formation. I tried many different religions, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Scientology, Machiavellianism, etc. I changed my religion with every book that I read. Looking back now I can see that though I started with the intention of seeking Truth, I ended with the search for the religion which would allow me to do what I wanted. I wanted a religion that would empower me to accomplish my dreams and eventually attain supernatural power.
After following this course for some time, I was challenged by some of my friends who were devout Christians. At this point, they introduced me to Pascal's Wager and the reality of Objective Truth. After trying to argue with all the new-age nonsense I had accumulated in my brain over the years, it became apparent that my arguments simply could not stand up in the face of Objective Truth. Also, a good friend said something that has stuck with me ever since. I had told him that the reason I didn't like Christianity was that Christians were close-minded. He replied "If you aren't willing to try Christianity, you are just as closed minded as you say that I am." That really convicted me so I decided to investigate further. I also asked my friend, a devout Christian, about evolution and it's contradiction of the Bible. He replied that the Bible has many different forms of literature and that the days of Genesis probably meant long eons of time, enough to allow for evolution. He then quoted a scripture which stated "A day to the Lord is a thousand years." That was good enough for me...at least for awhile.
I attended a few Bible studies, but I wasn't really convinced. I was still quite steeped at the time in my new age philosophy and tried to make what I learned about Christianity conform to my own views. In my mind, I had delusions of reforming Christianity to be more progressive, and more "new-age-like." After awhile I returned to my new-age beliefs, though I did manage to gain some respect for Christianity. There were certain questions that bothered me about Christianity. The most troubling were these: If evolution is still true and humanity will eventually evolve to become divine, why did I need a Savior? - and - If the accounts in Genesis were just figurative language, how could I count on Christ's Resurrection to be literally true? (or for that matter anything in the Bible which defies a natural explanation) Also, if the Bible wasn't meant to be taken literally about creation, maybe it wasn’t meant to be taken literally on moral issues either.
Because of my ignorance of the Truth and my confusion, I drifted even farther from God than I had been before. I was living with my girlfriend/fiancé at that time which because of my ignorance, I assumed to be totally fine. In my own mind, Christianity had been defeated by materialism, new-age spirituality, and even amoral Machiavellianism. "Why should I try to be a good Christian if the Bible is just a myth," I thought. During this dark period in my life I gave up on virtue for I considered virtue to be relative to one's own opinion. Because of the evil which reigned in my heart, I became even more addicted to pornography than I had previously been ( a sin which I inherited from my father ), I stole things, I started studying how to become a career criminal, and worst of all, I betrayed my fiancé; the one woman who loved me even when I was unlovable.
After I had sunken so low as to cheat on my future spouse, I even tried to lie to her about it. I had never been able to hide things from her before but this time, I looked her straight in the eye and lied to her. My conscience was so dead that, her tears didn't even affect me. Not long after this, we had an argument. My fiancé wanted to get married. I told her I wasn't ready yet which was true. I had lost all sense of certainty and was unsure if love even existed. During that argument, something unusual happened. In my mind's eye, a picture appeared. I was looking at my face as if it was in a mirror. Then all around my face flames appeared and my face began to burn. This whole vision only lasted about a second; barely long enough for a blink of an eye. I felt like I had been warned. Apparently, the parts of the Bible which tell about hell were in fact literally true and if I did not change my ways radically, that was how I was going to end up; burning in the flames of hell. Marriage it was.
Getting married was an amazing experience of God's grace. For the first time in my life, I knew I was doing the right thing and that God was blessing me for it. After being married a few years and trying our share of Churches, my wife got a singing job at our local Catholic Cathedral and I had started teaching martial arts. Most of my students and their families were devout Christians and during this time they were a good influence on me. Among these was a man named Wade who let me borrow some Kent Hovind tapes. This Kent Hovind completely rocked my world. I couldn't stop watching his tapes. It all became clear to me and my eyes were truly opened. I had been duped. The fact that evolution never had any solid scientific evidence amazed me, frightened me, and gave me hope. I did not have to twist and manipulate the Bible to fit science because the Bible was completely true! It was fine just the way it was. After being exposed to creation science, I was able to look at God's Word with the simplicity and trusting heart of a child. It was all true. There were however some other mysteries to be solved.
Among these other mysteries was the fact that there were so many Christian churches. This didn't make any sense. After all they all worship the same God right? I asked my Evangelical pastor about this and why I should continue to go to his church rather than any other non-denominational church. The answer I received was not convincing at all. This made me want to find the Original Christian Church. Well, looking back, I can see that God was leading my wife and I to the Catholic Church. After all, my wife had been working at the Cathedral and we had both made some very close friends who just happened to be Catholic. One of these friends, a home schooling mother named Ginny, played a major part in leading my wife and I to the Catholic Church. Every time I had an objection or raised a question about the Faith, she had an intelligent answer. And, I really tested her, even to the point of trying to convert her to Evangelicalism at times but no matter what I asked, whether it was about praying to the saints or the letters of the Pope’s title spelling out 666, Ginny either had an immediate answer for my questions or at times she would lend some books to me. Two of these were very helpful, Surprised by Truth by Patrick Madrid, and Catholicism and Fundamentalism by Karl Keating. After reading these books, my wife and I had a serious talk and decided to inquire about becoming Catholics. This was not so different from my wife's childhood Lutheran faith so she was already feeling quite at home at the Cathedral. We were told to sign up for the RCIA course at the Cathedral.
RCIA was not an entirely positive experience. This is why. The director of religious education at the Cathedral whom I will not name seemed to be more interested in proclaiming her own opinions than in echoing back the Truth of Church teaching. There were many things that were taught in RCIA either by the director or by other catechists that were of no use if not detrimental to my faith. These are some of the themes that were taught in RCIA:
1) The Bible is only inerrant when it speaks on spiritual matters, since it wasn't meant to be a science or history textbook. Therefore, it is unintelligent to adhere to a literal interpretation of Genesis since there is so much "science" which proves evolution.
2) Catholics have no problem with evolution and don't believe in creationism because it is not taught in the Bible or in Sacred Tradition. (Sadly, this thought was also presented to me by our priest.)
3) The creation story is a later adaptation of the Babylonian creation story and the creation stories of other cultures of the time which was fudged a little to make it fit with the rest of the books that Moses wrote.
4) God gave the writers of the Bible inspiration on the spiritual matters but anything scientific or historical had about the same trustworthiness as a novel, newspaper editorial, or a comic strip.
5) Believing in the Bible doesn't really do a lot for your salvation. All you have to do is be a good person. All religions have a little bit of truth in them so all paths lead to God. And, if you believe in things like the literal interpretation of Scripture and Yong-Earth Creationism, you are some kind of wacky Catholic Fundamentalist and should be avoided.
Obviously, after watching so many hours of the hard-hitting Creation Science of Kent Hovind and many others like him, I was not going to listen or adhere to the weak, relativistic, humanistic, pseudo-religious themes which I had been exposed to throughout my RCIA experience. In fact, this nonsense in RCIA was so frustrating that I went through the course twice. Toward the end of the first course I stopped attending the classes for awhile because I was afraid of losing my faith. Since the course only ran once a year and people were only received into the Church at Easter, I had to start over the next fall. This was very frustrating because my wife and I were already attending the Cathedral for a couple of years, we had done our homework and were quite sure that we wanted to become Catholic. Though we deeply enjoyed participating at Mass, we longed to receive the Eucharist.
Another thing that troubled me was that when our RCIA group would meet to discuss the readings at Mass, we would simply re-read them and the instructor would ask: "What do you think this passage means?" Apparently, it wasn't important to learn what the Church had to say.
We resolved to force ourselves through the RCIA classes and to endure the nonsense so that we could be accepted into the Church.
After I was confirmed, I felt the zeal of the Holy Spirit burn within my heart. I began studying more intensely than I ever had before. I read the whole Bible, the whole Catechism, and I studied many other books, articles and websites and I talked with and learned from many other Catholics. I also started praying the Rosary and going regularly to confession (which, by the way, is what cured my former addiction to pornography). I also talked with some friends of mine who are Traditional Sedevacantist Catholics. It fascinated me that they also believed in the literal meaning of Genesis. It also made me wonder if they were correct not to follow the Pope. I myself had a bad impression of John Paul II because of an article that one of my Protestant friends had given me about him giving credit to evolution. I considered joining the Sedevacantists but I believed too strongly in Christ's promise that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church and I didn't want to be a Protestant again. The Sedevacantists did have a good influence on me though when it comes to my faith in the literal creation in Genesis. Because they don't make any concession for evolution and they remain faithful to the Popes before Vatican II, it made me wonder what happened during Vatican II to make so many people believe that evolution and Catholicism are so compatible. I also had a strong suspicion that earlier Church Fathers and Popes may have been against evolution. This possibility gave me great hope. While searching for other Catholics who believe in Creationism, I found the Kolbe Center's website. It was and is a great help and inspiration to me. I ordered one of the conferences on Creation and was very pleased with what I heard the various speakers say. I even put some copies of the "What Does the Catholic Church Teach About Origins" tracts in the free reading materials stand at the Cathedral (though for some reason they were removed before all the tracts had been taken). Because of the Kolbe Center and other organizations like it, I now feel very confident in proclaiming the Traditional Doctrine of Creation, though I still yearn to know more about what the Church Fathers taught on the matter.
So, before I state some of the logical reasons I believe in the literal interpretation of Genesis, allow me to state the most important one. It was impossible for me to truly live in accordance with Biblical teaching until I actually believed what the Bible says. It was only when I had a true and uncompromising faith, that I was able to clean up my act and live the way God wants me to. When I was trying to make the Bible fit my own worldview, I didn't have enough faith to protect me from the fiery arrows of the evil one. However, when I started to conform my own views to the Word of God, He blessed me with the grace and strength necessary to follow Christ with my whole heart. Then, through the power of the Triune God, I was enabled to accomplish things that were impossible before. I was able to more fully accept God's grace and allow Him to work in and through me more effectively. For example, immediately after I had begun to believe in the literal 6 day creation and after I was confirmed in the Church, I was able to:
1) Defeat my previous addiction to pornography, through the grace I received from the sacrament of Confession
2) Become an avid reader of the Bible and the Catechism and read them both from cover to cover
3) Give up teaching anything in my martial arts classes which compromised the Faith and found a Biblically-based system of martial arts which is now used as a vehicle to lead people to Jesus and His Church.
4) Pray much more than before including the Holy Rosary
5) and last but not least, to love my wife more faithfully than ever before
All of the great blessings described above were things that I had tried to accomplish before I accepted the fullness of the Truth. I had tried and failed many times to accomplish these things with my own will-power. This is the main reason that I believe so strongly in Creation and in the infallibility of God's Word: It works.
I do also have my own logical reasons for adhering to the literal interpretation of Genesis even when many of my other fellow Catholics, including most of the priests I know, think that it is not necessary.
First, holding to the belief that the days of Creation were long ages of time puts death before sin. Scripture and Tradition are very clear on the fact that until Adam and Eve sinned, there was no death. Now, having had many debates with some of my modernist and liberal friends about this, I know the objections they raise to this point. The most commonly held misconception is that the death that God warned Adam and Eve about was only a spiritual death. This is simply ridiculous. The book of Wisdom says that God didn't create death. Genesis says that when God had created everything there is, He saw that it was good. How can billions of years of misfits, suffering, and death be good? Or for that matter, why would anyone pray to a God who needed billions of years of death to evolve man? That doesn't sound all-powerful to me and the god of long ages cannot be the God of the Bible and the God of Tradition. After all, He created all there is out of nothing not out of pre-existing biological matter.
Second, Christ asks us to have the faith of a child. Where is the faith of a child; where is the trust in abandoning the obvious teaching of God’s Word in the face of any new scientific hypothesis dreamed up in order to deny God? I have been told that it is arrogant to assume that we know that the literal sense is what God wanted to convey in the book of Genesis. Really? Is it arrogant to assume that the Bible tells the truth about Jesus' resurrection? To me twisting and obscuring the obvious literal meaning of Genesis because it doesn't fit into our post-modern naturalistic worldview seems much more arrogant than trusting God to tell us about origins in a way that won't confuse the reader. After all, if God had decided to use long ages to create the world, don't you think He would have said so in a way that the common man could understand? Anyone reading the Bible without being pre-programmed by the government funded religion we know as Secular Humanism wouldn't come up with long ages for the days of Genesis. This is a forced interpretation and would lead us to either believe in some form of Gnosticism, thinking that there is secret knowledge for the intellectual elite and that only the elite could have the fullness of truth. Or it would lead us to believe that the Bible as a whole has no more historical truth or moral authority than an antique novel.
Third and last, some leaders of the Church may feel that it is necessary to abandon the literal meaning of Genesis in order to attract scientists or other highly educated people who believe in evolution to the Church. However, I think that this weak and apologetic abandonment is causing harm in two ways. Those who have a deeply rooted faith are missing out on the fullness of teaching that can only come from those who have a true understanding of Creation. And, the intelligentsia which might join the Church because of this perceived openness, are being lied to since the Traditional Doctrine of Creation will never change.
Also, doesn't the Catholic Church want to foster the return of our separated brethren to Holy Mother Church? Well, to most Protestants, this fondness for evolution and the denial of the literal meaning of Scripture doesn't appear to be wise and open-minded but is seen as foolish, weak, and compromising. After all, it was the literal understanding of the Bible which helped me to understand all the central Catholic teachings such as: Christ's real presence in the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Confession, the authority of the Pope, Purgatory, the importance of Tradition, the unreliability of Sola Scriptura etc. All these things are put forth in Scripture in the literal sense. If a Protestant reads John 6 without any pre-conceived ideas, he would simply have to admit that Jesus' Body and Blood are truly present in the Eucharist. The literal interpretation of Scripture when taken in context is always the Catholic interpretation. Those who insist on compromising on the 6 day creation, the literal sense of Scripture, or who seek to always present a naturalistic explanation of the miraculous events recorded in the Bible are not helping the Church or the rest of the world but causing harm. Ultimately, all the evil which affects the Church and the world at large is the result of a lack of faith in God. It bothers me that so many Catholics will speak out against the culture of death while completely ignoring the materialistic evolutionary world view which causes it. Our Church will never reach the holiness which God intended for us until we stop giving in to the compromises which weaken our faith.
So many wonder why there aren't as many miracles anymore or why the Church no longer resembles the Church of the book of Acts, or why there are priests who molest the innocent. The answer is simple but there are few who will listen. When Jesus visited His hometown, the faith of the people was weak so He did very few miracles there. Jesus, through Whom all things were created, also asks us," If you do not believe Me when I speak of earthly things, how will you believe Me when I speak of heavenly things." We live in a world that has lost its sense of mystery. The majority of mankind thinks that we already know almost all there is to know about the world around us. Contemporary atheists accuse creationists of believing in a "God of the Gaps," asking what will happen to our faith when we can explain everything naturally. This is only pride and arrogance. In reality, there is very little that we know about the world around us. We don't even know whether light is a particle or a wave. This is very similar to the arrogance and ignorance of Eve who thought she would actually know if God had lied about the forbidden fruit. All we need to do to see how little we know is to compare our highest form of technology, for instance a computer, to the human brain to see that God's ways are higher than ours.
In closing, I must remember to encourage and build up all those in the Church Militant, those brave warriors who fight to hold on to and spread the Traditional Catholic Doctrine of Creation. "All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" so let us continue to fight the good fight of faith.
God Bless the Kolbe Center!
In Christ,
Chris KnightThe theory of evolution is a topic of great concern to me because it figured highly as one of the topics that led to my return to Christianity about 16 years ago and helped solidify my eventual conversion to Roman Catholicism about 6 years ago. I was taught as a child in the Lutheran church that the story of Adam and Eve was a myth used to teach about morality and the relationship between man and God. The word "Adam", I was told, means "mankind". This never made sense to me since the bible itself does not portray it that way. Adam is a person and there is an unbroken time line in biblical history. If Adam and Eve were myths where do you draw the line between the myth and the real history? That always bothered me. I left the church at about age 17.
Many years later as an adult when I began learning of the mounting scientific data opposing the theory of evolution it opened the door to the scriptures for me and I began reading the bible daily. Eventually I converted to Roman Catholicism. During my RCIA classes the true teaching of the Church on this subject was not offered. Instead my instructors turned the Genesis account into a fairy tale with a moral twist. During RCIA discussions I indicated that the theory of evolution has been disproved by scientists. The response was "The Pope says it is o.k. to believe in evolution." Rather than turning the class into a raucous argument I placed the whole thing on the back burner and still converted.
Several years after converting I learned that the Catholic Church teaches Adam and Eve were real people and the first parents from which all human beings have descended and actually committed the original sin bringing about the fall of man. This doctrine is essential to fully understand scripture and it served as further confirmation that I had come to the right place adding extra cement to my new Catholic foundation. Through further study this Catholic teaching on creation was confirmed by several sources: a Catholic Creation Conference presented by the Kolbe Center, the Catechism, a lecture by apologist John Martignoni, Denzinger's Sources of Catholic Dogma, a bible study series by Jeff Cavins entitled "The Great Adventure".
Some confusion on the subject prevailing amongst Catholics may stem from the fact that the Church does not have an official stance on the doctrine of evolution and does allow belief in evolution. Since learning more about what really happened in the Galileo incident reading "The Galileo Affair" by George Sim Johnston and "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization" by Thomas Woods, it is easier for me to understand why the Church remains non-committal in their position on this topic. But I emphasize that non-commitment does not constitute an endorsement.
The Kolbe Center is doing important work bringing to our attention scientific data refuting evolution and making us aware of official Catholic teaching. It is my wish that more Catholics bring this information to their parishes. Humani Generis allows research and discussion on the topic of evolution provided both pros and cons are carefully weighed and we remain obedient to the Church. Never forget that Adam and Eve were the first parents of us all, created in a state of holiness and immortality until their fall which brought death into the world. Why are Catholic schools teaching evolution theory without bringing up scientific data that refutes it? We should be imploring the Catholic schools to adhere to Pope Pius XII who required the cons to be carefully weighed in Humani Generis Encyclical Letter Concerning Some False Opinions Which Threaten to Undermine the Foundations of Catholic Doctrine August 12, 1950.
In Christ,
Ed Taraba
Thank you for your website. I stumbled across it at just the right time in my life. You see, I have been an ordained Youth Pastor in two mainline protestant denominations for the past decade. When I was encouraged by my local church to pursue a Master of Divinity degree, I began my studies and fell in love with the Church Fathers. While I began to see the truth of the Catholic Faith through my study of Patristics, and then by reading modern Catholic apologists, I knew that the only right course for me was to enter the Catholic Church in full fellowship. As you can imagine, it has been a hard and painful road for someone with a young family, walking away from a career with a family to support.
My wife and I met our real test of faith when we began our RCIA class this past fall. We found what we perceived to be a low view of Scripture and Tradition. Scripture was interpreted with what I would call a "hyper-allegorical" hermeneutical approach. The teachings of the Fathers were also reduced to a subjective experience for their time not ours. Within this framework, the Priest began to teach us evolution. We couldn't believe it. He basically reduced the Bible to myths and fables. It was not difficult to see the root of his error. If the foundation of the Bible—which is the first eleven chapters of Genesis—is reduced to a “religious allegory,” then why shouldn’t the rest of the Bible be reduced to "religious allegory" as well? At least he was being consistent. But I remember thinking to myself when he got to teaching about Moses’ parting the Red sea, "He doesn't believe that God parted the Red Sea as the Bible teaches, believing instead that the Hebrews merely crossed a small stream of water. But which is harder to believe—that God parted the Red Sea as the Bible clearly teaches, or that Pharaoh’s vast army drowned in a few inches of water?"
Regretfully, I came to the conclusion that all Catholics believed these things. I felt I might have made a terrible mistake by seeking to enter the Catholic Church. I told myself that 2000 years of evidence for the truth of the claims of the Catholic Church might only exist on paper. How could a Church take God at His Word when He said "This is My Body and Blood," but not take the rest of His Word on faith? I was about to quit the RCIA process for further reflection and study when I stumbled upon your website the night I came home from class.
What a great resource I found in this website! Growing up protestant I had just taken for granted great teaching on creation. I had been enrolled in a protestant private school and blessed with a science teacher who had a real passion for creationism. She would arrange for students to take exciting field trips. Some of our trips involved listening to debates between brilliant evolutionist and creationist scientists. Youth wants to be challenged and this was an exciting environment to be raised in. In this Christian environment, we learned how evolutionary thought and abortion went hand in hand, and we actively opposed them both. So you can imagine my shock, Mr. Owen, when I sought to enter the one true Church built upon the “rock” of Peter and the Apostles only to be spoon fed the lie of evolution!
Catholics share so much that is good and true with our separated brethren, and we find ourselves in the "trenches" on many of the same issues in our post-modern society. But teaching evolution in the Catholic Church hurts true ecumenism by eroding or destroying the very foundations of the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Faith.
God bless you in your work. I know God used your work to keep me on track to enter the Catholic Church. I also pray that God uses you to help other people outside the Church for whom evolution has become a stumbling block to their conversion.
To God alone be the glory!
Keith Scott
Mr. Hugh Owen, Director
The Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation
301 S. Main St. Woodstock, VA 22664
To whom it may concern,
As a Byzantine Catholic, catechist and chastity educator, I would like to express the sincerest gratitude to Hugh Owen for his presentation on the Church’s teaching on special creation and would recommend him to speak for any other parish or group. His expertise on the teachings received from the apostles through the Early Church Fathers is a gift to the people of faith the world over.
As a Byzantine Catholic, I belong to a community that most feels the pain of the separation between the Eastern and Western “lungs” of our Church, as described by John Paul II. If we are to answer the call to Christian unity and the New Evangelization, it is imperative to approach our efforts with a mind toward ressourcement, a return to earlier sources, traditions and symbols of the early Church. The work that Hugh Owen is doing through the Kolbe Center for the Study on Creation is exactly what the Church Universal needs to answer our Lord’s prayer, “that they may be one.” In the early liturgy, iconography, Holy Scriptures, and writings of the Church Fathers, we can find common ground and common wisdom in the midst of great confusion on the issue of origins in the world today.
The expression, “Lex orandi, lex credendi” tells us our liturgical worship reveals what we believe about our Christian faith and our mission in the world.
Byzantine worship and the writings of the Church Fathers clearly tell us that:
“We are brought forth out of nonexistence into being” (Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom)
“The universe sings Your glory.” (Vespers hymn, O Joyful Light)
“ I am about to speak of the creation of heaven and earth, which was not spontaneous, as some have imagined, but drew its origin from God.” (St. Basil the Great, Homily 1 of the Hexaemeron)
“The Lord has reigned, he is clothed with beauty; the Lord is clothed with strength and has girded himself. For He has established the world which shall not be moved.” (From the rite of preparation, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom)
The verses that describe the Universe and all living beings as being created and governed specifically by God, the Giver of Life, are too numerous to mention. But never have I come across any text from Holy Scripture or the liturgy that describes God’s creative powers as “random” or “by chance.” I could only imagine that it would sound something like:
“O, Lord,
In your wisdom you rolled the dice of life,
And we came into being. Our beginnings were lowly, Lord,
But through your gift of randomness
We outgrew our simple, previous forms
to achieve sophistication and glory.”
If I were to encounter such a hymn I would believe it, because I trust that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, guides and protects the teachings of His Church.
In every culture everywhere, the story of how human beings came into being guides the identity and morals of that people. Today, Judeo-Christian morality, based on the dignity of the human person made male and female in the image and likeness of God, is undermined by the neo-Darwinist version of origins. More specifically, the value of human love, marriage and family is undermined. We believe that God created human beings male and female for two reasons: so that we may image the love of the Most Holy Trinity as a community of persons, and that we may image the marriage between Christ and His Bride, the Church. The value of human sexuality is constantly degraded by the narrative that we arrived at our humanity, not through a specific act of a loving God, but through random, unguided processes. This is one of the biggest challenges I encounter as a chastity educator and youth minister today.
As Catholic Christians, we are in a privileged position to show that science and faith are not at odds with each other, but in fact faith and reason are married to each other in Truth. Especially in light of the latest scientific discoveries which point to intelligent design, we are in a unique position to proclaim special creation to the world, if only we are duly instructed. The efforts of Hugh Owen and the other scientists and theologians associated with the Kolbe Center are much needed if we are to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven and the Civilization of Love here on Earth.
Sincerely in Christ,
Through the Theotokos,
Marya Tipton
May 19, 2008
I grew up in a Protestant Christian home where I learned about God as an all-wise Creator, Who, in the beginning, made all things good. I grew up learning from publications by Henry Morris and his organization, Institute for Creation Research. As an equally important part of my formation, my parents always encouraged me to examine the “nuts and bolts” of evolutionism, getting beyond rhetoric and into specifics, with the encouragement that “you shall know them by their fruits.” This habit of searching for the truth has fostered an honest relationship with my Creator.
When I became Catholic as an adult in 2006, I began hearing theistic evolutionism in Sunday school. Our teacher said that Adam and Eve and the creation account were mythical and figurative and that God could have used [macro] evolution to create the world. This really bothered me for several reasons: If this story is a myth then what in the Bible IS believable, let alone trustworthy? If God created all things “good,” how could He have used billions of years of death, disease, birth defects and suffering to bring about His creation? Why did the teacher ignore the evidence for a supernatural creation and discredit a literal interpretation? I couldn’t grasp it: The Church gains nothing from believing in evolutionary theory. But She does lose something precious—her credibility—when She tries to fuse creation with evolution. Since it is the truth that sets us free, many negative consequences ensue when the truth is compromised.
Shortly after that Sunday school experience, I attended a Kolbe Center seminar, where I learned of the traditional Catholic Doctrine on Creation. The seminar highlighted the many Church Fathers who, in their writings on Genesis 1 and 2, defended a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation account. They affirmed a young earth, supernaturally created ex nihilo (from nothing). Because these men didn’t need to hinge their scriptural beliefs on scientific discoveries, they stood on the Word of God and helped preserve it for a time when we do have scientific confirmation, and can be both scientifically honest and believe in a young earth—a belief compatible with God’s word as handed down from the Apostles. This encouraged me, that the wisdom of the Catholic Church on this subject has not been totally corrupted—as I had presumed upon hearing my Sunday school teachers. (What a contrast with modern Catholic teachings on Origins, which seem to anchor their scriptural interpretations with claims from evolutionary theory!)
My faith in special creation flows from “following where the evidence leads.” Believing in the literal truth of the creation account in Genesis provides no problems when interpreting other scriptures (such as the genealogy of Christ in Luke 3:38, which goes back to Adam), or when analyzing existing processes of the universe. For example: the specific complexity of the cell, the First and Second Law of Thermodynamics, the absence of transitional fossils, the eruption of Mount St. Helens, reproduction of species only within their kinds, the Law of Biogenesis—none of these realities contradicts my belief in a supernatural Creator who worked in 6 days as outlined in Genesis; they only affirm it. But these observed and non-religious phenomena do pose serious problems for an evolutionary worldview.
The Kolbe Center has encouraged my Christian faith through its academic and exegetical work. I am indebted to its members for highlighting how theistic evolution is inconsistent with both science and scripture. Additionally, the Kolbe Center has properly reinserted traditional Church teachings back into the debate where those teachings are typically (and wrongly) disregarded and ignored.
Sincerely,
Sarah Rosenbaum
June 13, 2008