The harmony of the two revelations
The Lord reveals Himself to people in two ways: through
immediate spiritual enlightenment of the human soul, and through the nature, of
which the entire order is the witnesses of wisdom, goodness and omnipotence of
the Creator. Both the interior and exterior revelations have one Source, and
their contents must supplement one another and cannot be contradictory under
any circumstances. It should be therefore accepted that genuine science, based
on the facts of study of the nature, and the Holy Scriptures, this written
witness of the enlightenment of spirit, must be in full concord regarding each
and every issue related to knowing God and His acts. Throughout the length of
the history, sharp conflicts have occurred between people of science and people
of religion (mostly Roman Catholic); however, a thorough investigation into the
causes of their controversies would explain that they arose out of pure
misunderstanding. The case is that religion and science have their own goals
and methods, and, while their elements can come into partial contact in certain
principal areas, they cannot tally up in full.
Conflicts of science and religion occur when, for
example, certain scientists express voluntary and unreasonable opinions about
God, the Original Cause of the world and life, the utter aim of existence of
man etc. 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 of science and religion
occur when clerics wish to derive the laws of nature from their own
apprehensions of religious principles. For example, the Roman Inquisition
accused Galileo’s teaching about the revolution of the Earth around the Sun.
The Inquisition opined that, as God created everything for the sake of man,
then the Earth should be placed in the center of the Universe, and everything
else should be rotating 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 can possibly be
inexistent). In the late 19th and early 20th centuries
atheists were ironical about the Biblical narration on the creation of light
before anything else. They were ridiculing the believers, saying, "Where
could the 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 the 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 a 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 mischievousness, and are reluctant to learn about the 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 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 the 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 such brutal and undeserved criticism as the book of
Genesis. Therefore, in a series of articles we wish to speak for the defense of
this holy book, and particularly of the contents of its first chapters. These
articles will cover the following topics: God’s inspiration of the Holy
Scripture, the author and circumstances of writing of the Book of Genesis, the
days of Creation, man as a representative of the two worlds, properties of soul
of primeval man, religion of the first people, causes of atheism, etc.
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